Leslyn McBean-Clairborne: Social Justice and Community Leadership
Helena Brittain
I had the opportunity to speak with Leslyn McBean-Clairborne, who is the executive director of the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC) and the Chairwoman of the Tompkins county legislature. As Cornell students, we spend years living in and interacting with the Ithaca community. However, it often feels distant and many of us fail to become engaged beyond campus life. I wanted to take this opportunity to shed light on the local community and the leaders and institutions that this town relies on. I also wanted to explore the importance of local and community-based leadership and how it intersects with larger social justice movements.
Chairwoman McBean-Clairborne immigrated to the U.S. from Guyana and has spent the past 25 years in Ithaca. She spoke about her rich history with GIAC, demonstrating her dedication to this community and her selfless leadership style. She began her GIAC career as a camp counselor and has ascended to becoming the leader of this organization. She emphasized that this was never her intention, but rather her career path has been mandated by the needs of her community. Chairwoman McBean-Clairborne demonstrated the importance of GIAC within her community, discussing the challenges that Covid-19 has presented and the extent to which community members rely on GIAC for childcare and other essential services. She also discussed the ways in which GIAC attends to the needs of the community, saying “we have our ears to the ground,” and explaining how GIAC has adapted to the pandemic and catered to the diverse needs of the community. Chairwoman McBean-Clairborne’s work at GIAC demonstrates the vital role of community organizations and their unique advantages and challenges. GIAC does not have the resources of a larger organization, but it has incredibly dedicated staff and close relationships within the community, which allow it to more effectively hear and address community needs.
Chairwoman McBean-Clairborne also helped me to situate GIAC within a larger social justice context. She discussed GIAC’s values, stating that diversity, equity, and inclusion are always at the heart of every GIAC program. GIAC also promotes equity within the community more broadly, by addressing sources of racial and class inequity, including food insecurity and children’s reading levels. GIAC also engages more directly with social justice movements, by providing a site for community organizing and productive dialogue. Chairwoman McBean-Clairborne emphasized the importance of this function, by referencing the role of churches and other community spaces in the civil rights movement. To her, GIAC not only provides support for the community, but is also a site for building coalition and taking action.
Leslyn McBean-Clairborne has also served on the Tompkins county legislature for the past 19 years, becoming the body’s first Black chairwoman earlier this year. She discussed her decision to enter into politics. Once again, she emphasized that it was less of a decision, and more of a means of addressing the needs of others. She discussed the challenges that this job has presented, including managing multiple jobs and family responsibilities, feeling isolated and marginalized, and being used as a token, being one of few people of color on the legislature. However, Chairwoman McBean-Clairborne portrays a very optimistic view of her political career, demonstrating persistence, passion, and growing confidence. She recalled being known as “one-issue-Leslyn,” because of her continual commitment to diversity and inclusion. However, she rejoiced over her successes that she achieved in these areas, by refusing to back down. She discussed the increasing diversity of the legislature, the success of her committee on workplace diversity and inclusion, the implementation of a workplace climate survey, and the hiring of a diversity and inclusion officer. Chairwoman McBean-Clairborne’s experiences speak to the hurdles that minorities face in political leadership and the amount of work that it takes for a Black woman to reach her level of accomplishment within a white and male dominated space. However, she illustrates the positive impacts of addressing diversity on a local scale and how much progress individuals and communities can accomplish, through dedication to their causes. Chairwoman McBean-Clairborne spoke about being the first Black chairwoman, saying that it was not her goal to make history, but the significance of this moment “was not lost on me.”
Leslyn McBean-Clairborne represents the best in politicians, because her motivation and passion truly lie in meeting the needs of others and she centers justice in everything that she does. The impacts of her leadership can be seen in the community relationships that GIAC has built and its integral role in so many community members’ lives, as well as progress that the Tompkins County Legislature has seen under her tenure. Chairwoman McBean-Clairborne demonstrates the need for Black women leaders, and she urged other Black women to follow in her footsteps, saying “claim your space.” I hope that Leslyn McBean-Clairborne will inspire others to adopt her compassionate and selfless leadership style and continue to demonstrate the importance and impact of Black women’s leadership
Works Cited
Butler, Matt. “Leslyn McBean-Clairborne Chosen to Lead Tompkins County Legislature.” Ithaca.com, 20 Feb. 2020, www.ithaca.com/news/tompkins_county/leslyn-mcbean-clairborne-chosen-to-lead-tompkins-county-legislature/article_14829f2e-5410-11ea-8dd9-4f2cd4dc8513.html.
“Greater Ithaca Activities Center.” Greater Ithaca Activities Center | Ithaca, NY – Official Website, www.cityofithaca.org/327/Greater-Ithaca-Activities-Center.
James, Daniel. “God, Guyana, Girl: The Burden and Blessing of Being First.” Black Voices on the Hill, 27 Oct. 2020, black-voices-on-the-hill.simplecast.com/episodes/ep-7-leslyn-mcbean-clairborne-god-guyana-girl-the-burden-and-blessing-of-being-first.
Pudney, Thomas Giery. “Leslyn McBean-Clairborne Selected as Chair of the Tompkins Legislature.” The Ithaca Voice, The Ithaca Voice, 20 Feb. 2020, ithacavoice.com/2020/02/leslyn-mcbean-clairborne-selected-at-chair-of-the-tompkins-legislature/.
“Workforce Diversity and Inclusion – Chair.” Tompkins County NY, Tompkins County, 2010, tompkinscountyny.gov/workforcedi/mcbean-clairborne.
Yoon, John. “Tompkins County Legislature Makes History, Elects First Black Chairwoman.” The Cornell Daily Sun, 26 Feb. 2020, cornellsun.com/2020/02/26/tompkins-county-legislature-makes-history-elects-first-black-chairwoman/.
The music for this podcast it titled “Thinking Free,” by Ketsa. It was accessed through Creative Commons and is being used under the following licensing agreement:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode
Cover image:
http://tompkins.staging.communityq.com/stories/legislature-chooses-first-woman-of-color-leader,3575