Rep. Ayanna Pressley Celebrates Kim Janey Becoming Boston’s First Black Female Mayor

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) joined many others on social media this week who celebrated Kim Janey making history as Boston’s first Black female mayor. 

Janey, who is set to be sworn into office as the 55th mayor of Boston on Wednesday, is also the first woman and person of color to serve in the role. She took office on Monday when Marty Walsh resigned to become President Joe Biden’s labor secretary. 

Pressley, who became the first Black woman to represent Massachusetts in Congress when she was sworn in in January 2019, commemorated Janey’s achievement on Twitter on Tuesday. 

“Concrete. Ceiling. Shattered,” she tweeted. “@Kim_Janey, I’m so proud to call you a friend, a partner in good, and now the Mayor of Boston.”

Pressley and Janey also both made history during their terms on the Boston City Council.

Janey became the first woman to represent the city’s District 7 when she was elected to the council in 2017. In 2009, Pressley was the first woman of color elected to the council in its history. 

With Walsh’s departure, Janey ascended from her most recent role as the Boston City Council president to the city’s acting, or interim, mayor. 

But Janey, a fourth-generation resident of the city’s Roxbury neighborhood, has made it clear in her Twitter bio that her “acting” title doesn’t reflect her dedication to the city of Boston: “Not acting, doing.”

“Will always give my all to the city that gave me everything!” the bio reads.

Janey has not yet publicly confirmed whether she’ll run in the mayoral election in the fall, The Associated Press reported.  

The new mayor discussed her historic role, communities healing from racial injustices and the ongoing devastation of COVID-19 in a Twitter thread published March 11. She noted that her momentous achievement becoming mayor was “living proof that Boston is a city of possibilities.”

“Healing includes beginning to address the trauma of the dual devastation of COVID-19 and the reckoning of racial injustice by tapping into our collective joy,” she wrote, in part. “The joy that only a vibrant city can provide. As we reopen, we can’t settle for going back. We must go better.”

Renée Graham, a columnist for The Boston Globe’s opinion page, tweeted about the significance of Janey’s new role Tuesday, noting that Black women have made political history in Boston in recent years.

In addition to Janey and Pressley, Graham mentioned Rachael Rollins, who is the first Black woman ― and the first woman of color ― to serve as a district attorney in Massachusetts. She was sworn into office in 2019. 

“When I moved to Boston more than 30 years ago, I could not have fathomed a day when my mayor (@Kim_Janey), my congresswoman (@AyannaPressley) and my district attorney (@DARollins) would all be Black women,” Graham tweeted. 

Elected officials and politicians took to Twitter to congratulate Janey ahead of her swearing-in ceremony: