Spelman College alumna Julia Pearce is making history as the first African-American to run for Mayor of Tybee Island, Georiga per a report by Destini Ambus of the Savannah Tribune. Pearce knows of the significance of her candidacy and says that she's running for a higher purpose.

“I do it for the ancestors,” Pearce said in a quote obtained by Ambus. “I do it for the people who came here, built a nation, and died. And there’s not even a plaque that says that they were ever here.”

Pearce is a 1984 graduate of Spelman College and is civically engaged in the community. She is the co-founder of Tybee MLK, a local human rights organization with the goal of promoting diversity on Tybee Island. Her desire to confront this issue and spur the creation of Tybee MLK started when she moved to the city in 1997.

“I was the only person of color in the room And they would wonder, and whisper, ‘Where did she come from?'”

According to 2022 Census Data received by Georgia Demographics, Tybee Island is 95% white and only 2.9% black. The island has a population of 3,132 people. Pearce wants the history of enslaved Africans in on the Island to be highlighted.

“Thousands of enslaved Africans died here, and those that lived were put on sale in Savannah at City Market. Those that died, their bodies and bones lay here in the ground, and there’s no marker, there’s no remembrance. I think that’s disrespectful.”

Tybee Island will hold its Mayoral Election on November 7, 2023.