The ballroom at Sierra Health Foundation filled quickly Monday evening as roughly 100 government employees, advocates, nonprofit leaders, clergy members and business executives gathered to welcome Maraskeshia Smith, the first Black woman to serve as Sacramento’s city manager.
The reception, hosted by Sierra Health Foundation, was celebratory but reverent and long overdue.
When Smith rose to speak, the room grew still.
For many in attendance, her appointment signals the possibility that Black Sacramento, a community that leaders say has long been excluded from the full benefits of local government, may finally have consistent access and visibility inside City Hall.
Chet Hewitt, president and CEO of Sierra Health Foundation, set the tone for the evening.
“We have been waiting — waiting for her to show up,” he said.
Hewitt said he has followed Smith’s public remarks closely and was encouraged by her emphasis on compassion, accessibility and championing communities that have been left behind.
In Sacramento, he noted, homelessness continues to disproportionately affect older Black residents, particularly those over 59. It’s a trend that threatens generational stability in families that often rely on elders as anchors, Hewitt said.
Hewitt said he is choosing hope over fear in a time of civic uncertainty and division.
Sacramento’s city manager oversees roughly 6,000 employees and a $1.6 billion municipal operation. Hewitt described the role as both technical and deeply human, and that Smith “has the big heart to fill it.”
Cassandra Jennings, CEO of St. HOPE, said the optimism in the room was unmistakable.
“There’s hope in this room,” Jennings said. “There’s the community’s love to support her.”
She acknowledged the magnitude of the job but described Smith’s appointment as a calling.
Jennings said representation matters — not symbolically, but practically.
“When administrations have people from their community who understand and recognize their community, then they are open to it,” she said. “The community’s not going to be forgotten.”
For Jennings, the most important quality Smith brings is accessibility: “An open door, a conversation, a discussion, back and forth,” she said.
“She’ll understand because she is a woman that has lived in the same skin that we have,” Jennings added.
When Smith addressed the crowd, she spoke candidly about being labeled “the first” throughout her career.
“There’s a lot of headlines about the first Black city manager,” she said. “And I’ve been the first in every position.”
She admitted that in previous roles she sometimes felt pressure to mask parts of herself amid national debates about diversity, equity and inclusion.
“But this is the first time that I have not masked being the first,” she said.
Smith described recently challenging her peers at a conference of city managers, asking what they were doing in their own communities to elevate people who look like her.
Then she recited lines from Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise,” a poem she first performed at age 12.
“You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies,” she said. “But still, I rise.”
“And today, I realized those were not words. They were instructions.”
Smith said she felt the city’s prayers when she first arrived and described the welcome as overwhelming.
“This was not on my bingo card,” she said, drawing soft laughter from the crowd.
Still, she was clear-eyed about what lies ahead.
“I know it’s not going to be easy,” she said. “I’m going to need everybody in this room.”
She spoke of mountains to climb and hard days to come, recalling moments in her first 30 days when the weight of the job felt heavy.
“I expect to be brave here in the city,” she said. “But I cannot do it by myself.”
There was focus and collective attentiveness in the room that signaled how seriously the community is taking this moment.
For Black Sacramento, the appointment of its first Black city manager is not viewed as an endpoint. It is seen as an opening and a chance to be heard, to be included and to help shape the direction of a city that has not always extended its full promise to all of its residents.
As Smith closed by thanking the room for its “wonderful welcome,” the applause felt less like celebration alone and more like commitment.
The expectations are high. The challenges are real.
But in that room Monday night, hope was louder than doubt.