De Blasio reflects on ‘journey’ to City Hall in Harlem talk

Mayor Bill de Blasio reflected on the skeptics who called him “deluded” during his 2013 election and how Malcolm X’s autobiography inspired his name change during a public talk Sunday with a prominent Harlem pastor.

“I remember very vividly the conversations where people would very warmly put their arm around me and explain how deluded I was,” de Blasio said, “and how nice a guy I was and how sad it was I didn’t understand reality.”

He spoke about his path toward City Hall for an event called “The Journey” at First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem.

De Blasio had been polling in fourth place among the Democrats before breaking away from the pack in August 2013.

The Rev. Michael A. Walrond said he was criticized for his endorsement of de Blasio. Former City Comptroller William Thompson, who like Walrond is black, was also in the race.

“I got calls and emails and looks like I had done the worse thing in the world, that I had sold out the community, that I could never be a leader making that decision,” said Walrond, who later launched a failed run for Congress. “And when you won the primary, it was like I won the primary.”

De Blasio, born Warren Wilhelm Jr., also recalled the process behind his official name changes. He became Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm in the 1980s, adding his mother’s maiden name. He then petitioned in 2001 to change his name to what it currently is.

“I honor my father for all he did for his country and all the good in him, but I only unfortunately got to see the bad,” said de Blasio, whose father was a World War II veteran who struggled with alcoholism and committed suicide.

“I felt an affinity for my mother’s side of the family,” de Blasio said. The mayor said that studying Malcolm X’s life in high school revealed to him a parallel.

“The name that he had received was not really his name,” de Blasio said, adding that of the moniker the mayor ultimately chose, “It was my true self.”