The People’s Voice: Emilia Strong Sykes

Emilia Strong Sykes was at Akron City Council meetings when she was just a baby in the belly of her trailblazing mother, Barbara, who was the first Black woman on Akron City Council.

Growing up watching her mother and her father, Vernon, be politicians, both serving periods as an Ohio state

representative in the same seat, Emilia saw the effects of long hours and pressures of the public eye. So she thought politics weren’t the right fit for her. Instead, she was a gymnastics state champion and earned a law degree and a master’s degree in public health.

But when Vernon became term-limited in 2014, he asked Emilia to run for his seat. After seeing the other candidates and realizing she was the best fit, she couldn’t resist her call to service. At just 28, she was elected as a state representative, becoming the first Black woman under 30 to serve in the Ohio Legislature.

“I’m really grateful to this community. It raised me. It gave me confidence and strength,” says the now-37-year-old. “I felt like I owed it to the community to give back.”

Emilia has carved her own groundbreaking path. She was Ohio House Minority Leader, and this year she was sworn in as U.S. representative of Ohio’s 13th congressional district, which includes Akron and parts of Stark and Portage counties, becoming the first Black person to represent that district. She introduced her first piece of legislation, the bipartisan RAIL Act, which advocates for railroad safety, following the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment.

In between trips to Washington, D.C., Emilia lives in Akron and loves to talk to the neighbors she represents.

“Representation is a really significant part of young people being able to imagine themselves in different places. It also helps break down the stereotypes of who the world generally believes can be in positions of power. I told a group of high school-age girls about my experience with not being able to get into the Statehouse because I was told I didn’t look like a legislator.

That does not and should not stop you. It’s their problem that they can’t see the beauty, the grace, the grit, the tenacity, the strength inside you. Just keep going. Put your head up, shoulders back and just continue to be the wonderful person that you are.

You can’t help but think it’s truly incredible that I’m here and the sacrifice people who look like me have made for me to be in a position like this and be an advocate for all people.

Wherever I can help level the playing field, I’m absolutely willing to do it because it really changes the quality of life, the character of the community and the ability for folks to live their American dream.

Akron has such an interesting group of really dedicated folks who work hard, who care about themselves and others. It is truly a blessing to be from Akron and be raised here.

I go to church in the neighborhood, I go to grocery stores, the nature trail. People stop me and tell me what they need.

I see the challenges from our communities, and I want to be a part of the solution.”

— as told to Kelly Petryszyn