- Vi Lyles, the mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, is the first Black woman to hold the position.
- In an Equity Talk with Insider, she reflected on the recent gains Black women had made in society.
- She said the progress was "way past time" and addressed systemic racism in the US.
In 2017, Vi Lyles became the first Black woman to be elected mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, which was established in 1768. As a teen, she was part of the first class of Black students in South Carolina to integrate with white students as the country grappled with desegregation.
But the honor that's associated with being the first to accomplish something raises key questions: Is America's recent progress for Black women something to celebrate? Or is it shameful that it took so long?
In 2020, Kamala Harris secured her position as the first Black vice president of the US, as well as the country's first female vice president. That same year, a historic number of Black women and women of color were elected to Congress. In 2021, Roz Brewer and Thasunda Duckett made history as two of a tiny number of Black women to make it to a Fortune 500 CEO seat. President Joe Biden recently doubled down on his promise to name a Black woman his next Supreme Court nominee.
"Black women have had to work so hard to get here," Lyles told Insider. "Why are we still in this position today? It's because the keys that opened that door were just not available to us."
In an Equity Talk with Insider, Lyles reflected on the challenges and opportunities that had come with being a historic first in recent years.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
It's 2022, and yet we still are having many "firsts" for Black women in society. What do you think it says about our culture and racism that we have so many firsts today? And how does it feel to be a first?
My thought is that it's way past time.
But you asked me how it feels to be a first. Sometimes, it's as much of a step forward as it is a time to reflect upon how long it took to get here. And what does it mean that you're the first? It often means that other people were locked out of the opportunities before you. And I say that with great sincerity because there are many talented women that I have known throughout my entire life, including my mom and her eight sisters, that could have done what I'm doing easily but were not given the opportunity.
What have you learned in your experience as being one of the firsts? What have been the advantages of being a first and what barriers have you faced?
Well, there are tremendous positives in being the first one, especially being an elected official. The fact that people chose you to be a leader, that is the most phenomenal thing that you can experience.
I think what limits us sometimes, when we are the first, is that there is no plan or path for you. As the leader of Charlotte, you can't just serve one group. You have to make a quilt. You have to have things that stitch everyone together. You've got to figure out how your direction is going to be inclusive of everyone.
In building this quilt, do you believe that when you uplift those who are most marginalized, you uplift everyone?
You've just hit on the reason why I'm going to run for a third term. People tell me, "Well, why would you do this? You've had some success. You've created some legacies." But I'm hoping to serve as mayor in my third term to really have a deeper dive into how we have to lift up people in Charlotte who are struggling.
So my focus is really on getting good-paying jobs that people can be trained for if they're unemployed or underemployed.
What have you learned from your experience leading a major city as the first Black woman mayor? And how have the past two years of a pandemic and a racial reckoning shaped your leadership style?
I think two years of COVID gave me the opportunity to speak with a louder voice. Many people of color are aware of the history here. They understood how the GI Bill prevented people of color, soldiers returning from war, from buying houses or getting an education. They remembered the fight for civil rights, the right to vote. This pandemic gave me, as mayor, the opportunity to talk more about these issues.
Then, the crisis we had with George Floyd's murder, Ahmaud Arbery's murder, and so on, all of these things came together at one time in a way that people began to really pay attention to what was systemic in the laws we have, what was systemic in the way that we treat people and police people, what is systemic in the way that we educate.
After the loss of George Floyd, we started talking about how we should police and keep our community safe. We stopped using tear gas, for example. We put controls around no-knock warrants. We asked, "How do we embed policing into neighborhoods? How do we prevent retaliation shootings?" All those things are things we are working on.
Unfortunately, I'm seeing this pushback now, with some people saying, "Well, no, no, no, it wasn't systemic. It was just kind of like the way the norms were, and we don't want to make anybody feel bad about it." My response is, "Well, you have to feel something. I don't want you to feel bad. I want you to feel responsible. I want you to feel like you can do better."
We're nearing the end of Black History Month, and next month we'll be celebrating women's history. Your lived experience is at the intersection of both of these. Talk to me about that.
When I think about Black history and women's history, I really look at the many women that have been struggling. I think primarily of those women that were like my mom, who was basically a domestic worker and babysitter for a wealthy white family. I think about what she had to go through every day, what people like Rosa Parks had to go through every day. Those are shared experiences. There are probably many women like Rosa Parks whose children and grandchildren are successful just because of who they were and how they lived their life.
How are you making Charlotte a more equitable place? Talk to me about some of your recent accomplishments, specifically around advancing equity.
Commerce in this country is what drives the ability for people to really live great lives. So I'm laser-focused on creating good jobs and bringing good-paying jobs to Charlotte.
We're also looking at neighborhoods where many Black and brown people live and are saying, "What can we do to ensure entrepreneurship flourishes there?" We're asking the corporate community to really look seriously at how they promote and place people of color in their organizations to be able to be successful, to get to the C-suite, to get it to the board of directors.
And then, finally, I think that we all know in this country that without a computer, you can't do very much of anything. You can't apply for a job. You can't follow the news. You need digital access for all. Our community has embraced us and raised $250 million to put behind this effort to increase digital accessibility. And that, to me, is something that I'm really proud of.
What do you want your legacy to be? What do you want to be remembered for?
I believe that housing is the first step to being a part of a community. When you have great neighbors, when you build a place where people feel like they are part of a community, you have a sense of togetherness. That's what I want people to think about when they think of me.
I very seldom think of myself as being in a position to have a legacy. But we in Charlotte have invested so much work into making sure that we provide affordable housing, that we provide opportunities for people to live here. I want to be remembered for my work on affordable housing.