(serene music) - She is a product of Atlanta.

Keisha Lance Bottoms, Atlanta's 60th mayor and just the second black woman ever elected to lead the city.

The expectation is always, Atlanta mayors serve two terms.

Not this time.

A special WABE interview with Keisha Lance Bottoms.

(serene music) Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, thank you for taking the time.

- Thank you for having me here.

This is a different place for us.

- It beats the studio, right?

- Oh, well, yeah, I think it does.

You have a pretty nice studio, though.

- Yes, we do.

And it's air conditioned.

- Yes.

- Let's go back to December 6th, a little bit after midnight, 2017.

You along with your family and supporters.

And you talk a lot about Atlanta.

We did it, Atlanta.

I love Atlanta.

- Yeah.

- When you think back to that night and what you had accomplished, what goes through your mind?

- Gosh, that seems like a lifetime ago.

It was an out-of-body experience that night.

I remember standing on stage and thinking I'd never had that feeling before.

I felt like I was floating above the people.

It was very surreal.

And I didn't know what was next.

It was such a long, difficult, ugly race, that I didn't even think about a transition.

All I could think about was winning.

Things just happened so quickly.

The runoff was only about two and a half weeks before I was sworn in.

And I remember even being inside city hall, working on the transition and someone saying, oh, by the way, you gotta plan an inauguration.

- Yeah.

- And I went, what (chuckling)?

I gotta do what?

That first year, in so many ways, is a blur.

Because in addition to that, you're trying to transition a government and you're trying to make sure you have the right leaders in place and-- - Did you have the right leaders in place?

Or, at the time, you thought you had the right leaders in place?

- I did when I walked in the door because I worked with so many of these people during my eight years on city council.

But every leader has a different style.

And I don't think my style could be any different than my predecessor's style.

It's a complete 180.

- As you move people, did you have conversations?

'Cause I imagine some of these folks you had a friendship with, too.

- Yeah, it was really tough.

Nobody really knows if you can run anything.

And the vast majority of elected officials haven't run large organizations.

I'm a lawyer by trade.

Barack Obama is a lawyer.

So lawyers often work by themselves.

And we close the door and we open up books.

And so we, a lot of attorneys like myself, we are more introverted.

We mask as extroverts, but we're more introverted.

But when you're running an organization, it's a skillset.

- Did you seek advice about what this job of being Mayor of Atlanta was going to be like from former mayors?

Mayor Franklin, I know you have a very good relationship with Ambassador Young, your predecessor.

- Yeah, but it's, so the short answer-- - Is that a no-no?

Is that something that incoming mayors don't do?

- The short answer's yes.

I talked to every living, former mayor.

But the thing, again, that's interesting, for as much as I think that I know, in four years, in eight years, everything will change about our lives.

So even in talking to other mayors, things change significantly.

If you go back to 2010, when I ran for office for city council, or '09, social media wasn't even that big.

And now, social media dominates so much of our discussions and how we get information.

So things change quickly.

Putting the job into context was extremely helpful and continues to be helpful.

Talking with people, not just in Atlanta, but across the country who've done it.

But it still takes assessing where you are here and now.

So you take the last year, for example.

There's nobody who can talk to you about-- - There's no handbook for a pandemic.

- No handbook for a pandemic, no handbook for a social justice movement.

- How would you assess your relationship with city council?

You were a former council member.

So you know what that pull and tug is like with the mayor.

It's contentious at times in the public.

- [Mayor Bottoms] This is a different city council.

- Well, the Gulch, for example.

- The Gulch is a great example.

- And I remember watching a city council meeting where you came in and you went one by one and you laid out what you had done for each city council member.

And you wanted them to vote yes for the Gulch.

And you got push back.

- Yeah, and you know what was interesting about that?

Hmm, I remember that.

That's interesting that you remember that.

Some of the biggest lessons I've learned about leadership came during that process.

One, I realized that council never knew what it felt like not to have the support of the mayor.

Because it needs to be a mutually-beneficial relationship.

And I came in immediately trying to press reset because there were so many erroneous assumptions about even how I came to be mayor and-- - Like, wait, wait, hold on, like what erroneous assumptions about how you came to be mayor?

- I think there were some people who thought maybe I was made out of a kit in a basement somewhere.

That I didn't have a brain.

And that somewhere, somehow, I remember I was doing a lot of policy.

And it was policy that I was coming up with.

And someone asking someone, who's coming up with all her stuff?

And then saying, well, you know, they've got so-and-so working on her stuff.

And that's nothing new, even when I ran for mayor.

People assume, I don't know if it's sexism.

I don't know what it is.

That you really can't be smart, can you?

Has to be somebody else who's smart.

- Was that somebody else Kasim Reed?

Did they?

- In some instances, yeah.

- How did you handle that?

- Well, it ticked me off.

And I would say it in forums.

I said, he wasn't sitting next to me when I graduated from high school at 17, top 10% of my class.

He wasn't next to me when I graduated first in my class from the journalism school magna cum laude at 21.

He wasn't next to me when I passed the bar the first time at 24.

So why do you now think I can't think, or I don't think outside of him?

I mean, it infuriated me.

It was an insult to me, to my family, to all of the years that I have worked hard.

And I don't think it would have been done to a man.

- You have any regrets about your relationship with city council, any city council members?

- No.

So, well, I'll go back to what I was saying about the Gulch.

But just a couple of things that I learned.

We negotiated what I thought was the most spectacular, innovative deal.

Had never been done in the country, much less Atlanta.

And when I took it to council, I went like, here, here is an amazing deal.

And what I realized, I didn't give them any room for input.

Because I had negotiated all the way to the finish line.

And they didn't have a chance to put their imprint on it.

So that was a big lesson that you've gotta let other people feel like they are a part of it, too.

- I want to shift for a moment.

Eight-year-old Secoriea Turner.

You talked about black girl magic the night you were elected.

And you think about someone likes Secoriea Turner who will never get to experience what that could be.

- And I think about Kennedy Maxie, I think about Diamond Johnson.

It hurts, yeah.

- Black girls taken by violence, by guns.

And this crime wave, this crime spike that Atlanta is experiencing.

And so much of it being targeted at you.

What are you gonna do about it?

You're not doing anything about it.

You've always talked about as a mother of black boys.

- Yeah.

I have a daughter.

- You have a daughter.

Was that criticism unfair in terms of the crime spiral?

- It's understandable.

Fairness, it comes with the territory.

It's understandable.

I'd say is, if I could stop it, do you not think that I would?

I have four children, three boys, one girl.

And when my 19-year-old son walks out the door, I plead the blood of Jesus over him.

'Cause I have an 18-year-old nephew who walked out the door and didn't make it back home.

And what I say to so many people who are outraged about crime, whether it's in Buckhead.

Do you not think we care about crime in Southwest Atlanta?

So whether I am mayor, I will always care about safety in this city.

And if I could stop it, I would.

And I am doing every single thing that I know to do.

Our police department's doing everything that they know to do.

It's the reason I brought in this advisory committee.

Like, okay, are we so far into this, are we so far into the weeds of this crime fighting that we can't see what else needs to be done?

- You talked about the fact that the nation's gun laws, you thought, were problematic.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp called that ridiculous.

Some said, is this just an excuse or is it a reasonable explanation?

- I think there's so many things playing into violence.

I think our nation's gun laws are a part of it.

I think people are emerging from COVID, not just physically battered and bruised, but mentally and emotionally battered and bruise.

Especially people of color, COVID damaged in so many ways, anyway, - Everything that we've talked about so far, everything that you experienced in those first few years leading up to now, did this affect your mental health at all?

- Oh, well, it definitely did.

Oh, definitely.

There were times where I got very low.

- At this point then, are we on this path of you thinking about maybe I don't want to return for another term?

- I, in my heart, and I can't tell you what I felt.

My first year, I didn't think I would run again.

- Why?

- I don't know why.

- There has to be.

There's nothing that happened?

- It was not a moment.

It was, I just didn't.

And I thought, well, this is an odd feeling.

- Did you tell anybody?

- I'm sure I said it to my husband.

- Year one, you're already thinking about maybe not a second term?

- Yeah, and I thought I was crazy for feeling that way.

- You said in your press conference, your love for this city was planted well before you even formed in the womb of your mother.

You love the city.

- I do.

- You've always said that.

You always talk about the S.W.A.T.S.

Do you feel like you're abandoning this city by not seeking another term?

- That's what made me not say it sooner.

I remember someone on my team saying, I don't see that fire in you that I saw when you ran the last time.

Where is it?

But all these things you just talked about.

Am I letting the city down?

How will people feel?

Will they think that I quit?

All these things.

And there was not a single moment.

So there was that, too.

Who doesn't run for Mayor of Atlanta again?

- Of Atlanta?

- Everybody wants to be the mayor.

Every black child in Atlanta growing up wants to be the mayor.

Who gets the job and then says, I'm not doing it again?

- You did.

So we've talked a lot about this journey to being mayor.

But now, we're gonna go back and look at some of your roots here.

We're gonna hit a side of town that you should know very well.

- Yeah.

- You excited about that?

- I am.

I've got a couple of sides of town that I need to show you.

Give you my Atlanta tour.

- [Rose] All right, let's go.

(serene music) After leaving the Cascade Springs Nature Preserve, we head to the Southwest Atlanta neighborhood where Mayor Bottoms spent time growing up.

She still lives nearby.

As we drive through the neighborhood that's changing, like so many historic Atlanta communities, we arrive at a familiar place.

The house her grandparents built in 1953.

- No matter what was going on, no matter what instability or uncertainty, this was-- - This was it.

- This is the physical place that everything was okay.

- You talk about your grandparents a lot.

How much of what they went through, and your great grandparents, how much of that runs in you, in terms of perseverance and grit, especially during your political career?

- I mean, it runs through my veins.

I feel them when I stand here.

And it actually makes me a little emotional.

My grandmother dropped out of high school in the 11th grade to care for her sick sister because that's the type of person she was.

And my grandfather, I don't even think finished eighth grade.

And they just work so hard.

I was laughing with a friend recently.

And she was talking about how her grandmother would take food to everybody.

And I said, cause that was before black people called it community service.

When it was just what we did.

So my grandmother cared for everybody.

And I never knew them not to have.

Every week, we would come over here.

It was like the movie Soul Food for Sunday dinner.

My grandma made dinner before, well, she went grocery shopping to pick up various items.

My granddaddy would go and get her the rest of her things on Saturday.

She would either pick her collards.

You don't know anything about that.

- I know about picking collards and snapping peas.

- And snapping peas.

Depending on what we were gonna have.

On Saturday night, while she talked on the telephone to her church members, her choir members.

And on Sunday morning, she would make a full breakfast and dinner was done before we went to church.

So we get home from church.

She'd just turn it on, heat it back up.

And everybody would just come through here, anytime on Sunday, and it seemed as if the food never ran out.

Right here, this was a peach tree.

And my grandmother loved peaches.

- During this time and during those tough times, and those challenging times as mayor, who's your inner circle?

Who do you talk to?

Who do you go to to either yell, or scream, or vent?

- Well, my husband gets it all day every day.

So that helps a lot.

And then, I'm really fortunate that I have a really good group of friends.

- Are they honest with you in terms of when maybe they don't agree?

And I'm gonna step outside of the protocol.

And they say, Keisha, now, you know.

- The short answer is yes.

But my truth-teller also, I have truth-tellers in my family.

- Who are the truth-tellers?

- All of them.

I come from a very opinionated group of people who don't hide.

And I'd say, if you want me to know something, tell my mama.

- Can you tell me one of those times when they told you something that you didn't want to hear?

- Oh gosh, I can think of many times.

Rodney Bryant tells me things I don't wanna hear a lot.

- The Police Chief?

- Police Chief.

I am sure there are multiple things.

- How do you deal with criticism?

- With criticism?

That doesn't bother me.

Well, let me not be, let me not not tell the truth on that.

I can't say it doesn't bother me, but I can take it.

But when it gets too toxic for me, I know how to turn it off.

One critique that I've heard, I don't communicate with people.

I communicate with a lot of people.

I don't communicate with people who I think are liars and mean me harm (chuckling).

I may not communicate with them.

I try and really look inward.

I know my flaws better than anybody.

And there are flaws that I don't like about myself.

And I wish-- - Like what?

- When I am hurt by someone, not when someone says something bad, when someone I care about hurts me, I will shut them off.

- You hold grudges?

- I remember, I remember.

I won't say I, is that a grudge?

I forgive, but I remember.

- Do you apologize when you are wrong or have been wrong?

- I try, when I think that I was wrong, yeah (laughing).

When I believe that I was wrong, yes.

- In these next seven months that are left in your term, relief, some regret, a little bit of both?

- Relief.

Relief that I have done the best that I could do.

And relief that I'm walking out with my head held high.

And that I am leaving on my terms.

And everybody doesn't get to do that.

And I'm grateful for that.

And I articulated this at the press conference.

Voters get to decide every four years.

People don't often think about a candidate's decision every four years.

And I've never been ordinary, ever.

- When we started this conversation and we talked about the black girl magic and the reference that you made on election night.

Is that black girl magic still there for you and whatever your next chapter's gonna be?

- Oh, the magic never goes away, Rose.

It's who we are.

It never goes away.

- Do you think about your legacy?

- I really don't.

To the extent that I think about it, it is in a context of, will anyone remember a mayor who was there for four years?

But we all have a finite amount of time on earth.

So I think about it in that way.

I'm like, well, when you are mayor four years, will anybody remember that?

But that's not enough to make me stay for eight, so somebody will remember my name.

But I love this city.

And it really has been such an extraordinary honor to be the mayor of this city.

- Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Madam Mayor, thank you so much for spending this time with us.

- Thank you, Rose.

I'm gonna have to take you around the real Atlanta.

You only know the shiny parts of the city.

Let me show you some places.

- You gonna cook?

You gonna cook some macaroni and cheese?

- Oh, absolutely.

You just stir it up.

It's gonna be real good.

(both laughing) (serene music)