Mississippi Burning Town Swears In First Black Mayor
Monday, July 06, 2009
The Mississippi town of Philadelphia has long been branded as a place synonymous with the Ku Klux Klan and racist attitudes, ever since three Freedom Riders were murdered there,in1964. But Friday marked a new day for the town, which now has its first-ever African-American mayor, James Young, who won a narrow victory by only 46 votes. The local pastor remembers the dark, early days of his youth when Klansmen roamed the streets at night terrorizing African-Americans. But much has changed for Philadelphia, although whites still constitute a majority of the population (55%).
On June 21, 1964, three young civil rights activists—Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner—came to the town as part of the Freedom Summer movement to register African-Americans to vote. Their murder at the hands of local Klansmen was captured in the 1988 film Mississippi Burning.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
A New Day in Mississippi (by Mark Potter, NBC News)
First Black Mayor Elected in Philadelphia (by Lawayne Childrey, Mississippi Public Broadcasting)
Mayor James Young (official web site)
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