Black mayors defiantly double down against Trump and white supremacy

“The assignment is to finally bury white supremacy and build Black wealth,” said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Black mayors leading some of the nation’s largest cities came together during the 54th Black Congressional Caucus Annual Legislative Conference, vowing to continue to stand up against the Trump administration and fight what they see as an attempt to uphold white supremacy.

“The assignment is to finally bury white supremacy and build Black wealth,” said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, whose national profile has grown since defiantly standing against President Donald Trump and his threat to send the National Guard to his city.

Johnson was joined by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and Savannah Mayor Van Johnson for a panel on the power of Black mayors moderated by activist Angela Rye.

Mayor Johnson, a former social studies teacher, called out the fact that Black mayors lead all of the cities that President Trump has threatened to militarize–he says that is by design.

“That is very intentional because there is an extremism in this country that has not accepted the results of the Civil War,” said Johnson. Given Trump’s MAGA agenda, which has included dismantling enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, eliminating federal racial equity programs, and attempts to sanitize Black history, the Chicago mayor said pointedly, “They are fully engaged in their rematch.”

Johnson said Black Americans can draw inspiration from their ancestors in today’s political climate, telling the packed room, that formerly enslaved Black Americans executed “the largest act of dissidents in this country…when [they] led the largest strike in the history of this country, when slaves decided to put down the tools that white supremacy was using to build this so called democracy.”

Baltimore’s Mayor Scott, who previously faced insults from Republicans that he was a “DEI” mayor, said that it is clear that white conservatives “don’t think our Black asses should be in [office] in the first place.”

“They might be out here trying to erase us and to erase Black history, but as I always remind them, they, too, come from Africa, because they come from us. You cannot erase from which you come from,” said Scott.

Like Chicago, Scott’s Baltimore has been on the receiving end of Trump’s threat of militarization over the issue of crime, despite the city seeing a historic decline in violent crime.

Scott told theGrio after Friday’s panel that while the president has seemingly backed off the threat for now, “The only thing that you can expect with this administration is the unexpected.” He said the city and the state of Maryland, led by Governor Wes Moore, will have to “be prepared to take whatever legal and other options that we can.”

In this political climate that is seen as a wholesale attack on Blackness, Mayor Scott told theGrio it was important for Black Americans to “arm ourselves and know where we come from.”

“We are the descendants of the creators of civilization. Everything worth salt and on this Earth was created by Black people. We have to understand and know our strength…We have been through times like this before. As much as they try to erase us, they cannot,” said Scott.

The role of Black mayors is critical as they are closest to the people and face the challenge of delivering needed services, from economic stability and housing to health care and transportation infrastructure, even as the Trump administration makes major federal funding cuts.

Mayor Barbara Lee, who was elected Oakland’s first Black female mayor in April, said now more than ever, Black Americans, led by Black mayors, have to be courageous.

“We don’t have the spirit of fear but the spirit of power, and so we have to remember that as we navigate these treacherous moments,” said Lee, a former U.S. congresswoman and member of the Black Panther Party. “

“Who else can do that but those who were made for this moment, who have a history of being enslaved and being oppressed and being fighters for freedom and justice. So that’s how I keep my hope up, and that’s how I keep my courage intact to fight for our people.”

Despite Trump’s attack on DEI, Atlanta Mayor Dickens said he was proud that his city intentionally supports Black, minority, and women-owned businesses through its contracting with Atlanta’s bustling economy, driven by Atlanta’s airport and city construction investments.

“When you see somebody doing a heck of a job like that, and you got all this contracting that has to go to minority and women-owned businesses, [they say] how can I…claw that back, pull that back, threaten it, and say this DEI as though it’s not quality work, that is not substantive delivery,” said Dickens.

Dickens said Black and other minority contracting is built into the city of Atlanta’s DNA. “It is inescapable, and we stand firmly on the principles of economic inclusion,” he said.

Similarly, Mayor Scott told theGrio that in Baltimore, the “birthplace of redlining,” his administration is establishing tax breaks on vacant housing to allow Baltimore to build more affordable housing, along with the city’s “Buy the Block” program to create “generational wealth” for Black residents.

“We’re taking renters…in our neighborhoods, allowing them to be homeowners,” said the 41-year-old Baltimore native.

Mayor Scott said the city will also continue to “unbundle contracts” to “allow Black and women-owned businesses in Baltimore to be a part of the infrastructure work that’s being done so that we can create that system that we all want.”

Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said that it’s not just white supremacy that Black mayors are up against, but also the “intersection of white fear and Black expectation.”

“It is white fear that we’re doing too much, and Black expectation that we’re not doing enough. It is a very hard and very lonely place,” explained the Georgia mayor, who is also chair of the African American Mayors Association.

Van Johnson said that Black mayors have stood strong together because they are up against the same threats.

“I pray for these folks…because it’s easy when you know somebody who is going through the same thing. When you mess with one of our mayors, you’ve got a problem from all of us, and because it might be them today, it might be us tomorrow,” he explained.

Emphasizing the political consequences of “white fear,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson explained that has proven to be “incredibly dangerous.”

“White fear will have you scaling walls, staging a coup to declare that an election did not exist,” he said, referring to the Jan. 6 insurrection committed by Trump supporters who were repeatedly and falsely told by Trump that the 2020 election was stolen as a result of voter fraud committed by Democrats.

“Our country literally was being infiltrated from within by the…president of the United States of America to disrupt and to dismantle our government as we know it, and now it gets less attention than 9/11,” said the Chicago mayor. “These are incredible acts of evil.”

Mayor Johnson recalled Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s calling out of what he saw as the “three evils of the planet,” which were racism, militarism, and materialism.

“We have to do everything in our power to eradicate these evils from the planet,” said Johnson. “And the people who know them the best are Black folks.”