On Sunday afternoon, at The Block Off Biltmore, Dee Williams announced a third run for Asheville City Council. This time though, she is backed by the Western North Carolina Green Party. The local Green Party organization is touting her as the first Asheville candidate they have ever formally supported.
City Council elections are conducted in a non-partisan format.
Press release from WNC Green Party, and excerpts from submitted bio:
[Sunday], March 5, 2017, the Western North Carolina Green Party announced our city council candidate for the 2017 election, Dee Williams. Our membership had the opportunity to get to know her and sign up for campaign committees to get a running start on our campaigning. We have compiled the following profile to help you learn more about our amazing candidate, who has a compelling history of strong leadership and high principles.
Bio:
Born and raised in Asheville
Dee Williams, native born and bred, know the history of Asheville, the history of Black Asheville, and the history of Black America. Her grandmother’s grandmother was a slave in New Orleans. Like Beyonce, Dee Williams is Creole – that is, a mix of French, Spanish, African and Native American cultures. A century ago, her family moved from New Orleans to Asheville. When Dee was nine, she and her brother became orphans when their parents died. They were raised in Asheville by their grandmother, a full-blooded Creek.At first, Dee attended The Allen School, an all-black high school in North Asheville, run by the United Methodist Church. It was a private school where diplomats and other wealthy African Americans, nationwide, sent their daughters. Nina Simone graduated from The Allen School.
Dee was the first African-American valedictorian to graduate from Asheville High. That was no mean feat in a graduating senior class of 876 students. The day after graduaduation, she got on a Greyhound bus and rode down the mountain to persuade the admissions officers at Winston-Salem State University (HBCU) to not only admit her, but give her a full scholarship. She graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in public administration and a B.S. accounting and business administration.
I suspect the green party might put parks before affordable housing; but I have far more confidence in Dee Williams and Sheneika Smith to put affordable housing first and parks as secondary. I know you can’t have both because they compete for attention, budgets and land. Kim Ronan is a distant third for me since she mentioned parks too often; so I trust her far less on housing. but I think 3 seats are open so se la vie.