Ella Jones made history on Tuesday night, becoming the first Black and first woman to ever be elected as mayor in Ferguson, Mo.
As the New York Times notes, Jones, 65, won out over her opponent Heather Robinett with 54 percent of the vote.
Jones’ historic victory comes almost six years after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in the city that sparked protests across the nation. It also comes as the nation is rocked by yet another police-involved death of a Black man, George Floyd, which has also resulted in protests not only in the United States but across the globe as well.
“I’ve got work to do…because when you’re an African-American woman, they require more of you than they require of my counterpart,” Jones said in a YouTube video posted by St. Louis Public Radio journalist James Rosenbaum. “I know the people in Ferguson are ready to stabilize their community, and we’re going to work together to get it done.”
Jones noted that the election and the goal of her administration would be to serve the people.
“If you go look in the budget the first thing you see is the organizational chart. When you look at the organizational chart in the budget at the top of that chart it says ‘citizens,’ and then…the elected officials,” she pointed out. “If the people are not in charge of what they’re doing, then you’re going to have chaos. And we done had enough chaos…”
This is not Jones’ first time making history. A member of the city council, Jones smashed ceilings in 2015 when she became the first Black woman elected to the city council.