Svante Myrick, a biracial man, has made history as the youngest mayor ever to serve Ithaca, NY at 24 years old. The young mayor served on Ithaca’s city council prior to his term. He also considers President Obama to be an inspiration. Although Myrick’s future looks promising, his childhood was rough.
From NBC:
Svante Myrick, the new 24-year-old mayor of Ithaca, N.Y., shies away from increasingly frequent comparisons to President Obama, but he admits the president’s journey certainly influenced his decision to enter politics.
“Well, if this, you know, guy with that name and those ears can do it, then a guy with this name and these ears can do it,” Myrick said.
When he was just a teenager, Myrick’s grandmother gave him a copy of Barack Obama’s book, “Dreams From My Father.” As a biracial teenager, he found solace and motivation in reading Obama’s story.
“It was so full of things I saw in my own story. I mean, his struggle with his identity growing up without his father and raised by a white mother in a largely white school district. I mean, he had been through things and he had wisdom,” Myrick said.
Myrick’s mother is white and his father is African American. The family was at times homeless. Myrick’s father struggled with drug addiction and faded from his life when he was six years old, Myrick said. He was raised primarily by his mother and grandparents in a Earlville, N.Y., a tiny town with just one stoplight. He and his three siblings were the only black kids in the town, Myrick said.
Learn about Myrick in the video below:
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Why does he call his mother a hero? She sounds like someone who didnt take economics. Raising kids on the involuntarily donated tax-payers money (food stamps, welfare, medicaid, free school lunch) sounds like a free-loader rather than a hero. And she had more kids when she knew she couldnt afford to feed, support or provide for any of them independently. Wow, the definition of a hero SUUUUUURE has changed since I was a kid.
You have clearly mis-read or mis-heard the story. His mother worked three jobs in order to support her children after her husband and father to all of her children became consumed by a substance abuse problem. I very highly doubt anyone plans for that to happen when they have four young children. How could she have put that into her budget? Those programs are in place for families like the Myrick’s. Would Svante’s potential been realized if he had to go to school hungry every day and not able to focus? Would all of her children been able to make it to college without her example of hard work? Also the article stated that all the children got jobs to help support the household. They don’t sound like they relied on social welfare programs in the least, simply appreciated their presence and assistance when it was critically needed. She sounds EXACTLY like a hero to me.