'She Showed Me What Was Possible': Boston City Councilor Julia Mejia Says Rev. Liz Walker Shaped Her Life

BOSTON (CBS) – During Black History Month WBZ-TV is celebrating the role people of color have in shaping our history.

Boston City Councilor Julia Mejia, the first Afro-Latina elected to the council, said she owes her success to the Rev. Liz Walker, who spent 30 years on the anchor desk at WBZ-TV.

During that time, she spoke to a group of students at Dorchester High School.  Mejia was in the audience that day and said it was a moment that changed her life.

"I felt at that assembly like I was the only person in the room," Mejia recalled, showing the journal entry from that February day in 1989.

She wrote: "Liz Walker came to our school. It was an inspiring moment in my life. It made me realize that I too can be somebody."

"I remember that I chased down my guidance counselor and I said, 'What do I have to do to be just like her?'" Mejia told WBZ-TV.

Mejia, who was old for a senior in high school after dropping out of school for a time, said at that moment she was determined to be the first in her family to go to college. She enrolled that fall at Mt. Ida and would meet Liz again, interviewing her at the station for a class project.

"I got an A-," she said proudly holding up the paper she had saved for all these years.

About a decade later, she started as a reporter for MTV news, covering the presidential election in 2000 as part of the "Rock The Vote" campaign. She interviewed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and CBS news correspondent Ed Bradley.

But much of her reporting would center around telling stories from neighborhoods of color, encouraging the people in those communities to use their vote to be heard.

In 2020 she made history winning a council seat by just one vote. It was an emotional moment for her and one she also credits to Liz Walker.

"I know for a fact that I wouldn't be a city councilor had it not been for that brief moment when she shared her story. She showed me what was possible. She interrupted my entire cycle of poverty just by sharing her story," Mejia said.

Now Mejia said it's time to share her own story.

"I am always going to find a way to connect with someone…. Someone who needs to hear that they can do it too," she said.