When Suzette DeBeatham-Brown decided to run for mayor of Bloomfield, some constituents said that they didn’t like the way she looked or sounded. She knew that was part of why her candidacy mattered.
On Feb. 13 and 27, the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and the Campaign School at Yale are holding a series of educational workshops called “Representation Matters,” on helping communities of color run for office.
Mayor DeBeatham-Brown will be one of the speakers. She appeared on the latest episode of WNHH FM’s and CCM’s “The Municipal Voice” to promote the event and speak about her experiences as one of only a handful of minority municipal leaders in Connecticut.
“You’re saying that I don’t represent you, you don’t like the way that I look, you don’t like the way that I sound, you don’t like my hair,” DeBeatham-Brown recounted. “It was fuel for me actually.”
The mayor’s journey was not an easy one, even in a town where no one racial group forms a majority.
Amidst conversations about the murder of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old who was killed by a police officer, DeBeatham-Brown decided that she wanted her community to be represented.
“At the time, the council that we had previously was there forever, and I think some of the decisions that they made the town wasn’t too happy with. The town was ready for change. … It was time for us to have a new people with a renewed vision of what the town could be and could look like.”
Not knowing if she was ready to run, she had “that long conversation” with her family. She had to have an even longer one with herself.
She realized that her reasons to run were more important than the voices that told her she didn’t look like a mayor.
“Is this the right thing to do? When you have those thoughts, you remember the reason why you’re actually doing this. It kind of drowns them [the other voices] out. That’s why I said you have to do it scared. Get yourself a group of people that support you, and do it anyway,” she said.
She won, becoming Bloomfield’s first Black, female mayor.
And for her, the representation mattered when it came time to govern. When funding projects or services, she believes that you need to be able to see past what’s happening out your own window, to be a part of a community that puts the greater good first.
“I served with Republicans and Democrats, but when it comes time to do for our community, we hunker down and we definitely put our community first,” she said.
“Representation Matters: Are You Ready To Run For Local Office?” aims to give people of color those tools to make the tough decisions like DeBeatham-Brown did to run for office and represent her community. DeBeatham-Brown said that even though she was asked to speak on the second day, she plans to attend both days to take in the knowledge from the various experts brought in by CCM and the Campaign School at Yale.
“Your town committee or the library or the Board of Education, whatever it is, you have to see it as a stepping stone to helping to make your town better,” she said.
“I believe that change really happens at the local level.”
Read more here about the free, virtual, educational event held by CCM and the Campaign School at Yale.