Legacy of former Tacoma Mayor Harold Moss lives on in new generation of Black leaders
Victoria Woodards listed names.
Asked about the legacy and impact of Tacoma’s first Black mayor, Harold Moss — who passed away Monday night at the age of 90 — Tacoma’s current Black mayor immediately thought about the many leaders who followed in his footsteps over the years.
“Marilyn (Strickland) and I are his legacy. His legacy looks like Keith Blocker being only the second African American man to serve on the City Council. It looks like all of us who are serving right now,” said Woodards, who considered Moss a father figure.
“That is his legacy,” Woodards said.
On the day that Tacoma learned of Moss’ death, it was a familiar refrain. Beyond his long list of personal accomplishments and hard-fought firsts — of which there are many — the lasting generational impact of the life Moss lived was something his many friends and admirers took solace in on Tuesday.
Even as Tacoma mourned the loss of Moss, it was clear his presence would continue to be felt for years to come, they said.
“The influence that he’s had on so many generations is understated. He inspired people to run for office. He inspired people to get involved in government in many different ways,” said Marilyn Strickland, who in 2009 became Tacoma’s second Black mayor.
“Moss had a deep understanding of the responsibility to make sure others are able to follow behind you,” Strickland added.
It was a responsibility Moss took personally over his decades of activism and service in Tacoma, and one that manifested in different ways, according to Dorian Waller, a 38-year-old member of the Washington State Commission on African American Affairs.
Sometimes it came in the form of timely advice or perspective, Waller said. Other times, it was simply lending an ear.
Or, as Waller fondly recalled, sometimes it was sharing a meal, as they often did after the weekly meetings of the Tacoma-Pierce County Black Collective.
While there can often be a divide between an older generation of Black leaders and young emerging leaders like himself, that was a chasm Moss had no interest in being a part of, Waller said.
“Almost every Saturday after the Black Collective (meeting), he always told us, ‘Let’s go grab a bite to eat, and talk about the things that you all want to talk about,’” Waller recalled. “In a lot of ways Moss was one of those few elders who wanted to stay connected to younger generations.”
It’s one reason Moss served as such an inspiration to him and other young Black leaders, Waller explained.
“I think he had that impact because he remained open not only to people, but open to change,” Waller said. “Even if he didn’t understand us, he saw the drive and promise in us.”
It was a sentiment echoed by T’wina Nobles, who now leads the Tacoma Urban League — an organization Moss helped found with Thomas Dixon more than 50 years ago.
Nobles, 38, is in her second term serving on the University Place school board and is currently challenging Steve O’Ban for a seat in the state Senate.
On Tuesday, Nobles said that Moss served as a confidant and an inspiration, both in her work at the Urban League and in her political aspirations.
Knowing the challenges Moss had to endure in his life — particularly at a time when running for office as a Black man was a lonely endeavor — it was impossible not to be energized and motivated, Nobles said. Because of the color of his skin, there was a time when Moss couldn’t get a sandwich on Pacific Avenue or a drink at the bar; that he became mayor of Tacoma spoke to his perseverance and fortitude.
“His no nonsense attitude resonated beyond generations,” Nobles said. “To do social justice work — and to be the first and only — you have to be very courageous.”
For the generations of Black leaders who followed him, Moss demonstrated how to “hang in there,” Nobles explained, simply by the decades he spent doing it.
“There was no way I could call myself a leader and say I want to measure up to him if I don’t have that endurance,” said Nobles, adding that one of the most important lessons Moss taught her was that the fight for equality requires “showing up every day,” even when the odds of achieving your goal seem long.
“You have to stay in it. In order to stay in this work and do this work, it literally is day by day. I can’t get consumed by whether I’m going to see the change in my generation,” Nobles said of what she takes from the life Moss lived.
Asked about the guidance Moss provided him during his successful 2015 campaign for the Metro Parks Tacoma Board of Commissioners, Jessie Baines recalled a particular piece of advice Tacoma’s first Black mayor offered him.
The guidance came to mind, Baines said, because it illuminated the adversity Moss had to overcome during his decades of political service — as well as the significant work that remains to this day.
As a Black man, Baines, now 40, said he wasn’t sure how late he should stay out knocking on voters’ doors.
The advice Moss provided cut to the core of who he was as a leader and a man.
“You can knock as long as you need to knock,” Baines recalled Moss bluntly telling him.
Like many, Strickland also spent time on Tuesday remembering the inspiration Moss provided not just to her, but the entirety of Tacoma’s Black community.
Moss, Strickland said, had many sayings he was fond of — or Moss-isms, as they’re affectionately known — but one stuck with her.
“Harold always said, ‘It’s an honor to be first, but you never want to be the last,’” Strickland recalled.
During a life lived to its fullest, it’s one thing Harold Moss made sure of.
This story was originally published September 23, 2020 at 7:24 AM.
