Derwin Montgomery, center, celebrates his victory in the East Ward race for Winston-Salem City Council with friends and family at the home of Winston-Salem State University professor Larry Little on Tuesday night.(Photo by Keith T. Barber)
Around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday night, Derwin Montgomery paced in the downstairs den of Winston-Salem State University professor Larry Little. With his iPhone a few inches from his face, Montgomery, a 21-year-old Winston-Salem State senior, kept hitting the "refresh" button for the Forsyth County Board of Elections website. He could see that 10 of 13 precincts in Winston-Salem's East Ward had reported their results in Tuesday's municipal primary, and he still enjoyed a significant lead over four-time Democratic incumbent Joycelyn Johnson.
Clasping his iPhone tightly, Montgomery quickly ascended the spiral staircase and emerged on Little’s patio. Montgomery told Little, a former Black Panther and former Winston-Salem Alderman, about his advantage in the race.
Moments later, the Board of Elections released its unofficial results and declared him the winner.
“I won,” Montgomery announced, not with a yell but a whisper. The Deans Scholar from Hopkins, SC, didn’t shout, dance or jump up and down. With a look of shock and humility, Montgomery spoke softly to friends and family who congratulated him with hugs, kisses and cheers.
Montgomery, an inaugural recipient of the Martin Luther King Young Dreamers Award, returned to Little's den to tell his parents, brothers, sisters and campaign staffers of his victory. The room erupted with applause, and Montgomery let it all sink in for the next few moments.
Montgomery defeated Johnson by garnering 57 percent of the vote, compared to Johnson’s 24 percent. His efforts to get his university classmates to the polls for early voting proved pivotal to his victory. Montgomery received a total of 530 votes in the municipal primary. More than 400 of those ballots were cast by Winston-Salem State students during early and one-stop voting, which concluded on Sept. 12.
Without a Republican challenger in the general election, Montgomery becomes one of the youngest people elected to the city council in recent memory.
In victory, Montgomery remained humble. He attributed his astounding win to the hard work of his campaign committee and the ingenious campaign strategy he and Little devised. Little said he was glad Montgomery didn't consult with him before launching his campaign in June.
"I would’ve told him we couldn’t do it," Little conceded. "The Good Lord didn’t want him to talk to me so he got out there on his own. When I saw him out there, I had to support my students."
With Little's support and the help of his campaign committee, Montgomery said he was able to get across his message to East Ward residents. At forums and in person, Montgomery continued to stress that he would be a fresh voice on the city council, and not just represent Winston-Salem State but all East Ward residents.
“[East Ward residents] realized it was something that had to happen, so we thank all of them for going out and making this happen,” Montgomery said.
Little said he and Montgomery took a page from the Obama presidential campaign and developed a strategy that focused on getting Winston-Salem State students involved and taking full advantage of early voting, which ran from Aug. 27 to Sept. 12.
“Our strategy was to be quiet, move the students on out, move others on out and before they knew it, we’d be on them,” Little said. And then they really have to show us something on Election Day to overcome it.”
Little, who has taught Montgomery courses in constitutional law, criminal law, and black political thought, said his pupil will do a fantastic job representing the East Ward.
“Now, he will be in the community," Little said. "He’s not just a student — he represents that entire ward. You got a lot of people who are going to have to make an adjustment to that because they’re not accustomed to seeing a 21-year-old man now being their representative."
Little said Montgomery’s victory is representative of a tsunami of political change that extends far beyond Forsyth County.
“He’s the wave of the future,” Little said. “It just shows you that students are a major power. They’ve just been turned off in many instances thinking things don’t work, but if you can mobilize them, they can play a tremendous role in a whole lot of stuff. This is a dream to see students get out and do this kind of stuff.”
Montgomery acknowledged he could experience resistance from council members due to his youth, but he’s ready for the challenge.
“I think it’s just a matter of presenting yourself that you’re knowledgeable of the issues, and they have to respect that,” he said. “And if they don’t, you still do your job.”
Considering Montgomery will represent one vote of eight on the city council, Little has already begun to advise his apprentice on the art of compromise without sacrificing principles.
“The key thing is you can’t do anything by yourself,” Little said.
Montgomery said one of his top priorities will be facilitating the full release of the Silk Plant Forest Citizen Review Committee’s final report.
On Wednesday, the city publicly released additional pages of the committee's final report, including a memo from committee chair Guy Blynn.
In the memo, Blynn commented on former Winston-Salem police detective Donald R. Williams’ testimony before the city council in June. Blynn described Williams’ testimony about changes the former detective made to a supplemental report as “incredible.”
“I tend to believe that the changes to the supplement report were a fictionalization of what really happened,” Blynn stated.
The appendices of the committee report have not yet been released by the city of Winston-Salem.
“The full unredacted report and the appendices will be released at a later date pursuant to a Superior Court Order,” Assistant City Attorney Al Andrews stated in an e-mail. “That exact date is not now known.”
Montgomery said it is the responsibility of every city council member to take a position on the issue of the report’s full release.
“It was the city council that commissioned that committee, and because they commissioned that, they have to say something about what they reported back,” Montgomery said. “That’s their job."
On Tuesday night, a jubilant Little said he simply felt humbled to have played a part in Montgomery’s first major political victory.
“I’m just so honored,” he said. “This is what you teach and now, there’s a lot of work to do and he’s up to the task.”
No comments:
Post a Comment