Sharon Pratt (born January 30, 1944), formerly Sharon Pratt Dixon and Sharon Pratt Kelly, is an American attorney and politician who was the
mayor of the District of Columbia
The mayor of the District of Columbia is the head of the executive branch of the government of the District of Columbia. The mayor has the duty to enforce district laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the D.C. Council. ...
from 1991 to 1995, the first mayor born in the District of Columbia since
Richard Wallach
Richard Wallach (April 3, 1816 – March 4, 1881) was an American politician who served as the nineteenth and first Republican Mayor of Washington, D.C.
History
Wallach was born in Alexandria, Virginia in 1816, when it was still part of the D ...
who took office in 1861 and the first woman in that position.
Personal life
Sharon Pratt was born to
D.C. Superior Court
The Superior Court of the District of Columbia, commonly referred to as DC Superior Court, is the trial court for the District of Columbia, in the United States. It hears cases involving criminal, civil law, family court, landlord, tenant, p ...
judge
A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...
Carlisle Edward Pratt
Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England.
Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its proxim ...
breast cancer
Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...
, her grandmother, Hazel Pratt, and aunt, Aimee Elizabeth Pratt, helped to raise Sharon and her younger sister.
Pratt attended D.C. Public Schools Gage ES, Rudolph ES, MacFarland Junior High School, and Roosevelt HS (1961, with honors). She excelled at
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
but did not pursue the sport in adolescence. At
Howard University
Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...
she joined the
Alpha Kappa Alpha
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. () is an List of African American fraternities, historically African-American Fraternities and sororities, sorority. The sorority was founded in 1908 at Howard University in Washington, D.C.. Alpha Kappa Alpha ...
sorority
In North America, fraternities and sororities ( and ) are social clubs at colleges and universities. They are sometimes collectively referred to as Greek life or Greek-letter organizations, as well as collegiate fraternities or collegiate sorori ...
(1964), and earned a
B.A.
A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...
in
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...
Howard University School of Law
Howard University School of Law (Howard Law or HUSL) is the law school of Howard University, a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is one of the oldest law schools in the country and the old ...
in 1968."Sharon Pratt Dixon." ''
Notable Black American Women
''Notable Black American Women'' is a three-volume series by Jessie Carney Smith profiling 1,100 Black American women. The first volume, with 500 profiles, was published in 1992, the second in 1994, and the third in 2003, all by Gale. Smith spent m ...
'', Book 1. Gale Research, 1992. Updated: December 20, 1992, Reproduced in Biography Resource Center.
Farmington Hills, Michigan
Farmington Hills is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northwestern Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit, Farmington Hills is located roughly from downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 United States censu ...
:
Gale
A gale is a strong wind; the word is typically used as a descriptor in nautical contexts. The U.S. National Weather Service defines a gale as sustained surface wind moving at a speed between .
, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC, Document Number: K1623000108. Fee, via
Fairfax County Public Library
The Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) is a public library system in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. It includes eight regional libraries, 14 community libraries and the Access Services Library Branch, which removes barriers to ...
April 10, 2009.
She married Arrington Dixon in 1966 and has two daughters with him; they divorced after sixteen years.
She campaigned and was elected and inaugurated mayor of DC as Sharon Pratt Dixon, but when she married James R. Kelly III, a New York businessman, on December 7, 1991, she changed her name to Sharon Pratt Kelly. After their 1999 divorce, she resumed her maiden name, Sharon Pratt.
Pratt is a member of
The Links
The Links is an American social and service organization of prominent black women. It was founded in 1946 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of 2025, it has 299 chapters and more than 17,000 members in the United States and other countries.. Its ...
.
Career
Initially her political energies were drawn to national rather than local politics. She was a member of the
Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the principal executive leadership board of the United States's Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party. According to the party charter, it has "general responsibility for the affairs of the ...
from the District of Columbia (1977–1990), the first woman to hold that position. She was DNC Treasurer from 1985 to 1989.
At the
1980 Democratic National Convention
The 1980 Democratic National Convention nominated President Jimmy Carter and Vice President Walter Mondale for reelection. The convention was held in Madison Square Garden in New York City from August 11 to August 14, 1980.
The 1980 convention ...
, she was a member of the Ad Hoc Credentials Committee, member of the Judicial Council, and co-chairman of the Rules Committee.
"Sharon Pratt Dixon." Contemporary Black Biography, Volume 1. Gale Research, 1992. Updated: July 7, 1992.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC
Document Number: K1606001025. Fee, via
Fairfax County Public Library
The Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) is a public library system in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. It includes eight regional libraries, 14 community libraries and the Access Services Library Branch, which removes barriers to ...
April 10, 2009. In 1982, she ran Patricia Roberts Harris' mayoral campaign in the D.C. election.
In 1983, she was made Vice President of Community Relations at
Pepco
The Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) is an American utility company that supplies electric power to the city of Washington, D.C., and to surrounding communities in Maryland. It is owned by Exelon.
The company's current trademarked slogan ...
, the D.C. electric utility. She became the first woman and first African American to serve in that role. The same year, she won the Presidential Award from the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...
(NAACP).
1990 mayoral election
Upset with the decline of her hometown, Pratt announced at the
1988 Democratic National Convention
The 1988 Democratic National Convention was held at The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia, from July 18 to 21, 1988, to select candidates for the 1988 presidential election. At the convention Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts was nominated for pr ...
that she would challenge
incumbent
The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position. In an election, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the position that is up for election, regardless of whether they are seeking re-election.
There may or may not be ...
mayor
Marion Barry
Marion Shepilov Barry (born Marion Barry Jr.; March 6, 1936 – November 23, 2014) was an American politician who served as mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991 and 1995 to 1999. A Democratic Party (United States), Democrat, Barr ...
in the 1990 election. Pratt was the only candidate to have officially announced her plans to run for mayor when Barry was arrested on drug charges and dropped out of the race in early 1990. Shortly thereafter, the race was joined by longtime councilmembers
John Ray
John Ray Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (November 29, 1627 – January 17, 1705) was a Christian England, English Natural history, naturalist widely regarded as one of the earliest of the English parson-naturalists. Until 1670, he wrote his ...
,
Charlene Drew Jarvis
Charlene Drew Jarvis (born July 31, 1941, in Washington, D.C.David Clarke. Pratt criticized her three main opponents, referring to them as the "three blind mice" who "saw nothing, said nothing and did nothing as the city rapidly decayed." She was the only candidate who called on Barry to resign from office, and ran specifically as an outsider to his political machine.
Following a series of televised debates during the last few weeks of the campaign, Pratt received the endorsement of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
''.'' ''The day the endorsement appeared, her poll numbers skyrocketed, with many political observers attributing the rise specifically to the ''Posts backing. On the eve of the election, polls showed Councilmember
John Ray
John Ray Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (November 29, 1627 – January 17, 1705) was a Christian England, English Natural history, naturalist widely regarded as one of the earliest of the English parson-naturalists. Until 1670, he wrote his ...
holding the lead, but Pratt gaining ground fast and a large margin of undecided voters remaining. However, even with the smallest campaign staff and least money, Pratt won the
election
An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...
, defeating second-place Ray by 10%. As Washington is a heavily Democratic city, her victory over the Republican candidate, former police chief Maurice T. Turner, Jr., in the November 6 general election was a foregone conclusion. She was sworn in as mayor of Washington on January 2, 1991.
Mayor of the District of Columbia
Once in office, Pratt's
grassroots
A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or continent movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from volunteers at the local level to imp ...
, reform posture met resistance. She made good on her promises to clean house, requesting the resignations of all Barry appointees the day after her election; however, as she began to slash the city employment payroll, her political support began to weaken. She angered labor leaders who claimed she had promised not to fire union employees, and began mandating unpaid furloughs and wage freezes citywide. She took great pains to remove all of Barry's political cronies, even though these layoffs hurt her administration as well. Kelly faced criticism due to accusations of being elitist, thus distancing her from poor and working-class blacks in the city.
Kelly was at odds with several D.C. Council members with her proposal to temporarily move the city government to the building at
One Judiciary Square
One Judiciary Square is a highrise office building at 441 Fourth Street NW in the Judiciary Square neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Designed by architect Vlastimil Koubek, the building is tall and has approximately 10 floors. Its construction en ...
, ten blocks away from Washington's incumbent city hall, the District Building, while the latter underwent renovations. When Kelly moved her office and administration departments to One Judiciary Square in 1992, the Council refused to leave the District Building, although they had approved the proposal that spring. In February 1993, after accusing Kelly of deliberately neglecting maintenance in order to force them out, they voted to take full and exclusive control of the District Building.
According to the ''
Washington City Paper
The ''Washington City Paper'' is a U.S. alternative weekly newspaper serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area since 1981. The ''City Paper'' is distributed on Thursdays; its average circulation in 2006 was 85,588. The paper's editorial ...
'', Kelly "was never able to get control of a city government still loyal to Barry, and she often mistrusted the advice she got from aides." In the spring of 1992, just over a year into her term, Barry loyalists mounted a recall campaign, which, although unsuccessful, weakened her administration and forced Kelly to tread more carefully with the public, backing away from her reform efforts.
Statehood
Kelly's drive to achieve D.C. statehood in order to improve the District's financial and political standing created fierce opposition from Republican members of Congress, who unleashed a barrage of attacks on the District as a "national disgrace" of "one-party rule...massive dependency, hellish crime...and unrelenting scandal." The attacks brought unwelcome negative press to the District, and the ultimate failure in the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...
of DC statehood legislation weakened her political capital. She lost standing with the D.C. Council when she supported Council member
Linda Cropp
Linda Washington Cropp (born October 5, 1947) is an American politician from Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. She was a Democratic member of the Council of the District of Columbia, where she was the first woman to serve as the ...
to serve as acting Chair after the suicide of John A. Wilson in May 1993; instead, the Council chose
John L. Ray
John Lamar Ray (May 16, 1943 – April 2025) was an American lawyer and Democratic politician in Washington, D.C.
Ray was an at-large member of the Council of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1997. Ray was a partner and member of the board ...
.
Redskins stadium
Kelly was blamed for the
Washington Redskins
The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East ...
moving out of the city. Redskins owner
Jack Kent Cooke
Jack Kent Cooke (October 25, 1912 – April 6, 1997) was a Canadian American businessman in broadcasting and professional sports. Starting in sales, Cooke was very successful, eventually becoming a partner in a network of radio stations and new ...
attempted to pressure the city to build a new stadium to replace aging
RFK Stadium
Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, commonly known as RFK Stadium and originally known as District of Columbia Stadium, is a defunct multi-purpose stadium in Washington, D.C. located on East Capitol Street near the Anacostia River. Opened in 1 ...
, with the threat of moving the team to nearby
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in Northern Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Washington, D.C., D.C. The city's population of 159,467 at the 2020 ...
. After negotiations stalled and Cooke was publicly courted by Virginia's governor, Kelly denounced Cooke vocally, saying that "I will not allow our good community to be steamrolled by a billionaire bully." She announced that she had offered as much as she was willing to offer the Redskins and would go no further. Although an agreement was ultimately reached, in 1993 Cooke withdrew from negotiations and moved the team to what is now
Northwest Stadium
Northwest Stadium is an American football stadium in Landover, Maryland, U.S., located east of Washington, D.C.. It is the home stadium of the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). From 2004 until 2010, it had the NFL's ...
(originally Jack Kent Cooke Stadium; later FedEx Field) in
Landover, Maryland
Landover is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 25,998.
Landover is contained between Sheriff Road and Central Avenue to the ...
.
City finances and re-election campaign
Kelly began her term having extremely good relations with Congress, including successfully lobbying them to increase federal aid for D.C. by $100 million and to authorize the sale of $300 million in deficit reduction bonds. As fiscal year 1994 began for DC government (in October 1993), DC faced a $500 million budget deficit, with financial experts predicting that the city's debt would reach $1 billion by 1999; the US Congress commissioned a federal audit of the city finances by the
GAO
Gao (or Gawgaw/Kawkaw) is a city in Mali and the capital of the Gao Region. The city is located on the River Niger, east-southeast of Timbuktu on the left bank at the junction with the Tilemsi valley.
For much of its history Gao was an imp ...
.
In February 1994, in the face of a ballooning deficit, Kelly faced heavy criticism when ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' reported that she regularly spent taxpayer funds on makeup for cable television appearances. Kelly was reported to have set aside $14,000 of city money to pay her makeup artist. In the weeks following, Kelly came under fire for other inappropriate uses of city funds, including the addition of bulletproof glass and a marble fireplace in her office and a series of 1993 televised town hall meetings that she had promised would be paid for with private financing.
The GAO's report on DC finances was published on June 22, 1994, and estimated that the city would run out of money in two years and "may be forced to borrow from the U.S. Treasury by fiscal year 1995." The report specifically singled out Kelly's administration for gross mismanagement of city funds and agencies, and accused her of concealing the city's perilous fiscal condition from Congress for two years, "using gimmicks and violating the federal
anti-deficiency act
The Antideficiency Act (ADA) () is legislation enacted by the United States Congress to prevent the incurring of obligations or the making of expenditures (outlays) in excess of amounts available in Appropriation (law), appropriations or funds. T ...
, which prohibits over-spending of a federally approved budget." The report, coupled with Congress' subsequent assertion of power over DC's budget (including deep cuts and new requirements for mayoral compliance), provided political ammunition for her challengers and effectively destroyed Kelly's reelection campaign.
''The Washington Post'', which had endorsed Kelly in 1990, instead in 1994 endorsed Councilman John Ray. In its endorsement, the ''Post'' reflected that Kelly "has not been a coalition builder, which a mayor – and perhaps particularly the mayor of a city under enormous financial and social stress – needs to be...the most aggressive members of the city council, those most sympathetic to her cost-cutting message, are not with her. Nor are key elements in the business community. She has lost them and with them, we believe, her chance to enact the measures she has stood for."
In the Democratic primary that September, Kelly finished a distant third, with only about 13% of the vote. Barry won the primary and would go on to win the general election in November against an unusually strong Republican opponent,
Carol Schwartz
Carol Schwartz (born January 20, 1944) is an American politician and perennial candidate from Washington, D.C., who served as a Republican at-large member on the Council of the District of Columbia from 1985 to 1989 and again from 1997 to 2009. ...
.
Post-mayoral activities
Consulting
In 2003, Pratt was awarded a $235,000 contract from the District of Columbia's Department of Health to be the city's main contact with federal homeland security agencies. The contract also calls for her to investigate improved communications and technology to protect the district from bioterrorism. Pratt was required to meet with senior federal officials and write a report on potential opportunities, especially resource-sharing agreements. She was also required to look for additional funding sources. Pratt's firm, Pratt Consulting, does management consulting and works with federal, state, and local agencies and non-profit groups.
Congressional Black Caucus
The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is made up of Black members of the United States Congress. Representative Yvette Clarke from New York, the current chairperson, succeeded Steven Horsford from Nevada in 2025. Although most members belong ...
’
Mary McLeod Bethune
Mary McLeod Bethune (; July 10, 1875 – May 18, 1955) was an American educator, Philanthropy, philanthropist, Humanitarianism, humanitarian, Womanism, womanist, and civil rights activist. Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women in ...
-
W. E. B. Du Bois
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist.
Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relativel ...
Candace Award
The Candace Award is an award that was given from 1982 to 1992 by the National Coalition of 100 Black Women (NCBW) to "Black role models of uncommon distinction who have set a standard of excellence for young people of all races". Candace (prono ...
,
National Coalition of 100 Black Women
The National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc. (NCBW) is a non-profit volunteer organization for African American women. Its members address common issues in their communities, families and personal lives, promoting gender and racial equity.
His ...