After generating curiosity and some harsh online judgment for his last-minute entry into the mayoral race, activist DeRay Mckesson was given a chance to introduce himself to Baltimore – and respond face-to-face to some of his fiercest online critics.

“Why did you have to go to St. Louis when you could have been right here?” activist Kinji Scott demanded to know, after running through a litany of young black men who died in encounters with Baltimore police well before Michael Brown’s shooting by a Ferguson police officer in 2014.

Addressing Mckesson in front of about 300 people assembled for a mayoral candidates’ forum in Mt. Vernon last night, Scott was blistering.

“I don’t support all these folk up here, but you come and you indict them when you haven’t been visible in this city?” Scott said. “Why are you running for mayor of our city?”

Mckesson replied in an even voice, “So, interesting question, but I would remind you I began my organizing work in this city in 1999 when I was just a teenager.”

He went on to talk about having worked as “a youth organizer in communities across the city,” working for non-profits around after-school access and his work for the city school system in the office of human capital.

But Mckesson also said he didn’t understand police violence “to be as pervasive across the country as it was” until the death of Michael Brown.

He recalled how in 2009, when a Baltimore police officer pulled him over and approached the car window with gun drawn, he had thought of it as “an isolated event.”

He acknowledged the work of others in Baltimore (“There are people who have been organizing in this city in incredible ways”), but he went on to defend his own contributions.

He cited “policy work” and creating “the first public database around police union contracts . . . so I’ve not been absent but I will say that I’ve been doing the work differently than I started out doing. When you do the work, you can attack these problems in many ways.”

“I Saw What Was Happening”

Participating in his first mayoral forum since joining the race earlier this month, the Black Lives Matter leader didn’t talk about social-networking-for-change and the work that won him national media attention during and after Ferguson.

His turn came, alphabetically, after candidate Patrick Gutierrez and before Councilman Nick Mosby, part of an event that included two dozen candidates at an event organized by the Mount Vernon-Belvedere Association and the Charles Street Development Corporation.

In what may be his stump speech, Mckesson told the story of his awakening.

“I got up off my couch because I saw what was happening in another city – in St. Louis, in Ferguson – and I asked myself how long was I willing to wait to make a difference, to stand up,” he said.

“I stood with people who were demanding something different of the government. I became, along with so many other people, someone who knew that there was a better road out there and someone who was willing to fight for it.

“I love the city,” he continued, noting that he grew up here and his family lives here. “But I’ve watched it continue to be a city that just isn’t working for people.”

What’s Wrong With Baltimore

Along with his fellow candidates – and seemingly every editorial writer and social theorist in the country these days – he offered his take on what’s wrong in Baltimore.

“It’s not working for people when there are over 300 deaths. It’s not working for people when Freddie Gray and Tyrone West are dead. It’s not working for people when the school system isn’t meeting our needs or our kids’ needs.”

“I’m not a millionaire,” he said, alluding to mayoral candidate David L. Warnock, a venture capitalist.

“I’m not a former elected official,” he said, referencing former mayor Sheila Dixon.

“I’m an activist,” he concluded. “I’m a son of Baltimore. I’m somebody who has been in this city and in other cities across the country demanding that the city work for people. And I’m ready to do it here.”

Teach for America: Toxic on a Resume?

One issue that has dogged Mckesson since he announced his mayoral run is his association with Teach for America. Several questioners asked him about it last night.

The phrasing of one question underscored how much he will have to contend with local and national politics around education policy, including the charter school movement.

“Do you still support the corporatization of our education that Teach for America purports? Do you support busting teachers unions and lowering their pay? And how much money have you gotten from Teach for America over the years,” a woman asked him as the crowd applauded.

Mckesson said he wasn’t a core member of Teach for America, but supports their work “generally.”

“It remains a large recruiter of teachers across the country,” he said, recalling from his time working in Baltimore that it provided a lot of teachers in the city.

On the subject of unions, he told the crowd he believes in them

“I was a chapter leader for the UFT [United Federation of Teachers],” he said. “I don’t know where this idea that I believe in the privatization of schools comes from.”