Daniel Figueroa IV
The cold snap broke and the sun shined down on St. Petersburg Tuesday as Mayor Ken Welch raised the Dr. Carter G. Woodson flag above City Hall to commemorate the first day of Black History Month.
Woodson is known as the father of Black History Month and is the namesake of St. Pete’s Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum.
“Standing here at City Hall today we celebrate our progress. We honor Black history. We also look forward to the real work of building opportunities for all, creating a culture of intentional equity and inclusive governance,” Welch said. “When we say we are St. Pete, we declare that St. Petersburg is a city where there’s a place for everyone. Where every life is valued and every voice is heard.”
A large crowd of mostly masked onlookers gathered at the southeast corner of Fifth Street and Second Avenue North, filling in around a semi-circle of raised cell phones and news cameras.
One reporter squeezed between the legs of a tripod as brother and sister Noah and Nia Williams — all three-and-a-half-feet-or-so of them — made their way through the crowd to catch a glimpse of the Mayor. Their mom, Kiva Williams, brought them all the way from Pasco County so Noah, 8, Nia, 3, and their older brother, Nathan, 13, could catch a glimpse of history and possibility.
“As a Black mom, to show my kids that they can be whatever they want, to say ‘Look, there’s the Mayor. He’s Black, he looks just like you.’ Don’t think you can’t do certain things just because you’re a boy or because you’re Black,” Williams said. “Think outside the box. It’s OK to expand your mind and see other people that look like you and aspire to be like them.”
Williams said it was a field trip for the kids. She made a day of it, taking them to the ceremony followed by a trip to the Woodson Museum before heading back home to Wesley Chapel.
Williams and her children weren’t the only ones to see themselves looking back at them as Welch spoke. As Welch raised the flag, St. Pete musician Nasja Monet, 25, sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a hymn written by the NAACP’s James Weldon Johnson in 1900 and referred to as the Black national anthem. She too said it was moving to see herself represented.
“Growing up you don’t get to see a lot of people who look like you doing those type of things. Especially as a singer, I see a lot of Black singers, Black athletes, but to see a Black man in politics and stand behind him and sing after lifting the flag. It’s surreal. It was a very surreal moment. Very impactful.”
Welch made history last month when he became St. Pete’s first Black Mayor. His father, David Welch, was Vice Mayor of the city about 30 years ago. And Terri Lipsey Scott, executive director of the Woodson Museum, said Welch again made history Tuesday.
“The significance of this date at this time and this space is like none other. It too represents a history that will be documented and commemorated for years to come,” Scott said. “Today is the first time in our country’s history that an African American Mayor will raise a flag in honor of Doctor Carter G. Woodson’s legacy and Black History Month over a governmental entity.”
Welch’s historic moment was set against a backdrop of racial reckoning in the city. In December, the City Council voted to accept the findings of a structural racism study that found St. Pete was built upon a number of racist policies that adversely affected the Black community and still resonates through the city today.
But Welch warned that progress and reckoning are threatened by those looking to protect the status quo.
“The issues of affordable housing, health and safe neighborhoods, youth opportunities, environmental and social resilience, women’s rights, human rights, civil rights, voting rights and justice reform cannot be addressed by the status quo,” he said.
But Welch said St. Pete will be tenacious in the face of bills like HB 7, prioritized by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The “individual freedoms” bill has been called the “Destruction of Florida education” bill by critics. They say the bill’s language protects the feelings of those who might be made uncomfortable by difficult conversations surrounding the country’s complicated racial history. And that, they warn, sugarcoats and stifles progress.
“I don’t know how you outlaw telling the truth,” Welch said. “They might be able to dictate what happens in the classroom, but they can’t dictate what happens in the family room or the dining room or the faith-based community center. We have to endeavor to tell the truth wherever we are so folks understand the history. If we don’t have a basis of facts in history as a nation, we are in danger. I hope that kind of destructive bill does not pass.”
