Coy Payne

Payne was born in Texas, one of nine children born to Scott and Virgie Payne.[1] His family moved to Eloy, Arizona in the early 1940s where he picked cotton as a youth so his family could purchase a car.[1] The family moved north to Chandler where there were no schools for Black students and he was forced to attend school in Mesa, Arizona.[1] He was refused admission to the local high school and had to attend all-black Carver High School in Phoenix, Arizona.[1][2] He briefly attended Arizona State University before dropping out and enlisting in the U.S. Army where he saw combat in the Korean War.[1] He finished his education at ASU after leaving the army and took a job in Chandler as a third-grade teacher; he retired in 1989.[1]

In 1983, he was elected the first African-American to the Chandler City Council.[1] In 1990, he defeated city council member Jane DuComb by a margin of 2:1 to become mayor of Chandler, the first African-American elected mayor of any city in Arizona despite Chandler being only 3% African-American at the time.[1] While mayor, he presided over the rapid growth of the city which grew 96 percent between 1990 and 2000,[1] helped create the city's housing authority, and oversaw the expansion of parks and recreation programs.[3]

He was married married to Willie Woods, an accountant and civil rights activist; they had six children.[1] He died on December 8, 2019.[1]