MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Jim Strickland, the mayor of Memphis, Tennessee, likes to say the city has momentum.
Voters appear to agree with him.
Strickland won a big victory Thursday for the opportunity to lead the soulful Mississippi River city for another four years. He soundly defeated several other mayoral candidates, including Willie Herenton, the city’s first elected black mayor, and Tami Sawyer, a social activist.
Herenton and Sawyer conceded the race to Strickland Thursday night.
The race came at an important time for Memphis, a majority-black city still grappling with economic and social inequities that existed when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated there in 1968. The downtown area has shown signs of rebirth in recent years, with businesses moving in and new hotels planned. But neighborhoods just beyond still suffer from much of the same persistent woes King confronted a half century ago.
Strickland, 55, was a City Council member before he was elected in 2015 as the first white mayor in nearly 25 years in the majority-black city.
During his tenure, he has helped lure economic development and defied the Tennessee legislature to help remove Confederate-era statues from city parks. He sought to add more police officers, repair roads, enact universal pre-K and balance budgets without raising taxes.
Strickland greatly outdistanced his opponents in fundraising, though he did not win the endorsement of the city’s fire and police unions. Herenton secured those.
Strickland said he would like to dedicate more efforts to removing litter from city streets and touted the Memphis 3.0 plan, which would try to bring more investment to neighborhoods.
“If we really want to grow neighborhoods that haven’t had investment, many of those have way too much litter,” Strickland said at his victory party Thursday night. “We’ve got to raise the quality of life in those areas so private investors want to put their money in.”
The 79-year-old Herenton is a former Golden Gloves boxer and educator who became the city’s first elected black mayor in 1991. Few people have more name reignition in Memphis than Herenton, who dominated local politics during his 18-year reign as mayor.
Herenton’s tenure ended amid accusations of corruption. He subsequently made a failed run for Congress in 2010.
Sawyer is a 37-year-old Shelby County commissioner who sought to become Memphis’ first female mayor. She also is African American. Sawyer has challenged a political establishment she says has contributed to economic inequality, rampant blight and racial division.
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