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Dr. Willie W. Herenton (born April 23, 1940) is the mayor of Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. Herenton is a graduate of Le Moyne-Owen College in south Memphis, and the University of Memphis. His doctorate was earned at Southern Illinois University. He is also a recipient of two honorary doctorates from Rhodes College and Christian Brothers University, both of Memphis. He has four children, the youngest of which was born in late 2004 to a local waitress.

He is the first African-American to be elected mayor of Memphis. He won his first term by defeating incumbent mayor Richard Hackett in 1991 by a mere 146 votes. Prior to serving as mayor, Herenton was the superintendent of Memphis City Schools for twelve years; his doctorate is an earned one in the field of education. In his State of the City address on January 1, 2006, Herenton announced his intention to run for a fifth term in 2007 and refused to debate his challengers during the campaign.

He was elected to his fifth term in office on October 4, 2007 [1], thus making him the first Memphis mayor to be elected to five terms of office. Despite his win, Herenton garnered only 42% of the popular vote on the October 4, 2007 election. Nonetheless, run-offs for Memphis city-wide elections have been banned by court order since 1991, on the premise that the intent of run-offs was to give white candidates an advantage [2]. Indeed, Herenton also scored his initial 1991 victory as well as his 1999 re-election with less than majority support.

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In recent times, Herenton has faced mounting criticism from citizens and other observers, who have charged that he has, among the following:

• Failed to ensure sound fiscal management of the City of Memphis [3]
• Fraud allegations involving national money for the building of the FedEx Forum [4]
• Failed to communicate effectively with the City Council [5]
• Failed to address multiple allegations of improprieties regarding Memphis Light Gas and Water [6]
• Served as the prime target and catalyst for the City Charter rewrite [7]
• Angered citizens to the point of becoming a target of a citizen recall effort [8]
• Done little in response to the significant rise in crime under his leadership, stating that "No mayor in any American city can solve the crime problem."[9]
• Stated that those who don't like the way he has served as mayor can move out of Memphis.
• In June 2007, Herenton held a press conference to announce that he was the target of a conspiracy by “rich, white businessmen plotting to derail his re-election by videotaping him having sex with a strip club waitress.”[10]
• On September 19, 2007, as reported by the Commercial Appeal [11], Mayor Herenton called for a halt to early voting due to "irregularities". The Shelby County Election Commission stated that early voting would continue.