Madam Mayor Kim Janey { 14 images } Created 11 Dec 2021
Kim Janey, a daughter of Roxbury who endured hurled rocks and racial slurs as an 11-year-old riding a school bus to Charlestown during desegregation, was sworn in as Boston’s first Black, first female mayor on March 24, 2021. As city council president, she automatically became acting mayor after Martin J. Walsh resigned to step into the role of U.S. Labor Secretary. She was sworn in by the commonwealth’s first Black Chief Justice Kimberly Budd.
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, who had served as Boston’s first Black female councilor, and later was Janey’s colleague on the council, said during the ceremony that it was a proud day for Boston and all Bostonians.
“Kim Janey has always spoken truth to power,” said Pressley. “And now that she commands the corner office and has the power, executive power, I know she will continue to confront hard truths while doing the hard work to ensure that our city actualizes the highest ideals which it espouses.”
As she took her oath, Janey’s hand rested on her grandfather’s African Heritage Study Bible held by her 6-year-old granddaughter, Rosie Janey. Her mother, Phillis Janey, daughter, Kimesha Janey, and grandson, Chief-Jasaad Rogers, 13, were also among the small number of family members, friends, and public officials in attendance.
“I’m so excited my grammy’s the mayor,” said Rosie.
Although she said her own childhood was filled with the love and support of family, Janey recalled the trauma she felt in 1976 as a young girl with cornrows confronted with a police presence and angry people shouting racial slurs and tossing rocks, bottles and sticks as she rode the bus to the Edwards Middle School. Janey returned there Tuesday as her first official duty as mayor, and observed an educational experience much different from her own.
“What I saw yesterday was just young people engaged in learning,” said Janey. “I visited a classroom where they were studying this period in our city’s history, and it was just so powerful to hear the questions of our young people, and then to be able to share my story as living history, as someone who went through that experience, and then is now standing here as the first Black mayor of Boston was pretty powerful.”
Janey said that helping children to recover academically and emotionally, making vaccines accessible to all, and dealing with other issues exacerbated by the pandemic are among her top priorities
“Let’s be clear – the problems laid bare by the pandemic were here well before COVID-19. The issues of affordable housing, fair wages, public transportation, and climate change are not new,” Janey said as she addressed those gathered at her ceremony. “What’s different is that these problems now impact even more of us.”
https://www.baystatebanner.com/2021/03/25/janey-sworn-in-as-mayor/
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, who had served as Boston’s first Black female councilor, and later was Janey’s colleague on the council, said during the ceremony that it was a proud day for Boston and all Bostonians.
“Kim Janey has always spoken truth to power,” said Pressley. “And now that she commands the corner office and has the power, executive power, I know she will continue to confront hard truths while doing the hard work to ensure that our city actualizes the highest ideals which it espouses.”
As she took her oath, Janey’s hand rested on her grandfather’s African Heritage Study Bible held by her 6-year-old granddaughter, Rosie Janey. Her mother, Phillis Janey, daughter, Kimesha Janey, and grandson, Chief-Jasaad Rogers, 13, were also among the small number of family members, friends, and public officials in attendance.
“I’m so excited my grammy’s the mayor,” said Rosie.
Although she said her own childhood was filled with the love and support of family, Janey recalled the trauma she felt in 1976 as a young girl with cornrows confronted with a police presence and angry people shouting racial slurs and tossing rocks, bottles and sticks as she rode the bus to the Edwards Middle School. Janey returned there Tuesday as her first official duty as mayor, and observed an educational experience much different from her own.
“What I saw yesterday was just young people engaged in learning,” said Janey. “I visited a classroom where they were studying this period in our city’s history, and it was just so powerful to hear the questions of our young people, and then to be able to share my story as living history, as someone who went through that experience, and then is now standing here as the first Black mayor of Boston was pretty powerful.”
Janey said that helping children to recover academically and emotionally, making vaccines accessible to all, and dealing with other issues exacerbated by the pandemic are among her top priorities
“Let’s be clear – the problems laid bare by the pandemic were here well before COVID-19. The issues of affordable housing, fair wages, public transportation, and climate change are not new,” Janey said as she addressed those gathered at her ceremony. “What’s different is that these problems now impact even more of us.”
https://www.baystatebanner.com/2021/03/25/janey-sworn-in-as-mayor/
