"Sharon Belton Sayles" (1951)

An activist,politician,leader of her community,she was the first African American and first woman mayor of Minneapolis,Minnesota.Sharon is one of four daughters of Bill and Marian Sayles,moved to Minneapolis to live with her father after her parents'  separation.In Minneapolis,she attended Central High School and volunteered at Mt.Sinai Hospital in her spare time but eventually accepted a paid position at the hospital as a nurse's aide.Sharon received her Bachelor of Science in biology from Macalester College in 1973 and developed plans to become a pediatrician.Those were jettisoned when she began working as a parole officer for sexual assault offenders.Her work prompted her to call for tougher penalties for sexual predators.In 1978 Sharon co-founded the Harriet Tubman Shelter for battered Women in Minneapolis.She also got involved in community crime prevention programs and worked to reduce community police tensions.Sharon, by this point and activist in the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party,was elected in 1983 to the Minneapolis City Council where she represented the 8th ward.The following year she was a Minnesota delegate at the Democratic National Convention in San Fransisco where she witnessed the nomination of Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale for President of the United States.In 1990 she was elected President of the Minnesota City Council.Three years later she announced her candidacy for mayor.Sharon won the election and served two terms as mayor from 1994 to 2000.Her achievements included a 16% reduction in the city's crime rate, and a successful campaign to revitalize downtown Minnesota.By the end of the 1990s Minnesota saw its first population increase since the 1940s.Sharon was credited with reversing a fifty year economic slide.Despite those achievements she lost the DFL endorsement and was defeated in the primary by fellow Democrat R.T. Rybak who became the city's next mayor.She is currently a senior fellow at the University of Minnesota's Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice where she works on anti-racism initiatives.Sharon has received the Rosa Parks Award from the American Association for Affirmative Action,and the Gertrude E. Rush Distinguished Service Award presented by the National Bar Association,Sharon also helped established the National Coalition Against Sexual Assault.