Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
news.wjct.org/show/first-coast-connect/2026-06-29/on-tuesdays-show-wild-ideas-on-cumberland-island
In the 460 years since it was established, the city of St. Augustine has had just a handful of Black lawmakers. Before Commissioner Cynthia Garris took office in 2022, there were just three: Commissioner and Vice Mayor Errol Jones (who served from 2002-’12), Commissioner and Vice Mayor Henry Twine (who served from 1983-’92) and Alderman John Papino (who served during Reconstruction before being shot in the face by a white marshal in 1902). Coupled with the city’s tortured civil rights protest era, during which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called the city the “most lawless” he’d encountered, the historic paucity of Black leadership makes the recent election of a Black woman mayor a momentous occasion in the Ancient City. We sit down with the mayor-elect to discuss its significance, as well as what mark she hopes to leave during her term in office.
Guest: Cynthia Garris, mayor-elect, city of St. Augustine
news.wjct.org/show/first-coast-connect/2026-06-29/on-tuesdays-show-wild-ideas-on-cumberland-island
In the 460 years since it was established, the city of St. Augustine has had just a handful of Black lawmakers. Before Commissioner Cynthia Garris took office in 2022, there were just three: Commissioner and Vice Mayor Errol Jones (who served from 2002-’12), Commissioner and Vice Mayor Henry Twine (who served from 1983-’92) and Alderman John Papino (who served during Reconstruction before being shot in the face by a white marshal in 1902). Coupled with the city’s tortured civil rights protest era, during which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called the city the “most lawless” he’d encountered, the historic paucity of Black leadership makes the recent election of a Black woman mayor a momentous occasion in the Ancient City. We sit down with the mayor-elect to discuss its significance, as well as what mark she hopes to leave during her term in office.
Guest: Cynthia Garris, mayor-elect, city of St. Augustine
