Richard Hackett
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For the North Carolina congressman, see Richard N. Hackett.
Richard C. (Dick) Hackett (born circa 1949) was the mayor of Memphis, Tennessee for slightly over two terms, from 1982 until 1991. As of 2008, he is the last white Euro-American to hold that office, having been defeated by the city's first-ever elected African-American mayor, Dr. W. W. Herenton, by less than 200 votes out of thousands cast. Mayor Hackett was urged to challenge the 1991 election results but declined to do so, given the emotional and racially-sensitive environment of Memphis.
Much like his predecessors Henry Loeb and J. Wyeth Chandler, Hackett's primary base of support was Memphis' conservative white voters. However, he made a far greater effort to work together with African-American leaders than either Loeb or Chandler, the resulting cooperation allowing the city to begin recuperating from the economic and social upheavals left by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in April 1968. Tourism, business growth and non-profit institutional development were Hackett's main priorities as mayor.
However, over the years, after failed attempts to get behind a single candidate, local black leaders, who had managed over a 20-year period to make substantial inroads into state and local offices (especially members of the politically astute and controversial Ford family), found their champion in Herenton, who had served as the city's school superintendent since 1979. In a race that often degenerated into a regression of the racial animosities that marked local politics two decades earlier, Herenton edged out a razor-thin victory, due in no small part to the continuing exodus of whites from the city to nearby suburbs in Shelby County and Mississippi - the "white flight" phenomenon that had tilted the city's black population into the majority of the voting population for the first time. Since that time, the proportion of African-American voters has continued to increase.
Hackett left public office after the defeat and worked for several non-profit agencies over the next 15 years. In July 2006, he became the CEO/director of the Children's Museum of Memphis. Hackett graduated from the University of Memphis, then known as Memphis State University.
