Wilma Webb
{{Short description|American politician (born 1944)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Wilma Webb
| birth_place = Denver, Colorado, U.S.
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1944}}
| office = First Lady of Denver
| successor = Helen Thorpe
| term_start = July 15, 1991
| term_end = July 21, 2003
| predecessor = Ellen Hart Peña
| state_house1=Colorado
| state1=Colorado
| district1=8th
| term_start1= 1980
| image = Wilma Webb and Wellington Webb (cropped).JPG
| spouse = Wellington Webb (m. 1969)
| children = 4
}}
Wilma J. Webb (born 1944) is an American politician who was a member of the Colorado General Assembly from 1980 to 1993. A Democrat, she represented Denver County in the Colorado House of Representatives.{{cite web | url=http://www.strongsisters.org/women-who-served-in-the-colorado-house-of-representatives/ | title=Women who served in the Colorado House of Representatives | }} She sponsored dozens of bills including school reform and equality initiatives. She is best known for sponsoring legislation that adopted Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a Colorado state holiday before it became the federal Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, and for her efforts to educate the young about King's legacy.{{cite news |title=Shun violence, Wilma Webb pleads |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DP&p_theme=dp&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EAF43FF968FF3A0&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025082547/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DP&p_theme=dp&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EAF43FF968FF3A0&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 25, 2012 |newspaper=Denver Post |date=January 17, 1994 |access-date=May 1, 2011}}
- {{cite news|title=King Day came early for Wilma Webb|date=January 18, 1983|newspaper=Rocky Mountain News}}
Early life and education
Webb was born in Denver, Colorado, to Faye and Frank Gerdine. She attended the University of Colorado Denver without obtaining a degree.{{cite web |url=http://www.blackpast.org/aaw/webb-wilma-j-1943 |title=Wilma J. Webb (1943- ) |website=Black Past |date=July 23, 2007 |author=Yvonne Tollette Wallace}} As a state legislator, she attended the Harvard Kennedy School in 1988.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/honorable-wilma-j-webb|title=The Honorable Wilma J. Webb|website=The HistoryMakers|access-date=2020-02-05}}
Career
She married Wellington Webb in 1969. He later became the first African American mayor of Denver, in office from 1991 to 2003. She was the first First Lady of Denver to have held political office herself.{{cite news|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=RM&p_theme=rm&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB4D8858B877556&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120712174919/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=RM&p_theme=rm&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB4D8858B877556&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 12, 2012|title=Wilma Webb city's first First Lady with a resumé in politics|date=July 2, 1991|newspaper=Denver Post|access-date=May 1, 2011}}
During her time in the Colorado House of Representatives, she became the first African-American member of the legislature's Joint Budget Committee (the legislature's most powerful six-member committee), helping write the state's $4 billion budget in 1981,
She has been recognized by several organizations including the National Education Association. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1991.
Personal life
She and her husband have four adult children. She is a member of Zion Baptist Church of Denver, Colorado, and of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.
References
{{Colorado Women's Hall of Fame}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Webb, Wilma}}
Category:African-American state legislators in Colorado
Category:Members of the Colorado House of Representatives
Category:Women state legislators in Colorado
Category:Harvard Kennedy School alumni
Category:21st-century African-American politicians
Category:21st-century African-American women politicians
Category:20th-century African-American politicians
Category:20th-century African-American women politicians
Category:20th-century American women politicians
Category:21st-century Colorado politicians
Category:20th-century members of the Colorado General Assembly
Category:Spouses of United States mayors
{{Colorado-politician-stub}}