During his time as a community activist in South Los Angeles, Los Angeles City Council Member Marqueece Harris Dawson witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by the crack cocaine epidemic and the economic impact following the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

His involvement in politics was inspired by his work in South Los Angeles, where he grew up, and where he met progressive activist Karen Bass.

Harris Dawson, 54, will now lead the city council as speaker-elect, with his aide Bass set to become mayor.

Harris-Dawson's 20 years of work with the Community Coalition, a nonprofit co-founded by Bass, will shape her policy. She said Friday at her first council meeting as president that homelessness and high housing prices, which disproportionately affect Black and Latino residents, will be her top priorities.

“When you have tens of thousands of people living on the streets, it literally puts public safety at risk for everyone,” he said, as his family looked on.

“Firstly, homeless people are subject to all sorts of untold harm,” he added. “Other hazards, such as fires, arise as a result of that chaos.”

Harris Dawson, who was first elected to the city council in 2015, has campaigned on expanding housing construction in her district and stopping sex trafficking on Figueroa Street.

He represents a South Los Angeles district that includes all or parts of West Adams, View Heights, Hyde Park, Van Ness, Baldwin Hills and Adams-Normandie neighborhoods.

Political consultant Dermot Givens, who has followed Harris-Dawson's career, described her as a relationship builder and said the council member won enough votes to become speaker without publicly challenging her colleagues.

“He's a very good guy and I'm sure he'll continue to build consensus as council president,” Givens said.

The council voted 14-0 in May to select Harris Dawson to replace Rep. Paul Krekorian, who had been serving in the role since October 2022 after Speaker Nuri Martinez resigned following the audio leak scandal. Krekorian is due to leave the council within the next few months due to term limits.

As council president, Harris-Dawson will have to juggle relationships with colleagues who have publicly criticized him.

Harris Dawson, who is Black, was among those calling for City Councilman Kevin de Leon to resign after he participated in leaked conversations that included racist and derogatory comments.

He told The Times that he has largely repaired his relationship with de Leon, who, along with other City Council members, supported his election as speaker.

“Some of the things that were said left scars,” Harris-Dawson said this week about comments made during secretly recorded conversations that included derogatory remarks about Black people and others. “The scars are still there, but I think we're getting to a point where we can actually work on behalf of the residents of the city of Los Angeles.”

At Friday's meeting, Harris-Dawson's colleagues, including de Leon, congratulated him, with some praising the new speaker's efforts to work with them behind the scenes.

Councilman John Lee said he felt “lonely” after joining the council in 2019 because he is considered the only conservative on a Democratic-majority council. Harris-Dawson reached out to him and the two are now friends, Lee said.

“Instead of necessarily focusing on the things you disagree on, focus on the things you agree on,” Lee told Harris Dawson.

Harris-Dawson grew up in South Los Angeles, but gang violence forced his family to move to the foothills of Altadena and Arcadia, where he would spend weekends visiting his grandfather who lived in Baldwin Hills.

He studied political science and mathematics at Morehouse College.

In the community coalition, I worked on education and employment-related initiatives.

“They're focused on a few issues,” Jaime Regalado, professor emeritus of political science at UCLA, said of Harris-Dawson and Bass. “The policy concerns that the mayor has are very similar to the concerns that Marquise has.”

Speaker Harris-Dawson can choose which members sit on committees dealing with key issues like the budget, public safety and homelessness, and she also schedules votes.

In an interview, he said he would set up a new committee to focus on “unarmed responses,” such as how police should handle traffic enforcement.

The city council is already considering the cost and feasibility of creating unarmed civilian teams to address specific traffic issues, eliminate some traffic enforcement for minor infractions and limit traffic fines in poor neighborhoods.

Advocates cite racial disparities in LAPD stop and search practices in South Los Angeles and argue the crime-fighting tactics have alienated generations of Black and brown Angelenos.

Harris-Dawson spoke about being stopped by police while driving, including after she became a city council member, and said she felt fear when she saw armed officers approaching her car.

Times reporter David Zarnizer contributed to this report.