Willie W Herenton

On October 3, 1991, Memphis elected its first African-American mayor, Dr. Willie Herenton. Willie Wilbert Herenton was born in Memphis on April 23, 1940. He was raised in south Memphis by a single mother. He eventually decided that he wanted to go into education and attended college at Lemoyne-Owen. After graduation he obtained a position as a city school teacher. He went on to earn his Master's Degree at Memphis State University and became Memphis' youngest principal at 27 years of age. After obtaining his Doctorate from Southern Illinois University, he became the superintendent of Memphis City Schools. Herenton met his future wife, Ida Jones, while attending Lemoyne-Owen. The two were soon married. Together they had three children: Duke, Rodney, and Andrea. In 1988, Herenton divorced Ida. He would later father a fourth child in 2004. After serving four consecutive terms, the mayor was elected to an unprecedented fifth term in October of 2007, winning by only 42% of the popular vote. Less than six months later, Herenton announced his plan to resign from his position as mayor, effective July 31, 2008. He later retracted his resignation and continued to serve as mayor of Memphis. In 2010, Herenton ran against Congressman Steve Cohen in the Democratic Primary for the black-majority 9th Congressional district. Herenton received only 20% of the vote and Cohen won the primary.