Mecklenburg commissioners name replacement for Scarborough seat. She’s a familiar face.
A familiar face will soon join the Board of County Commissioners as the interim replacement for commissioner Ella Scarborough.
The board unanimously selected Wilhelmenia Rembert, a former Mecklenburg County commissioner and school board member, on Tuesday night.
The board moved in February to find an interim replacement for Scarborough, who stopped attending meetings months ago and is now on medical leave. Her current condition is not publicly known.
Rembert, 70, will be sworn in March 22.
During her interview with the county commissioners, Rembert said she would recommend increasing funding for affordable housing. She said she also wants to focus on education and on closing the equity gap in the county.
Rembert told the Observer in an interview Tuesday that the lack of affordable housing is likely to worsen without significant action.
“That’s going to increase, which means we’re likely to see an increase in the number of persons experiencing homelessness in our community,” she said.
Who is new county comissioner?
Rembert grew up in Sumter, S.C., west of Columbia, where she attended the same high school as Scarborough.
She met her husband while attending Winthrop College (now Winthrop University) as he attended Johnson C. Smith University. She studied sociology and graduated in 1972.
During her final year she worked with Mecklenburg County as a library assistant, then got a job with the county’s Department of Social Services. She got her Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in childhood development and went on to work as a professor of social services at Winthrop University.
She entered politics in 1998, when she finished out an unexpired term on the school board. She ran and won an at-large seat on the school board in 1999, but lost in a reelection bid for a second term.
In 2004 she won an at-large seat on the Mecklenburg County Board of County Commissioners and served in that seat for two years. She lost her reelection campaign in 2006, and went on to serve on several non-profit boards and as a board of trustees member at Central Piedmont Community College.
Controversial vote
As a county commissioner, Rembert made controversial “yes” votes on resolutions in 2005 and 2006 to adopt a Confederate History Week. Six commissioners, including Rembert and former mayor Jennifer Roberts, voted “yes,” allowing it to pass. Of the three Black Democrats on the board at the time, she was the only to vote “yes.”
It did get some backlash at the time.
Then-commissioner Norman Mitchell, a Black Democrat, asked for a week remembering everyone who died in the Civil War, rather than a week focusing on the Confederacy, but that bid didn’t get enough support to move forward.
He pushed back on the Confederate History Week, saying in 2005: “I don’t know how you can separate the Confederacy and the Klan.”
Rembert looked back at the issue Tuesday and told the Observer that the idea was to provide “an opportunity for people to recognize, reflect on and remember a terrible period in our past.”
“It’s important for people to remember those things,” she said. “What we can do is to make sure that those harmful things don’t happen again in our future.”
The resolution said the week was meant to “gain a better understanding of the conflicting ideals and passions” that led to the war, and that “we should continue to move forward in our efforts to respect everyone’s heritage, values, and beliefs regardless of their race, ethnic background or whatever area of our nation they come from.”
Rembert said the framing of a Confederate History Week might be different today, but added that Charlotte and Mecklenburg County officials recognize events like Black History Month. The histories, though framed differently, are inherently tied together, she said.
“I really think the fact that this has come up really has nothing to do with my pursuing a temporary appointment on the county commission,” she said. “I think it has to do a lot with … someone’s perspective about me.”
This story was originally published March 15, 2022 at 9:00 PM.
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