Richard Cecil "Dick" Hackett (born July 21, 1949) was

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well as ...

of the city of

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the County seat, seat of Shelby County, Tennessee, Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 Uni ...

from 1982 to 1991. He also served as Shelby County (Tennessee) Clerk from 1978 to 1982. At the time that he took office as mayor, he was 33 years old and was the youngest mayor of a major U.S. city. He is best known for his defeat in the historic 1991 election that saw the victory of the first

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

mayoral candidate in the city's history, W. W. Herenton. Despite his incredibly narrow loss to Herenton (172 votes out of slightly over 248,000 cast), Hackett was a fairly popular mayor during his nine years in office. He ran and won three times, claiming victory in a 1982 special election as well as in the 1983 and 1987 general elections. His percentage of the vote increased each time, culminating in a lopsided victory in 1987 in which he garnered over 58% of the vote, including nearly 20% of the black vote. Despite this, by 1991 Hackett had become vulnerable due to changing demographics (because of continued

white flight White flight or white exodus is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the terms became popular in the United States. They refer ...

to the suburbs and an increasing black population, the city was nearly 55% African-American by 1991) as well as controversies during his second full term, including

Holiday Inn Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. The chain was a divisio ...

's corporate headquarters leaving the city for

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

, serious problems with the Memphis Housing Authority and embarrassing issues involving the financing of the

Pyramid Arena The Memphis Pyramid, formerly known as the Great American Pyramid and the Pyramid Arena, is a building located in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, United States, at the banks of the Mississippi River. Built in 1991 as a 20,142-seat arena, the facili ...

in downtown. During Hackett's nine years as mayor, tourism, downtown redevelopment, business growth and non-profit institutional development were his main priorities. He was considered a fiscal conservative, with property taxes increasing only once while he was in office (in 1985) and the city's debt level remaining well under control. On the issue of race, Hackett was seen by many as a moderate, especially in comparison to his predecessors

J. Wyeth Chandler J. Wyeth Chandler (February 21, 1930 – November 11, 2004) served as mayor of Memphis, Tennessee from 1972 to 1982. He was the adopted son of former Memphis mayor and U.S. Representative Walter Chandler. Chandler succeeded the controversial ...

(1972–82) and Henry Loeb (1968–71). He appointed many African-Americans as division directors, most notably James Ivey as police director and Greg Duckett as chief administrative officer. After his 1991 defeat, Hackett worked for several non-profit agencies over the next 15 years. In July 2006, he became the CEO/director of the Children's Museum of Memphis. Hackett's nephew is Relay FM co-founder Stephen M. Hackett.

References

External links

*. Retrieved June 12, 2016. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hackett, Richard Mayors of Memphis, Tennessee Living people 1949 births