By Alaina Bookman | abookman@al.com
Yolanda Lawson made history as the first Black woman elected as mayor of Pleasant Grove, a small Alabama city that has seen massive changes.
Pleasant Grove has faced down a tornado, a historic lawsuit challenging the election system and afterward, a transformation in leadership roles in the city. Lawson, who is an attorney and former councilor, said she has a plan to continue moving the city forward.
“This is not about color for me. This is not about gender for me. This is about being a leader who is willing to have a conversation, listen and understand,” Lawson said.
“Those are the things that I want to bring to the table.”
Her Story
Lawson was born and raised in Greenville, about 50 miles south of Montgomery.
After graduating from Greenville High School, she earned her bachelor’s in accounting from Alabama A&M in 1993.
She moved to Pleasant Grove in 2000 where she began to grow her family of six.
From 2004 to 2011, she worked as a tax compliance auditor for the city of Birmingham and in 2009 earned her law degree from Miles College.
While studying for the bar, Lawson earned her master’s in law with a specialty in taxation.
“All of that led me to start to serve in our community. I didn’t feel that I had anyone that was relating to me or hearing my issues or concerns, and so I felt that I could be a part of the solution,” she said.
So she began participating in local booster programs, boards and associations.
In 2016, Lawson threw her hat in the ring for a city council seat, but was unsuccessful. “I was bringing my knowledge and skills to the table, but I didn’t really have a clear concept of how to marry that to our community needs,” Lawson said.
Despite the election results, she continued serving her community by getting to know more about the needs of her neighbors.
“It was an opportunity for me to learn from some citizens that chose to engage with me,” Lawson said. “It expanded my ability to serve in our community.”
From that point, Lawson leaned into community efforts. In 2018, her family started a nonprofit giving scholarships to high school students and youth programming. She is now the chair of the Lawson Family Foundation.
From 2018 to 2022, she served on the Continental Societies board, helping Black girls receive educational resources. From 2019 to 2021, Lawson was president of the neighborhood association.
She currently serves on the Delta Sigma Theta political action committee, focused on getting people registered and, they hope, excited to vote. “It gave me that exposure and that working knowledge that I needed,” she said.
In 2020, Lawson, who is married to Jefferson County Attorney Theo Lawson, became one of the first Black members elected to the Pleasant Grove city council in which she directed ARPA funds to schools, hosted free events for residents and facilitated clean ups around the city.
As mayor, Lawson said she wants to continue being a listening ear and a person of action for all her constituents. “Those things are the things that are driving me through this process,” Lawson said.
Pleasant Grove
In 2011, Pleasant Grove was hit with a devastating tornado.
While leaders and community members worked to rebuild and revitalize, vacant lots and overgrowth remained a persistent problem, alongside pressing political issues.
In 2018, Eric Calhoun, a current councilor, sued the city for maintaining an election system that he said was diluting the strength of Black voters. That federal lawsuit targeted the city’s at-large election method, which Calhoun contended violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund attorney Deuel Ross, who filed the suit on behalf of Calhoun, said the city had managed to maintain a majority-white stronghold until the early 2000s, mostly due to a “very long and egregious history of racial discrimination.”
In 2019, Pleasant Grove settled with the plaintiffs. The city still uses the at-large voting method, but switched to cumulative voting, which allows residents to vote for multiple candidates. This led to a historic change, when in 2020, Pleasant Grove elected three Black city councilors after having never elected a person of color.
Lawson was one of those groundbreaking councilors. Since then she said, she has worked with leadership and community members to leave the city better than when she came. “We are a close-knit community. We are very quaint. We’re like a big family,” Lawson said.
“We have the ability to grow economically, to bring things to our city that are going to be great resources right here at home, without losing that small hometown feel,” Lawson said.
Her Plan
Today, Lawson is continuing her work to push the city forward as mayor. “We know the problems. Now what are the solutions … I want us to be forward-moving, forward-thinking,” Lawson said.
On the outskirts of the city, there is unused property that Lawson said she would like to turn into a commercial district. “I want to create an attractive city that continues to bring people back at a higher rate,” She said.
Her dream is for the city to be clean, walkable and well-lit, with lots of green space. A place that “feels like a hug.”
“We would definitely work with our neighbors to find out what’s beneficial to our area. What are we looking for? Let’s get some feedback. Let’s get some buy-in,” Lawson said.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, another problem struck Pleasant Grove: school enrollment and grade averages dropped. Lawson said she plans to fix that.
“We want to get kids back and expand our schools,” she said.
During her time on the council, Lawson championed support initiatives to help improve student outcomes. That support helped to increase grade averages across Pleasant Grove.
“A lot of our support that I championed to get resources to our school have helped support our school,” Lawson said. “Now we’re in a position to apply for additional funding.”
Lawson said she also wants to cultivate partnerships between neighboring cities to improve public safety and infrastructure.
She recently applied for a $700,000 grant with U.S. Rep. Terry Sewell for infrastructure improvements. “I’m excited about those partnerships that we may be able to do” Lawson said. “Together we can do more.”
Above all, Lawson said she wants Pleasant Grove residents to feel heard and ensure communication between residents and the local leadership is clear.
She plans to create an online system that tracks the progress of the city’s response to an issue and to regularly update the city’s website to keep residents well-informed.
“I want to make sure that my administration is a team that openly communicates and definitely follows up on these issues and concerns.”
