Matthew Green: What it means to be Hamilton's 1st black city councillor
'It’s crazy to say in 2014, or 2015 now... It took this long'
Matthew Green says he didn’t run on his race, but when he won the municipal election in Ward 3 last October it became a thing: he was Hamilton’s first black councillor.
"It’s crazy to say in 2014, or 2015 now," Green says with a laugh.
"It took this long."
Green, whose city hall office is adorned with framed pictures of Lincoln Alexander and Nelson Mandela, says the city still has a long way to go when it comes to achieving true equality.
Next to the pictures there's a white board — "my playbook," he calls it — with the issues Green's focused on including child care, the proposed gasification plant planned for Hamilton's waterfront and following up on repairs to the apartment building at 150 Sanford Ave.
"Each day that I’m here in office is a chance to build on that legacy and contribute to my community," Green says, adding he hopes one day people will look back on the work he's done at city hall.
Throughout Black History Month, CBC Hamilton is producing a series of portraits of people in the city’s black community and asking them what black history month means to them. An audio clip you can listen to using the player above will accompany each photograph.