Richmond’s move away from historic racial voting habits

For more than 150 years, Richmond’s government was a starkly white institution. The different versions of City Council were very white from 1782, and all white for the 50 years after Henry J. More left office in 1898 to the election of Oliver W. Hill in 1948. There were 68 white men and 1 white woman of varying degrees of authority who served as mayor before Henry Marsh took office.

A historic Black majority Council was elected in 1977. The following election cycles were then dominated by discourse on the relationship between the that voting bloc and opposition groups.

Changes in the city’s population, housing patterns, and voting attitudes over especially the past 15 years have since gotten us to a moment that seems worth recognizing. Not to say that the city has entirely moved past its legacy of racism, but it does look like we have moved some good distance on using race as a marker of who we choose to represent our different communities.

Richmond 2022 isn’t majority white or majority black and who we elect to represent us reflects that:

• Three of the 9 City Council Districts (2nd, 5th, 8th) currently have mixed Black/white representation on City Council and School Board.
• The very white 4th District (64%) will next be represented on Council by Sarah Abubaker, who describes herself as biracial and will be the 1st person of color to hold the seat.
• There is also a very credible chance that the 4th District will also elect a Black representative to School Board in November.

This willingness to vote across racial lines is reflected as well in the 3 most recent mayoral contests. The current election is in totally new territory, with Danny Avula, an Indian immigrant, as one of the leading candidates. In 2016, 2 of the 4 Black majority districts went for the white candidate (Joe Morrissey) and 2 of white majority districts went for the Black candidate (Levar Stoney). In the 2020 mayoral contest all 4 of the white majority white districts were won by Black candidates (1st Kim Gray, 2nd Alexsis Rodgers, 4th Levar Stoney, 5th Alexsis Rodgers).