Pa. city torn by racial strife elects black mayor - washingtonpost.com: YORK, Pa. -- A little girl who trembled in her house as a National Guard tank rumbled past during York's chaotic 1969 race riots has grown up to become the first black mayor of the central Pennsylvania city.
Kim Bracey, 45, an energetic veteran of the struggling manufacturing city's improvement efforts will take office in January, to the delight of many African-Americans who thought they would never see a black mayor.
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'President Obama was one thing, but here in York where few people vote ... I really didn't think I would live to see this take place,' Bracey said in a recent interview at her transition office.
Racial harmony or becoming York's first black mayor was not part of Bracey's platform. In fact, she hadn't even thought about it until a reporter brought it up after she won the 'White Rose' city's four-way Democratic primary in May.
