Sharon Sayles Belton

Infobox_Politician
name = Sharon Sayles Belton
residence =
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birth_date = Birth date and age|1951|5|13|mf=y
birth_place = Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States

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office = Minneapolis City Council, 8th Ward
term_start = 1983
term_end = 1990
office2 = Minneapolis City Council President
term_start2 = 1990
term_end2 = 1993
office3 = 45th Mayor of Minneapolis
term_start3 = January 1, 1994
term_end3 = December 31, 2001
predecessor3 = Donald M. Fraser
successor3 = R. T. Rybak
constituency3 = Minneapolis, Minnesota
occupation = Senior Fellow, [http://www.hhh.umn.edu/centers/wilkins/index.html Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice]
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party = Democratic-Farmer-Labor
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website = http://www.hhh.umn.edu/people/sbelton/
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employer = Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs
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Sharon Sayles Belton (born May 13, 1951) is an American community leader, politician and activist. She was the first African American and the first female mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is currently a senior fellow at the University of Minnesota Roy Wilkins Center.

Early years

Sayles Belton was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota. One of four daughters of Bill and Marian or Ethel Sayles,cite web
title=Sharon Sayles Belton, the first Black and woman mayor of Minneapolis
author=Minnesota Historical Society quoted by the African American Registry
year=2005
url=http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2211/Sharon_Sayles_Belton_the_first_Black_and_woman_mayor_of_Minneapolis
accessdate=2007-01-13] she lived for one year with her mother in Richfield, Minnesota where she was the only African American in East Junior High School. She then moved to south Minneapolis to live with her father and stepmother. She attended Central High School, volunteered as a candy striper at Mount Sinai Hospital, and later worked as a nurse's aide. She was briefly a civil rights activist in the state of Mississippi.

Sayles Belton graduated in 1973 from Macalester College in Saint Paul where she studied biology and sociology to prepare for a possible career as a pediatrician. She later worked as a parole officer with victims of sexual assault. Like her grandfather Bill Sayles, she then became a neighborhood activist.cite web
title=The Education of Sharon Sayles Belton
author=Anderson, G.R. Jr.
publisher=City Pages, Volume 22, Issue 1091
date=October 31 2001
url=http://citypages.com/databank/22/1091/article9909.asp
accessdate=2007-01-13]

Career

In 1983, Sayles Belton was elected by the Eighth Ward to the Minneapolis City Council. She was inspired by working with mayor Donald M. Fraser. She represented the state at the 1984 Democratic National Convention, where Minnesota politician Walter Mondale was nominated for President of the United States. A member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, Sayles Belton was elected city council president in 1990.

In 1993, she announced her candidacy for mayor. With the help of three phone banks and a staff of ten, she was elected, the first African American and the first female mayor in the city's 140-year history, defeating DFL former Hennepin County Commissioner John Derus. She was re-elected in 1997, defeating Republican candidate Barbara Carlson. Sayles Belton held the position for two terms, from January 1, 1994 to December 31 2001.,

W. Harry Davis, a fellow civil rights supporter and the city's first African-American mayoral candidate said she had a difficult job ahead of her, "because crime was running rampant" in the mid-1990s. The city was able to reverse the crime wave by allocating resources to public safety from other departments and by importing a computerized strategy used in New York City that sent officers to high crime areas. Although the initiative drew accusations of racial profiling, by 1998 under police chief Robert Olson, the rate of serious crime had dropped 16%, the best one-year reduction in twenty years.cite web
title=The political legacy of Sharon Sayles Belton
author=Olson, Dan
publisher=Minnesota Public Radio
date=November 7 2001
url=http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/200111/07_olsond_ssbobit/
accessdate=2007-01-18] cite web
title=Police Annual Report 1998 (PDF)
author=City of Minneapolis
year=1998
url=http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/police/crime-statistics/docs/1998policereport.pdf
accessdate=2007-01-18
format=PDF]

Sam Grabarski of a downtown business council told Minnesota Public Radio that Sayles Belton was capable of convincing investors that downtown is a "safe haven for investments of the scale that it takes to build one million-square-foot office towers." She helped to bring a Target retail store, the U.S. Bancorp Center and the American Express Business Center to the Nicollet Mall. She helped to create the Block E entertainment and shopping redevelopment from what was a parking lot for ten years on prime downtown real estate on Hennepin Avenue.

The city addressed archaic utilities billing, outdated water treatment and neighborhood flooding. By the end of the decade, Minneapolis had increased property values, the city had its first increase in population since the 1940s, and there was reversal of a "50-year economic slide." Fraser credits Sayles Belton with stabilizing neighborhoods amid racial tensions, with supporting the school system and with being an able and savvy city manager. Critics opposed the use of city subsidies for downtown development, said to total $90 million combined for the Target store and Block E.cite web
title=Profile: Sharon Sayles Belton
author=Hughes, Art
publisher=Minnesota Public Radio
date=October 24 2001
url=http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/200110/24_hughesa_saylesbelton/
accessdate=2007-01-13]

Sayles Belton continued to enjoy broad support from poorer constituents but lost popularity among the more affluent. In the 2001 election she lost her party's endorsement and the primary and was defeated by R.T. Rybak, a fellow DFLer and the city's current mayor.

After leaving the mayor's office, Sayles Belton became a senior fellow at the [http://www.hhh.umn.edu/centers/wilkins/index.html Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice] . The center is part of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.

Most recently, Sayles Belton has worked in community affairs and community involvement for the GMAC Residential Finance Corporation, headquartered in Minneapolis.

Associations

Sayles Belton is involved in race equality, community and neighborhood development, public policy, women's, family and children's issues, police-community relations and youth development.cite web
title=Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs: Sharon Belton
author=University of Minnesota
date=February 20 2006
url=http://www.hhh.umn.edu/people/sbelton/
accessdate=2007-01-13] She co-founded the [http://www.harriettubman.org/ Harriet Tubman Shelter for Battered Women] in Minneapolis in 1978. She is a co-founder of the National Coalition Against Sexual Assault. She contributed to the [http://www.nrp.org/ Neighborhood Revitalization Program] , [http://www.pca.state.mn.us/water/cwp.html Clean Water Partnership] , Children's Healthcare and Hospital, the American Bar Association,*cite web
title=NOW National Conference 2002: Speakers
author=National Organization for Women
year=2007
url=http://www.now.org/organization/conference/2002/speakers.html
accessdate=2007-01-13] the [http://www.bushfoundation.org/ Bush Foundation] , the United States Conference of Mayors, and the National League of Cities by chairing or serving on their boards.

Awards

* Gertrude E. Rush Distinguished Service Award presented by the National Bar Association
* Rosa Parks Award, presented by the American Association for Affirmative Action

Notes

External links

*cite web
author= University of Minnesota
title= Sharon Belton
year= 2006
url= http://www.hhh.umn.edu/people/sbelton/
accessdate= 2007-01-18
*cite web
title=Discovering Racism in Election Results: Methodology and Case Study, Minneapolis 1997 (PDF)
author=Hill, Tony L., presented to the Midwest Political Science Association
publisher=University of Minnesota
month=April | year=2003
url=http://home.earthlink.net/~bellczar/2003MPSA.pdf
accessdate=2007-01-13
format=PDF
*cite web
title=Profile: Sharon Sayles Belton
author=Hughes, Art
publisher=Minnesota Public Radio
date=October 24 2001
url=http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/200110/24_hughesa_saylesbelton/
accessdate=2007-01-13
*cite web
title=The political legacy of Sharon Sayles Belton
author=Olson, Dan
publisher=Minnesota Public Radio
date=November 7 2001
url=http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/200111/07_olsond_ssbobit/
accessdate=2007-01-18

Persondata
NAME=Belton, Sharon Sayles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= American community leader, politician and activist
DATE OF BIRTH=May 13 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH= Saint Paul, Minnesota
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=