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Born August 30, 1931, in Hartford, CT
Died November 22, 2018, in Waterbury, CT
Elected mayor of Hartford, the capital of Connecticut, in 1987, Carrie Perry was the first Black woman to serve as mayor of a major U.S. city. She was one of 57 Black women mayors holding office nationwide in 1988; this group comprises the Black Women Mayors’ Caucus of the National Conference of Black Mayors. A social worker and a group home leader for ten years, she served as a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1980 to 1987. In 2002, she became president of the Hartford chapter of the NAACP.