Rhoda Overstreet-Wilson sits back to think about the question. Her eyes well up. She puts a hand over her heart.

“It’s enormous,” Overstreet-Wilson says, holding back tears. “Not only is it enormous, I’m honored because I don’t know why I was chosen.”

Auburn was incorporated as a city in 1848. In 175 years, numerous white men have served on the City Council. The number of women councilors can be counted on two hands. The number of Black members? Zero.

That will change Jan. 1, when Overstreet-Wilson is sworn in as the first Black city councilor in Auburn’s history.

The aforementioned question Overstreet-Wilson answered during an interview with The Citizen was: What does it mean to be the person associated with this first? She is humbled by the historic moment. There is pressure, she notes, but that will motivate her as a city councilor.

What she wants people to know, though, is that she didn’t do this alone.

Early yearsOverstreet-Wilson grew up in poverty on the city’s west end. Her grandparents settled in Auburn after the Great Migration. She remembers her grandmother would get on a bus every morning to go to work for 10 to 12 hours a day. When she came home, she would cook for a house full of family members.

One of five children, Overstreet-Wilson says her mother and grandmother were role models. Her mother worked as a certified nursing assistant at Auburn Community Hospital for 30 years. She now volunteers to prepare meals four days a week at SS. Peter & John Episcopal Church on Genesee Street.

“There was never a time I didn’t see people working,” Overstreet-Wilson recalled. “It wasn’t an option to be lazy.”

Her faith was instilled at a young age when her family regularly attended church services. She also participated in programs at Booker T. Washington Community Center.

Those programs were about girl empowerment, she said, and the message was, “Whatever it is you want to be, you can be.”

Juvenile justiceBecause of how Overstreet-Wilson was raised and her involvement in various youth programs, advocacy has played a pivotal role in her life. She believes it’s important to “give back what was given to me.”

As a young mother at 19, she began working in the juvenile justice system. What started out as a job that allowed her to rent an apartment and buy groceries became a career.

The turning point was seeing systemic racism and how that affected children of color housed in those facilities.

“These kids are coming here from all over the state. We’re doing therapy, but we’re sending them right back to where they came from,” Overstreet-Wilson said. “As a construct, we’re passing judgment and we really don’t know where these kids are really coming from. We’re not looking at the root of the problem.”

While working at Cayuga Centers and Hillside Children’s Center over a 25-year career, she sought different approaches to these problems. She wanted to give the children under her supervision something they lacked — a support system.

“It was my way of paying it forward and hoping that I was doing a better job at being what they needed,” she said.

Rhoda Overstreet-Wilson is the first Black woman elected to the five-member Auburn City Council.

Kevin Rivoli, The CitizenEducation While in the juvenile justice field, Overstreet-Wilson decided to go back to school.

She earned a bachelor’s degree from Empire State University. When a coworker encouraged her to pursue an advanced degree, she enrolled in a program at Keuka College, where she received a master’s degree in business administration and management.

“I really liked how that felt,” Overstreet-Wilson said. “I really liked knowing that I was applying that knowledge.”

In 2016, she talked to a friend, Eli Hernandez, about pursuing a doctorate. They encouraged each other to enroll in a program at St. John Fisher University. After defending her dissertation in 2020, she earned her Doctor of Education in executive leadership.

Her passion for education led to two opportunities. She became a professor at Cayuga Community College and decided to run for the Auburn school board in 2017. She won and was reelected to a second term in 2020.

Before running for the school board, Overstreet-Wilson said she had conversations with Hernandez, a longtime board member, and Auburn Superintendent Jeff Pirozzolo.

“I wasn’t sure this was the path,” she admitted. “I feel like all the support and the faith pushed me into early politics that way.”

What she did not see, she said, was running for City Council.

2023There were two open City Council seats this year, with incumbents Jimmy Giannettino and Tim Locastro not seeking reelection. Giannettino successfully ran for mayor, while Locastro will bow out of city government when his term expires in December.

Overstreet-Wilson, a Democrat, announced in December that she would run for City Council. The decision was the product of discussions she had with friends, namely Cayuga County Legislator Brian Muldrow, and a well-timed sermon.

Muldrow encouraged Overstreet-Wilson to run for higher office two years ago. At the time she was satisfied with serving on local boards. But when she decided not to seek a third term on the school board, she thought of other ways she could continue to be an advocate in her community.

Her initial thought was to join more boards, but Muldrow said she should run for City Council.

“I wasn’t sure that was the way I was supposed to advocate,” Overstreet-Wilson said.

And then she went to church. Her pastor delivered a sermon encouraging congregants to “make sure you are standing in your truth.” The message resonated with Overstreet-Wilson, who realized there was “something else I’m supposed to be doing.”

She discussed it with her family and friends, then declared her candidacy for City Council.

Rhoda Overstreet-Wilson celebrates her election to Auburn City Council by hugging friend Melody Smith Johnson at the county Democratic Committee’s watch party at the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Auburn.

David Wilcox, The CitizenElection night The Cayuga County Democratic Committee held its election night watch party Nov. 7 at Ancient Order of Hibernians. Overstreet-Wilson and her family sat near the front of the room awaiting the results.

Months of work led to this moment. Overstreet-Wilson said she had to get “buy-in” from her husband, Roy, and their children. She also wanted to ensure there were people who could take on her board duties while she campaigned for City Council. She knocked on doors and talked to voters. She followed guidance from her campaign manager, Bruce MacBain, and party leaders, including Cayuga County Democratic Chairwoman Dia Carabajal.

Overstreet-Wilson received 2,566 votes to win one of two City Council seats — Christina Calarco, a county legislator, won the other. They will join another councilor, Ginny Kent, in forming Auburn’s first majority-women City Council.

“When it all came together and every part of the plan worked out, that is when you realize it took a village to get you here,” Overstreet-Wilson said. “It wasn’t just one piece. It wasn’t me and my kids. It took an actual village and then I knew for certain there were tons of people that were behind me that had my back.”

Reflecting on her history-making victory more than two weeks later, Overstreet-Wilson said it makes her emotional. She again credited those around her who have provided support throughout her life. She also thanked voters who may not know her, but believed in her to represent them on the City Council.

As she prepares to serve as a city councilor, she is motivated to make the most of her role as a trailblazer in Auburn.

Ann Bunker, who died shortly before Election Day, was the first woman to serve as an Auburn city councilor. She inspired other women to run for city office.

Overstreet-Wilson hopes to inspire other Black women and girls to run for office in the future. She wants them to see that a young girl who grew up in poverty on the city’s west end can be a city councilor someday.

“It makes me want to be the best version of me,” she said.