Sherry Harris’ Grassroots Appeal Galvanized a Community
Sherry Harris didn’t start out trying to make history.
Even so, it was almost inevitable. As a young girl, Sherry’s mother instilled in her daughter a deep understanding that the strength of a community relies on the strength of the individual. By letting every action reflect your beliefs, everyone can help make the world a better place.
Sherry became one of The Boeing Company’s first black woman engineers in 1978 when she arrived in Seattle from her hometown of Newark, N.J. Soon after settling in Sherry joined organizations seeking to build community and ensure civil rights for everyone. You could find her at the Maple Leaf Community Council, the Northwest Women’s Law Center, the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce (now the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce), the Greater Seattle Business Association, and serving on several city committees and commissions, eventually chairing the Seattle Women’s Commission.
“Sherry has a multi-modal mind,” explains Jean Houston, Sherry’s mentor and an internationally recognized author and lecturer on the human potential movement. “Sherry is one of the brightest people I know… She has many gifts, from her positive view of reality to her ability to make things work. She’s one of those extraordinary problem-solvers who works from inside out… She taps into her inner dimensions of intelligence and acumen and brings a much larger field of mind and spirit into everything she does.”
In 1991 Sherry decided the next natural step to continuing to help society progress was to run for Seattle City Council. Her campaign energized not only Seattle’s LGBT community, but LGBT Americans across the country, who were fighting hate crimes, workplace and social discrimination, and seeking equal rights to marry, adopt children and serve openly in the military. She was the first candidate endorsed by the National LGBTQ Victory Fund.
Sherry gets behind messages she believes in, and that main message is love — and what’s possible when we love ourselves.
Michelle Copeland
“Sherry’s election campaign was one of the biggest historical victories of that era,” recalls George Bakan, founder and editor of Seattle Gay News. “We had successfully defeated a repeal of the fair housing ordinance earlier. We did not have representation on the Seattle City. Sherry came along and had an amazing, diverse resume of experience working on social justice and civil rights issues across multiple communities — gay, African American, and women — as well as a leadership background in neighborhoods addressing land use, transportation and city planning issues.”
Her campaign galvanized the community into a classic grassroots effort: Hundreds of volunteers worked phone banks, stuffed envelopes, placed yard signs and knocked on doors, Bakan recalled. Sherry won 70 percent of the vote, defeating a 24-year incumbent.
“It was a significant achievement for our community,” Bakan said. “Sherry was the first African-American woman to be elected to the Seattle City Council, the first openly gay person to be elected to the council, and the first openly gay woman to be elected to a major public office in the country.”
She threw herself into the job, serving on committees focused on economic growth, transportation, housing, health and human services. She co-authored changes to city ordinances to guarantee women and minorities be awarded a percentage of city contracts. Nationally recognized as a trailblazer, she was in demand as a speaker and helped create the National League of Cities’ GLBT Local Officials caucus.
The keys to her success are a gentle spirit and thoughtfulness, said Leah Schulz, a longtime friend. They first met at the million-person strong 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation, where Sherry had the honor of being one of 10 people carrying the banner who led the march.
Sherry’s election campaign was one of the biggest historical victories of that era.
George Bakan,
founder and editor of Seattle Gay News.
“When you went to her events, you would see all the colors of the rainbow, gay, straight, white, brown, black. And, as a result, friendships were made, conversations were started, new hopes, dreams and bridges were built. Sherry helped us come together to see and learn more about what we have in common than what made us different,” Schulz said.
“Changing the world starts with having the courage to change yourself,” said Michelle Copeland of Nourish Your Soul TV. They first met at a screening of the film “Conversations With God,” a movie about the life story of Sherry’s friend and colleague Neale Donald Walsch, at Seattle Unity Church. “Our connection was that we shared a drive for being our best self, a conviction of the heart to our spiritual development, our spiritual awakening and paying it forward. That’s been the foundation of our friendship.”
In the years since she served on Seattle City Council, Sherry founded a company specializing in electrical and systems engineering. The firm’s ethos includes community service and has supported the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Women’s Transportation Seminar scholarship fund the Human Rights Campaign, the Aids Memorial Pathway and many other causes.
She also crisscrosses the country to give lectures and talks on consciousness as a political strategy, and her new book, “Politics As Unusual – Using The Laws Of Consciousness to Change The World From The Inside Out,” is to be published in 2019. The premise is that every human being has the capacity and the ability to contribute toward making a difference in the world. Working together, revolutionary changes can happen locally, nationally and globally.
“Sherry gets behind messages she believes in, and that main message is love — and what’s possible when we love ourselves,” Copeland said.