an interview in Baltimore’s 19th-century domed city hall. Her father, Howard “Pete” Rawlings, was a powerful figure in the Maryland House of Delegates until his death from cancer in 2003. “In a time when African Americans were just breaking into local politics, Pete Rawlings was achieving leadership roles in the Maryland General Assembly,” says city council member Mary Pat Clarke, who was first elected in 1975 and served two terms as council president. “He was a unique combination of a politically savvy civil rights activist and a conservative force for fiscal accountability, which helped him rise. Once he was in a position of influence in the general assembly, he used it for the Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake ‘92, photographed at the Richard D. Baron (‘64) Art Gallery in Oberlin. city. He never forgot where he came from.” “I got to see my father make a difference in our community,” says Rawlings-Blake. “He also spent a lot of time as I was growing up introduc- ing me—with books or in person—to influential black leaders. I got to see what was possible for my future.” Rawlings-Blake learned well. In time, the political influence would eventually flow the other way, too, from daughter to father. Case in point: Rawlings-Blake held the key to Martin O’Malley’s rise to power in the city and ultimately to the state house in Annapolis. Baltimore is a heavily Democratic city, and winning the Democratic OBERLIN ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2015 / SPRING 21