Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson hopes to inspire other Black women, minorities
BRONX (WABC) -- It's not always easy being the first at anything.
"I am my ancestors, wildest dreams," said Vanessa Gibson, Bronx Borough President.
Those dreams are playing out in the Bronx as three years ago, Gibson broke the glass ceiling at the 851 Grand Concourse.
In January of 2022, Gibson was sworn in as the first woman and African American to serve as borough president.
"It means that there have to be footprints left behind for the next president, the next African American, the next Latina, the next woman, so that she can see herself in me," Gibson said.
Gibson says she draws inspiration of other Black women who came before her, like late Assemblywoman Aurelia Greene, who introduced her to the Bronx and public service when she interned for Greene.
And her mother, Phyiliss Gibson inspired her during her run in city council from 2014 to 2021.
"She instilled in me the value of hard work. She worked relentlessly, full time, sometimes taking on a second job to provide for my brother and I pushed me to go to college because she never went," she said.
But just as important as it is to enact transformative change in her role, Gibson knows her visibility is just as important, especially in 2025.
Diversity, equity and inclusion has been a talking point both at the national and local levels of government in recent years, it's a fight as a Black woman, Gibson has battled for years.
"Did you ever find challenges being a Black woman?" Eyewitness News asked.
"All the time. When I first got elected almost every day, because there was this sense of just me feeling inferior, feeling as if I didn't belong," Gibson said.
"How do you overcome that?" Eyewitness News asked.
"A lot of it is just self-worth, identifying, you know, your worthiness and feeling your own love and then prayer and faith is a source of foundation for me," she said. "It is disheartening to see that. And it doesn't deter me in energizing me to keep going because every movement that we've had in modern society, you have to break down systemic racism and you have to say, you know what? If no one else is going to be the change, it should be me."
And be the change for the next generations to come from the Bronx.
"We will not be in these positions forever. At some point we will step down, we will leave office. And we need to make sure that there are footprints left behind for them to follow, but also to create their own footsteps," Gibson said.
Borough President Gibson says she hopes that she can continue to inspire young Black women and tell her story while she's in office. She tells Eyewitness News that she hopes voters agree as she runs for reelection in November.
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