This is something I’ve always had to deal with when calling someone out with the same skin color as me. When I’ve been asked how I can challenge another Black leader, let me ask you this; especially if you were born and raised here and remember that what you see today, is not how it was when we were growing up.  

Would District 3 be what you see today, if the elected commissioner had been held accountable for the disinvestment that exists today? District 3 is statistically facing the most severe, concentrated economic disinvestment in our community.  

This is an article posted on the WEAR3 website in 2018, where Commissioner May talks about the issues in his district. Click the link to read the article: Escambia County Commissioners address pockets of poverty 

When I met with Commissioner May to discuss some issues, I brought up this article and asked why conditions were/are the same 8 years later. Suddenly, I’m there to be antagonistic. I could see where the meeting was heading, so I walked out. 

I understand that being the sole Black voice on a five-member board is an incredibly heavy and isolating burden. I extend real grace to the battles he has to fight on that dais. Whether it’s dealing with the county or the city, we’re up against the “good ole boy” system, old money, influential families, etc. here in Pensacola. But being outnumbered inside the building means you must mobilize the community outside the building.

Moving on… 

Let me make myself completely clear. If the community refuses to hold Black elected officials to a high standard, it loses all moral authority to demand accountability from white officials. To suggest that I should stay silent about poverty, slumlords, and the closed-door redevelopment deals just because an elected official looks like me…well!  

Civil rights leaders did not bleed and get arrested in Pensacola just so a Black elected official could sit on the dais, pass fast-moving consent agendas, and tell me there’s no protections for families renting from slumlords and will risk displacement if the home is deemed uninhabitable. 

If you choose to run for office, knowing damn well you won’t stand up and fight against the rest of the board for your district, then you should have stayed out of office. Leadership requires more than occupying a seat. It requires a willingness to challenge policies and practices that are harming the people you were elected to represent.  

I’m not a “sell-out”, and I’m not the caricature of an “angry Black woman” that has often been used to dismiss Black women who speak plainly. When that narrative fails, meetings are canceled, follow-up never comes, and concerns go unanswered. I am not obligated to defend someone simply because we share the same skin color.

Having a Black face in a high place means absolutely nothing if the policies are displacing Black families below. 

I said what I said 

Note: The FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Administration) was a New Deal program that hired unemployed teachers during the Great Depression to conduct adult literacy and vocational classes. This June 1935 image shows Black Pensacola residents utilizing these resources at Booker T. Washington High School to gain the economic and political tools needed to fight for their community’s survival. 

Reading Material: 

• Pensacola’s Ku Klux Klan and T.T. Wentworth Jr. A Preliminary Report 

• Virginia Vagrancy Law, January 15, 1866 

Citation: Oldest member of a FERA adult education class – Pensacola, Florida. 1935. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. Accessed 23 Jun. 2026.<https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/793>