Sharon Sayles Belton
Encyclopedia
Sharon Sayles Belton is an American
community leader, politician
and activist. She is currently the VP of Community Relations and Government Affairs for Thomson Reuters Legal business.
. One of four daughters of Bill and Marian or Ethel Sayles, 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 attended Macalester College
in Saint Paul where she studied biology and sociology. She later worked as a parole officer
with victims of sexual assault. Like her grandfather Bill Sayles, she then became a "neighborhood
" activist.
She is married to Steven Belton, with whom she raised three children Kilayna, Jordan and Coleman.
. 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.
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.
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 Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice. The center is part of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs
.
More recently, Sayles Belton worked in community affairs and community involvement for the GMAC Residential Finance Corporation, headquartered in Minneapolis. In 2010, she joined Thomson Reuters
as vice president of Community Relations and Government Affairs, based in Eagan, Minnesota
.
, the Bush Foundation, the United States Conference of Mayors
, and the National League of Cities
by chairing or serving on their boards.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
community leader, politician
Politics of the United States
The United States is a federal constitutional republic, in which the President of the United States , Congress, and judiciary share powers reserved to the national government, and the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments.The executive branch is headed by the President...
and activist. She is currently the VP of Community Relations and Government Affairs for Thomson Reuters Legal business.
Early years
Sayles Belton was born in Saint Paul, MinnesotaSaint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
. One of four daughters of Bill and Marian or Ethel Sayles, she lived for one year with her mother in Richfield, Minnesota
Richfield, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 34,439 people, 15,073 households, and 8,727 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,993.9 people per square mile . There were 15,357 housing units at an average density of 2,226.9 per square mile...
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
Hospital volunteer
Hospital volunteers work without regular pay in a variety of health care settings, usually under the supervision of a nurse. Most hospitals train and supervise volunteers through a specialized non-profit organization called an auxiliary. The director of the auxiliary is usually a paid employee of...
at Mount Sinai Hospital, and later worked as a nurse's aide. She was briefly a civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
activist
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
in the state of Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
.
Sayles Belton attended Macalester College
Macalester College
Macalester College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was founded in 1874 as a Presbyterian-affiliated but nonsectarian college. Its first class entered September 15, 1885. The college is located on a campus in a historic residential neighborhood...
in Saint Paul where she studied biology and sociology. She later worked as a parole officer
Probation officer
Parole officers and probation officers play a role in criminal justice systems by supervising offenders released from incarceration or sentenced to non-custodial sanctions such as community service...
with victims of sexual assault. Like her grandfather Bill Sayles, she then became a "neighborhood
Neighbourhood
A neighbourhood or neighborhood is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town or suburb. Neighbourhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members. "Researchers have not agreed on an exact definition...
" activist.
She is married to Steven Belton, with whom she raised three children Kilayna, Jordan and Coleman.
Career
In 1983, Sayles Belton was elected by the Eighth Ward to the Minneapolis City CouncilMinneapolis City Council
The Minneapolis City Council is the governing body of the City of Minneapolis. The City Council is composed of 13 single member districts, called wards. Barbara Johnson is president of the council. The council is dominated by members of the DFL Party with 12 members. The Green Party has one member...
. She was inspired by working with mayor Donald M. Fraser
Donald M. Fraser
Donald MacKay Fraser is an American politician from Minneapolis, Minnesota.-Early life:Donald Fraser played a critical role in making human rights an important part of U.S. policy. Fraser was born on 20 February 1924 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Everett and Lois Fraser. His parents were émigrés...
. She represented the state at the 1984 Democratic National Convention
1984 Democratic National Convention
The 1984 National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California from July 16 to July 19, 1984, to select a candidate for the 1984 United States presidential election. At the convention Walter Mondale was nominated for President and Geraldine...
, where Minnesota politician Walter Mondale
Walter Mondale
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States , under President Jimmy Carter, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota...
was nominated for President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
. A member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party is a major political party in the state of Minnesota and the state affiliate of the Democratic Party. It was created on April 15, 1944, with the merger of the Minnesota Democratic Party and the 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
Barbara Carlson
Barbara Carlson is an American politician and broadcast journalist in Minneapolis, Minnesota.Her father, Harry Duffy, made a successful business of running the local lumber yard in Anoka, Minnesota. She was married to Minnesota Representative Arne Carlson from 1965 until they divorced in 1977. Arne...
. Sayles Belton held the position for two terms, from January 1, 1994 to December 31, 2001.,
W. Harry Davis
W. Harry Davis
W. Harry Davis, Sr. was an American civil rights activist, amateur boxing coach, civic leader and businessman in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He overcame poverty, childhood polio, and racial prejudice to become a humanitarian...
, 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.
Sam Grabarski of a downtown business council told Minnesota Public Radio
Minnesota Public Radio
Minnesota Public Radio , is the flagship National Public Radio member network for the state of Minnesota. With its three services, News & Information, Classical Music and The Current, MPR operates a 42-station regional radio network in the upper Midwest serving over 8 million people...
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
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
retail store, the U.S. Bancorp
U.S. Bancorp
U.S. Bancorp is a diversified financial services holding company, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the parent company of U.S. Bank, the fifth largest commercial bank in the United States based on $330 billion in assets. U.S. Bank ranks as the sixth largest bank in the U.S. based on...
Center and the American Express
American Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
Business Center to the Nicollet Mall
Nicollet Mall
Nicollet Mall is a portion of Nicollet Avenue running through downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Working as a pedestrian and transit mall, it is also an upscale shopping and dining district...
. She helped to create the Block E
Block E (Minneapolis)
Block E is the name of a block in downtown Minneapolis bounded by Hennepin Avenue, 6th Street, 7th Street, and 1st Avenue North. It is part of the Downtown West neighborhood in Minneapolis. It is one block south of the Warehouse District/Hennepin Avenue light rail station on the Hiawatha Line.-...
entertainment and shopping redevelopment from what was a parking lot for ten years on prime downtown real estate on Hennepin Avenue
Hennepin Avenue
Hennepin Avenue is a major street in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It runs from Lakewood Cemetery , north through the Uptown District of Southwest Minneapolis, through the former "Bottleneck" area west of Loring Park, through the North Loop in the city center, to Northeast Minneapolis and...
.
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.
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
Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party is a major political party in the state of Minnesota and the state affiliate of the Democratic Party. It was created on April 15, 1944, with the merger of the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Farmer–Labor Party...
and the city's current mayor.
After leaving the mayor's office, Sayles Belton became a senior fellow at the Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice. The center is part of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs
Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs
The Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs is a graduate public affairs school located at the University of Minnesota, ranking among the top 15 professional schools of public affairs at public universities in the country. It is named after Hubert H. Humphrey, former Vice President of the...
.
More recently, Sayles Belton worked in community affairs and community involvement for the GMAC Residential Finance Corporation, headquartered in Minneapolis. In 2010, she joined Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters Corporation is a provider of information for the world's businesses and professionals and is created by the Thomson Corporation's purchase of Reuters Group on 17 April 2008. Thomson Reuters is headquartered at 3 Times Square, New York City, USA...
as vice president of Community Relations and Government Affairs, based in Eagan, Minnesota
Eagan, Minnesota
Eagan is a city south of Saint Paul in Dakota County in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies on the south bank of the Minnesota River, upstream from the confluence with the Mississippi River. Eagan and nearby suburbs form the southern portion of Minneapolis-St. Paul, the fifteenth largest...
.
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. She co-founded the 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 Neighborhood Revitalization Program, Clean Water Partnership, Children's Healthcare and Hospital, the American Bar AssociationAmerican Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
, the Bush Foundation, the United States Conference of Mayors
United States Conference of Mayors
United States Conference of Mayors, sometimes referred to as the United States Council of Mayors, is the official non-partisan organization for cities with populations of 30,000 or more. The cities are each represented by their mayor or other chief elected official...
, and the National League of Cities
National League of Cities
The National League of Cities is an American advocacy organization representing 19,000 cities, towns, and villages, and encompassing 49 state municipal leagues....
by chairing or serving on their boards.
Awards
- Gertrude E. Rush Distinguished Service Award presented by the National Bar AssociationNational Bar AssociationThe National Bar Association was established in 1925 as the "Negro Bar Association" after Gertrude Rush, George H. Woodson, S. Joe Brown, James B. Morris, and Charles P. Howard, Sr. were denied membership in the American Bar Association. It represents the interests of African-American attorneys in...
- Rosa Parks Award, presented by the American Association for Affirmative Action