Source: Adene Sanchez/ Getty Images / Getty
All Whites Matter…
Hoschton, GA Mayor Rejects Black Candidate
We’d love to say this is unbelievable but we’ve long known that Georgia outside of Atlanta isn’t the friendliest of places for black people. The mayor of Hoschton, GA is currently the subject of an Atlanta Journal Constitution investigation because she allegedly withheld a job candidate from consideration for a city administrator role because he was black.
According to documents obtained by the AJC and interviews with city officials, Mayor Theresa Kenerly told a member of the City Council she pulled Keith Henry’s resume from a packet of four finalists “because he is black, and the city isn’t ready for this.”
The mayor’s comments were reportedly whispered to a member of the council during a closed-door session on March 4th, and were overheard. Councilwoman Hope Weeks said Kenerly repeated her comments in the parking lot after the meeting, according to a document released by the city in response to an open records request from the AJC.
“She proceeded to tell me that the candidate was real good, but he was black and we don’t have a big black population and she just didn’t think Hoschton was ready for that,” Weeks wrote in an account dated March 4.
Weeks shared Kenerly’s comments with Councilwoman Susan Powers and the two decided to take the issue to city attorney Thomas Mitchell.
“Both of us were just appalled, so we thought we had to do something to stop it,” Powers said.
Weeks declined to be interviewed on the record, but issued a statement saying she was disappointed in the mayor’s comments about the candidate.
“Mr. Henry was a very professional and qualified candidate who was a finalist for the position of city administrator before withdrawing to accept another position,” she said. “I am thankful for the opportunity to serve the citizens of Hoschton, but this has been one of the most challenging seasons of my life.”
According to emails obtained by the AJC, Mitchell and the city’s five elected officials opted to continue the hiring process, allowing Kenerly to attend but not participate. Mitchell also cautioned officials to cease sending emails about the issue.
“I do not think it in the best interests of the city (or the individual elected officials) to continue emailing in this manner,” he wrote in a March 14 email.
In emails, Powers protested the mayor’s continued involvement in the search for a city administrator.
“Since she corrupted this entire process by trying to shield the application of Mr. Henry from Council members and then making the comment to the effect that while he is qualified he should not be considered because he is black and the city is not ready for this, she should not be a part of this hiring process,” Powers wrote. “I am appalled that in 2019 an applicant would not be hired based solely on the color of their skin.”
Henry withdrew his candidacy not long after the March 4 meeting and a phone interview with council members. He told the AJC he chose to withdraw because the city asked that he pay his travel, room, and board to travel for an in-person interview with the promise of reimbursement at a later date. Two of the other candidates for the position were local, while the third was willing to drive from the Georgia coast at his own expense.
Henry told the AJC he didn’t detect any bias after being interviewed by Kenerly over the phone but as a black man applying for executive government positions in small Southern towns, he wasn’t surprised that it may have existed.
“It comes with the territory,” he said. “If you live in America as a minority you can’t be naïve that it is the reality that you face.”
Kenerly refused to initially answer questions about her reported comments, saying she could not publicly talk about matters that occurred in executive session even though the law does not forbid that.
“I can’t say I said it or not said it,” she said.
Kenerly later issued a statement disputing accounts from other city officials.
Kenerly was not without defenders. Councilman Jim Cleveland confirmed many aspects of the story, including his account that Kenerly made a tearful apology in another executive session on March 12, where council members say she claimed to be “looking out” for Henry because the city does not have a lot of minority residents.
“I was there for that,” Cleveland said. “She cried. She had tears in her eyes. It was in my opinion a very sincere apology.”
Cleveland also seemed to express understanding of Kenerly’s motives saying:
“I understood where she was coming from,” he said. “I understand Theresa saying that, simply because we’re not Atlanta. Things are different here than they are 50 miles down the road.”
Cleveland described Hoschton as “a predominantly white community” not in accord with urban sensibilities about race.“I don’t know how they would take it if we selected a black administrator. She might have been right,” he said.
Cleveland said he ranked Henry fourth out of the candidates in any case because he’d elected not to come for the in-person interview.
Councilman Cleveland also shared his not so enlightened views on race:
“I’m a Christian and my Christian beliefs are you don’t do interracial marriage. That’s the way I was brought up and that’s the way I believe,” he said. “I have black friends, I hired black people. But when it comes to all this stuff you see on TV, when you see blacks and whites together, it makes my blood boil because that’s just not the way a Christian is supposed to live.”
YIKES… Sounds like Hoschton has a loooooong way to go when it comes to race.
Located just outside Gwinnett County, in Jackson County, adjacent to the larger city of Braselton, Hoschton has a population of less than 2,000 people and only 201 of that number identify as non-white according to U.S. Census data.
Hoschton’s city code reads: “There shall be no discrimination exercised because of race, national origin, color, religion, creed, age, sex … All personnel actions shall be based solely on individual merit and fitness.”
Looks like the code is a long way from being followed.
