Former Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton to be honored with bronze bust at Minneapolis City Hall

Sharon Sayles Belton, the first woman and first black mayor of Minneapolis, will be honored with a bronze bust at City Hall that will be unveiled Tuesday, May 16.

A volunteer group of former colleagues, community leaders and friends has been raising money since 2016 to honor Sayles Belton, who was mayor from 1994 to 2001, a time of downtown development and rising population in Minneapolis for the first time since the 1940s.

The sculptor is Ed Dwight, a Denver artist who's also made statues of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Hank Aaron and Frederick Douglass.

Two former City Council members have busts in City Hall — Van White and Brian Coyle. Theirs and Sayles Belton's will be displayed in the hall outside the City Council offices on the third floor. Former Minneapolis Mayor Hubert H. Humphrey is honored with a bronze statue outside City Hall.

Sayles Belton, who is now a vice president for community relations and government affairs at Thomson Reuters, was a City Council member from the Eighth Ward for 10 years before she was elected to be mayor. She was defeated in the 2001 election by R.T. Rybak.

"Sharon was a transformational leader at an important point in our city's history," said Reatha Clark King, co-chair of the steering committee that is organizing the private fundraising effort. "Not only was she the first woman, and first African-American mayor of Minneapolis, but many positive milestones occurred in Minneapolis while she was the city's leader."

The group has raised about half of the $100,000 needed to pay for the bust, install it and help sponsor a seminar in the fall. People who wish to contribute can go to www.minneapolisfoundation.org, click "Contribute to a Fund," and search for the Sharon Sayles Belton tribute.

Adam Belz • 612-673-4405

Twitter: @adambelz