Home / Full timeline / In general elections across the country, Blacks are elected mayors in four additional American cities and are named to various other local and state offices.
In general elections across the country, Blacks are elected mayors in four additional American cities and are named to various other local and state offices.
1971 (Nov 2)
In general elections across the country, Blacks were elected mayors in four additional American cities and were named to various other local and state offices. In Englewood, New Jersey, the Reverend Walter S. Taylor was elected the city's first Black Mayor. Gilbert H. Bradley, Jr., was elected Mayor of Kalamazoo, Michigan. In Benton Harbor, Michigan, Charles Joseph became the town's first Black Mayor. Richard B. Hatcher was easily reelected to a four-year term as Mayor of Gary, Indiana. Two Blacks, Henry Owens and Saundra Graham, were elected to the City Council in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a third Black, Charles Pierce, was selected to the city's school board. In Mississippi, Fayette's Black Mayor Charles Evers was defeated in his bid for governor, but state representative Robert Clark, the only Black legislator in Mississippi, was returned to his seat. Blacks also won seven county supervisor posts, one circuit court clerk's position, and about twenty other county offices. Almost three hundred Blacks campaigned for offices in Mississippi during the November elections. Also in the elections, former heavyweight boxing champion Jersey Joe Walcott was elected Sheriff of Camden, New Jersey. Blacks were elected to city councils in Indianapolis, Indiana; Davenport, Iowa; Burlington, Iowa; Memphis, Tennessee; and Miami, Florida. In Memphis, Black Councilman Fred Davis was elected Chairman of the thirteen-member City Council. In Miami, the Reverend Edward Graham managed to retain his seat on the City Council, although Black mayoral candidate Tom Washington was defeated. Defeated in the Mississippi state legislature race were veteran civil rights leaders Fanny Lou Hamer and Aaron Henry. Voters in Cleveland, Ohio, rejected a second Black mayor in Arnold R. Pinkney's candidacy. Although Thomas I. Atkins, a Black City Councilman in Boston, was defeated in his bid for mayor, he was appointed Secretary of the Department of Communications and Development, the highest position held by a Black American in Massachusetts state government.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.