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Sharon Pratt Kelly

Sharon Pratt Kelly (born January 30, 1944), formerly Sharon Pratt Dixon and now known as Sharon Pratt, was the third mayor of the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1995. Pratt was the first African-American woman to serve as mayor of a major American city.

Early life
Career
Mayor of the District of Columbia
Post-Mayoral activities
Awards
References
External links

Early life

She was born to D.C. Superior Court judge Carlisle Edward Pratt and Mildred "Peggy" (Petticord) Pratt. Three years later, a sister, Benaree, was born. After she lost her mother (breast cancer) at the age of four, her grandmother, Hazel Pratt, and aunt, Aimee Elizabeth Pratt, helped raise the girls. Her father instilled in her lessons of character and public service.^[1]^[2]

Miss Pratt attended D.C. Public Schools Gage ES, Rudolph ES, MacFarland Junior High School, and [[Theodore Roosevelt High School (Washington D.C.)|Roosevelt HS) (1961, with honors). She excelled at baseball but deemphasized that in adolescence. At Howard University she joined Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority (1964), and earned a B.A. in political science (1965) and J.D. (1968). She met and dated her future husband there.^[1]

She married Arrington Dixon (1966) and bore daughters in 1968 and 1970. They divorced after sixteen years.^[1]^[3]

Career

Initially her political energies were drawn to national rather than local politics. She was a member of the Democratic National Committee from the District of Columbia (1977–1990), the first female to hold that position. She was DNC Treasurer (1985–1989).

Pratt directed the failed 1982 mayoral campaign of Patricia Roberts Harris.^[1]

At the 1980 Democratic National Convention she was a member of the Ad Hoc Credentials Committee, member of the Judicial Council, and co-chairman of the Rules Committee.^[2]

In 1983, she was made Vice President of Community Relations at Pepco, the DC power utility. She became the first woman and first African-American to serve in that role. The same year, she won the Presidential Award from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Mayor of the District of Columbia

Upset with the decline of her hometown, Pratt announced at the 1988 Democratic National Convention that she would challenge incumbent mayor Marion Barry in the 1990 election. Pratt was the only candidate to have officially announced her plans to run for mayor when Barry was arrested on drug charges and dropped out of the race in early 1990. Shortly thereafter, the race was joined by three longtime D.C. Councilmembers. Pratt criticized her opponents on the council, referring to them as the "three blind mice" who "saw nothing, said nothing and did nothing as the city rapidly decayed." She promised to "clean house with a shovel, not a broom." Following a series of televised debates during the last few weeks of the campaign, Pratt received the endorsement of The Washington Post. Within a matter of days, Pratt's grass-roots campaign staff grew from eight volunteers in their teens and twenties to over a one hundred volunteers. The night before the election, poll numbers showed Pratt in a horserace for second-place. On Election Day voters showed up at the polls carrying brooms and shovels. Even with the smallest campaign staff, lowest poll ratings, and least money, Pratt won the election by a healthy double-digit margin.^[4] Walter Fauntroy had given up his position as D.C. Delegate to run against her.

Pratt was sworn in as mayor of Washington on January 2, 1991, the first African-American woman to serve as mayor of a major American city. On December 7, 1991, she married James R. Kelly III, a New York businessman, and changed her name to Sharon Pratt Kelly.^[5] After their 1999 divorce she was Sharon Pratt.

Once in office, Pratt's grassroots, reform posture met resistance. As she made good on her promise to slash the city employment payroll, her fragile political coalition began to weaken. Her efforts to achieve D.C. statehood in order to improve the District's financial and political standing upset the status quo and resulted in a barrage of negative press. Some opposed Pratt because she is a light skinned black.^[3] In the second year of her term, Barry loyalists mounted a recall campaign, which, although unsuccessful, weakened her administration.

In the 1994 Democratic primary, Kelly finished a distant third, losing to the ever-popular Marion Barry.