In a moment filled with joy and purpose, Waco native Monroe Nichols stood before a crowd of supporters, family and friends last week to celebrate his victory as Tulsa’s 41st mayor.

Nichols, 41, will be sworn in on Dec. 2 as the first-ever Black mayor in the city's 126-year history.

For Nichols, who grew up in Waco and later built a career of public service in Oklahoma, this achievement is deeply rooted in his experiences back home.

Nichols described that moment with his family, some who had traveled from Waco, as surreal.

Monroe Nichols enters to speak at his watch party at the Greenwood Cultural Center on Nov. 5, 2024, in Tulsa, Ok.

“That part of it was phenomenal, but you very quickly turn your attention to the fact that you have a whole bunch of work to do,” he said.

Nichols is no stranger to hard work or public service. After graduating from Reicher Catholic High School in 2022, where he excelled as a do-it-all quarterback, he went on to the University of Tulsa with plans to make an impact.

His first job out of college was in the office of Mayor Kathy Taylor, making this election a full-circle moment for the new mayor-elect. Nichols said his eight years of experience in the Oklahoma House of Representatives starting in 2016 have also prepared him well for the uniqueness of executive office.

He said the strong-mayor system in his city of some 412,000 residents requires a mix of leadership and collaboration. Unlike most Texas cities, in which the mayor leads a council which in turn delegates day-to-day operations to a city manager, Tulsa's mayor is the chief administrator and manages the city.

Nichols said his leadership abilities were cultivated early on in Waco, where community values and strong family ties shaped him.

“I’ve always been very appreciative of where I came from,” Nichols said. “There’s so many people in Waco who poured into me in a lot of different ways. Waco as a city is where I learned to play sports and learned how to serve people."

Among those in attendance for his victory celebration was Nichols’ cousin, William Cartwright IV, head boys basketball coach at La Vega High School.

Mayor-elect Monroe Nichols speaks to supporters at his watch party at the Greenwood Cultural Center on Nov. 5 in Tulsa, Ok.

Cartwright, 36, said Nichols has long been a role model.

“He’s a big reason as to why I’m the man I am today,” he said of his cousin.

Cartwright said he and Nichols and other cousins grew up in a tight-knit family. They spent hours playing sports and video games together.

Cartwright added they used to poke fun at Nichols for boasting that he would become the first Black president of the United States, long before Barack Obama won the White House in 2008.

Cartwright said Nichols' victory backs up those long-ago ambitions that at the time seemed wishful thinking.

“He’s a walking example for any kid in the city of Waco or Tulsa, Oklahoma,” Cartwright said. “He defeated the odds of something that people said would never be done.”

Nichols’ path to the mayor’s office was far from a shoe-in. After running in a seven-way mayoral race Aug. 27, he clinched the title in last week's runoff election, winning 55.6% of the vote against well-known county commissioner Karen Keith.

Nichols is not the first Black person to hold a citywide elected office in Tulsa.

Under the old city commission form of government in 1979, then-Mayor Jim Inhofe chose Ronald Young to fill the vacant city finance commissioner position. Young went on to win the elected office in 1980 and 1982.

Then, when Tulsans voted in 1989 to change the city charter to a strong mayor-council form of government, the first class of city council members elected the next year included two Black residents, Dorothy DeWitty and the Rev. B.S. Roberts.

However, Nichols found success where other Black candidates have struggled, as when Greg Robinson lost in a landslide to Mayor G.T. Bynum four years ago.

Nichols' win is all the more remarkable in that he now heads a city long known for one of the nation's worst episodes of racial violence.

On June 1, 1921, the Tulsa Race Massacre reduced to ashes 35 blocks of the Greenwood District, known locally as "Black Wall Street" for its residents' prosperity. The violence, instigated by whites over rumors of an incident between a white woman and Black man, resulted in 36 documented deaths, historians believe as many as 300 may have died, according to the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum.

Hundreds of Black people were injured, thousands were left homeless, and 6,000 were detained by white authorities over the course of a week, according to the museum.

Today, Black residents account for 15% of the city’s population, according to the Census Bureau.

Before the election, Nichols did not make race a talking point, but he told the Tulsa World that if he was elected, "there's a lot of folks who are going to feel like they are more reflected in city government."

"But I think in the big picture, given the history of Tulsa, whether it be the legacy of the Greenwood District or some of the great Tulsans that have come out of this community who are contributing in a number of ways, the fact that this evening we could elect a Black person of color to be mayor, I think it’s a good sign that Tulsa is moving in a direction that’s really embracing that in ways which we haven’t done in a long time," he told the Tulsa paper.

Nichols told the Tribune-Herald that he is a true Oklahoman and Tulsan but that Waco, his birthplace, will always tug at his heartstrings.

“Waco is a place I’ll always think about because I think about the people, and I’m always excited to get back to it,” Nichols said. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without Waco, Texas.”

Nichols said his vision for Tulsa includes building a city government that values its employees, to tackle issues such as homelessness, and to make Tulsa “the safest big city in the country.”

Mayor-elect Monroe Nichols speaks during a press conference on the mayoral transition at City Hall on Thursday in Tulsa, Okla.