Marvin E. Pratt (born May 26, 1944) is an American politician who served as acting mayor of Milwaukee in 2004 and as interim Milwaukee County Executive in 2011. He was the first African-American to act as mayor of Milwaukee. Early life Pratt was born on May 26, 1944 to Leon Pratt Sr., a United States Naval officer, and Mildred Joyce Pratt in Dallas, Texas. While living in Dallas, he attended a local Catholic school with his twin sister, Marielle, until his family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1959, following the death of his father in a car accident in 1949. He has two sisters, Gwen and Reba, and a brother, Leon Jr.. Pratt graduated from North Division High School in 1962 and immediately joined the United States Air Force. He was stationed in the Libyan desertduring the Vietnam War and was honorably discharged in the mid 60s. When he returned to Milwaukee after his service, he enrolled in Marquette University and gained a degree in political science in 1972. Pratt became an intern for mayor Henry Maier and began climbing a ladder of local government jobs. Political life Pratt ran for an aldermanic seat in 1984, a tense time for race relations in the city. During this year, there was a racial divide over whether or not to rename what was then known as North 3rd Street to Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. Despite his loss to Roy B. Nabors in 1984, he ran for the same seat and won in a 1986 special election. Upon his election in 1986, Pratt was appointed to the Finance and Personnel Committee, where he continuously served as member and eventually chairman from 1996 to 2000. One of his notable victories while serving on the Common Council was the creation of the Resident's Preference Program in 1991, as described on the official website of the City of Milwaukee: This program is still in effect today, and has been expanded to include private businesses. In 2000, Pratt was elected the president of the Common Council: "...he was motivated to run after seeing so many vacant boarded up houses never changing in Milwaukee neighborhoods. The city was divided and the city workforce and federal departments didn't represent Milwaukee's population." When mayor John Norquist stepped down in 2004 three months before his term expired, Pratt became acting mayor. He was the first African-American to act as mayor