First African American Dougherty County Commission Chairman sworn in

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - Lorenzo Heard was officially sworn in as Dougherty County Commission chairman.

Saturday night, the community held a swearing-in ceremony at Monroe High School. Heard will serve as the first Black chairman of Dougherty County.

Lorenzo Heard is a Leesburg native.(WALB)

Heard is a Leesburg native who has been preaching since he was 17 years old. Some of his goals as newly elected chairman include growing Albany State University and Albany Technical College and to improve housing in Albany.

While he has no previous local government experience, he said that won’t stop him from serving the Albany community.

“I think God has well-equipped me to lead,” he said. “I just thank everybody for an opportunity to serve and my goal is to make sure that when my time and tenure is up, that somebody will say that a major difference has been made.”