Boston City Council Sworn In for 2022 Term in Outdoor Pandemic Ceremony

BOSTON — July 22, 2026 — Boston swears in a historically diverse City Council in an outdoor, pandemic-era ceremony. Mayor Michelle Wu administered three simultaneous oaths of office to all 13 Boston City Councilors on January 2, 2022, at an outdoor City Hall ceremony relocated due to the COVID-19 Omicron surge. Wu highlighted five newly elected members who she said set historic firsts: Tanya Fernandez-Anderson as the council's first African Muslim member, Kendra Hicks as the first woman of color in the District 6 seat, Ruth Zuria Louis-Jean as the first Haitian American city councilor, and Brian Worrell as the first Black man on the council since 2017. "Sitting here outside in the cold, let this be a reminder of what so many in our city have to live with every single day," Wu said, citing COVID-19 testing lines and unhoused encampments across the city. The ceremony, which Wu herself called "the maybe shortest ever city council inauguration," also marked the city's bicentennial — 200 years since Boston was incorporated as a city and formed its first council.