It was a bit shocking that Theresa “Momma Tee” Lassiter even agreed to talk to us, in light of what a hard time CL has historically given her in the past because of what seemed like a …dated?… attitude toward LGBTQ equality. Hell, she even showed up and was as kind to us as she was animatedly passionate about the issues (though toward the end she knew this would be a belly-of-the-beast-type situation).
Unlike the other mayoral candidates who agreed to meet with us that Thursday, Lassiter showed up sans handlers — and despite being overwhelmed with dealing with the aftermath of a loss of a friend.
Here are some of the more interesting moments from the hourlong meeting we had with her.
1) Small businesses in south St. Pete.
Lassiter, 62, grew up on the city’s south side, and she was full of anecdotes about what that part of town was like, how even as segregation and racial tension wore on (as they do to this day), local businesses thrived along the 22nd Street — and meant a ton to local families.
There was Geech’s (the barbecue joint) and Snow Peak Inn nearby; not to mention the Manhattan Casino, then a dance hall where, at a young age, she snuck in to scope out all the activity (the site most recently housed Sylvia’s and is slated to be home to a new Floribbean restaurant).
“I wasn’t allowed in,” she said of the Manhattan Casino, “but somehow I managed to sneak in through the pool room, to catch a glimpse.”
Many businesses went away, she said, when I-275 bisected the neighborhood in the 1970s.
“When the interstate came through, it wiped it out,” she said.
But one doesn’t have to go back four or five decades to recognize the important role small business owners play in building a community. Consider staff and management at Deuces BBQ, a restaurant on that strip that recently shuttered. She would ride by there, she said, and see workers there interacting with neighborhood children. Now, it’s going.
“It was more than just a business,” she said. “He was really trying to make himself part of the community and show the community he was there.”
2) About those comments.
In the mid-2000s, when now-St. Petersburg City Council Chair Darden Rice was running for council for the first time (to whom she referred Thursday as “the little white girl who’s running for the district”), local news outlets (including CL) reported that Lassiter asked Rice if she was a lesbian, then walked out when Rice said she was, asserting that “the devil is a liar.”
On Thursday, Lassiter insisted that she said “the devil is alive” and — unlike media reports suggest — she didn’t storm out, but simply walked out because she had her time at the mic and was going home.
Nonetheless, she said, her views — and her approach to politics — have changed.
“Because the person I am now is not the person I was when I came into the arena,” she said. “That person is dead. I’m a new creature. I belong to god.”
She added that she would march in the St. Pete Pride parade (less as an advocate than as a Christian evangelist) and that she would reach out to the LGBTQ community if elected, and wants to reach out to members of that community.
“I don’t have leprosy. I’m not an ogre,” she said.
3) On preemption.
The Florida Legislature’s habit of trying to block cities from making their own laws to protect the environment or workers’ rights — a process known as preemption — has not been much of a topic of interest this local election cycle despite its importance.
Lassiter gave something of a rambling response — talking about how “the mayor’s got to understand that he works for the people” before zeroing in on the legislature’s efforts to block cities’ abilities to pass a higher minimum wage or a local hiring ordinance.
“We need to go to Tallahassee by the busloads,” she said.
This article appears in Aug 24-31, 2017.
