Pierce Freelon appointed to Durham City Council seat in 4-2 vote

It may not be mayor. It may not be senate. But musician and activist Pierce Freelon is now in local government.

Durham City Council members voted 4-2 Monday to appoint Freelon to the council’s vacant Ward 3 seat. He will hold it through next year, when the vacancy expires.

The seat was previously held by Vernetta Alston, who now occupies the 29th District seat in the state House of Representatives.

Council members Charlie Reece and Javiera Caballero, Mayor Steve Schewel and Mayor Pro Tempore Jillian Johnson voted for Freelon.

Council members DeDreana Freeman and Mark-Anthony Middleton voted for Anita Daniels-Kenney.

Freelon ran for the state Senate this year, losing in the Democratic primary to Natalie Murdock. He ran for mayor, in 2017, and lost to Steve Schewel.

In his application, Freelon had touted his local roots.

“I will bring local perspective as a product of Durham public schools, a parent, and a lifelong resident with deep roots in the community,” he wrote. “I will serve the city with passion, creativity and a moral center rooted in social and economic justice.”

City Council members interviewed five finalists for the seat at a public meeting Thursday. Besides Freelon and Daniels-Kenney, they were Leonardo Q. Williams, Sarah Sinning and Shelia Ann Huggins.

Who is Pierce Freelon?

Freelon, 36, has served on the boards of the N.C. Arts Council and Durham Library Foundation, and is vice-chair of the city’s Human Relations Commission.

A child of creative parents, he is the son of the late architect Phil Freelon, who led the design of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. His mother is Grammy-nominated jazz singer Nenna Freelon.

In 2016, he founded Blackspace, an Afrofuturist digital maker-space in Durham. The collective teaches young people about coding, music, film, and poetry.

As a filmmaker, he co-wrote and directed “The History of White People in America,” an animated series examining how whiteness “helped shape the nation’s history,” according to his website.

He has also taught in the political science department of N.C. Central University, in addition to instructing in Music and African, African American and Diaspora Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Johnson said she supported Freelon because of his ongoing work on police reform, racial equity, housing justice, and community engagement.

“I appreciate Pierce’s clear, stated values and commitment to work on all of these issues that are critically facing our city right now,” Johnson said.

Schewel called him a “powerful voice for the new generation of Durham residents.”

“He’s a passionate champion of Durham, someone who loves his native city enormously, someone who’s given great service to Durham,” said Schewel, who had endorsed Freelon for state Senate.

Appointment instead of general election

City Council members are usually voted into office in a general election, as Alston was in 2017, when she defeated Huggins with 62% of the vote.

But when a council member resigns, the city’s rules call for the council to identify and appoint someone to fill the vacancy in a public application process.

City Attorney Kimberly M. Rehberg told council members in April that they were required by state statute and the city charter to appoint someone, according to her memo obtained by The News & Observer.

Still, the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People chose not to endorse any candidates for the Ward 3 seat out of concern with the selection process. The committee had endorsed Huggins and Daniels-Kenney for Ward 3 in the past, and it backed Freelon when he ran for Senate this year.

In his statement, Durham Committee Chair Omar Beasley said the council should have held a special election.

“We saw no good reason to deprive the citizens of Durham, especially the voters of Ward 3, of their democratic right to select their City Council’s Ward 3 Seat representative,” he stated.

However, Rehberg’s memo said the city can only hold a special election if council members try and fail to appoint someone.

Reece sent Rehberg’s memo to Beasley earlier this month, he said in an email to The N&O.

The Durham Committee also was concerned Johnson, Reece, and Caballero might pool their votes for their preferred candidate as the Bull City Together bloc they formed during the last election, according to Beasley’s statement.

Johnson, Reece, and Caballero each told The N&O on Monday they did not decide whom to vote for as a group before the meeting.

“I didn’t come to that decision until this morning and I made it all by myself,” Reece said in an email.

“We each make our own decision on each issue that comes before the council, including this one, according to our values and goals for the City of Durham,” Johnson said in an email.

Beasley said he congratulates Freelon for his win.

“I know that he will go and serve well,” he said in an interview with The N&O.

This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 11:03 AM.