Cherelle Parker made history on Tuesday.
The 51-year-old Parker, a former city councilwoman — who also served for 10 years as a state representative for northwest Philadelphia — became the city’s 100th mayor on Tuesday.
The Democrat is also the first woman — and first Black woman, as well — to serve as mayor.
The importance of the day wasn’t lost on Parker.
“While I do stand here as the one-hundredth mayor of the city of Philadelphia, the sixth largest city, the birthplace of democracy, I want you to know that I only get the opportunity to meet this moment because of each and every one of you and for that I’m extremely grateful,” Parker said to cheers. “Philadelphia, thank you for allowing me to be me, it’s something I will never forget.”
After she was introduced by actress Sheryl Lee Ralph and sworn in by Marcia L. Fudge, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Parker took the stage to acknowledge what others have done as mayors in the past.
“I, Cherelle Parker, was a child who most people thought would never succeed. And they really did almost have me thinking the same thing,” she recalled.
She also remembered being the daughter of a teenage mother and being raised by her grandparents. She said it was her family, and the community, who helped guide her and make her the woman she is today.
And, Parker said, she believed her mother, grandparent and others who couldn’t be at the day’s ceremony, were still finding a way to celebrate.
“I believe that right now, at this very moment, and I mean this with all my heart and spirit, there is a block party going on in heaven right now,” Parker said.
On the day she took office, Parker’s administration released an outline of what she hopes to accomplish in her first 100 days in office — something she alluded to, and even made sure people in the audience had a copy of, during her remarks on Tuesday.
