- 1
- 2
- next
- | single page
E-mail
Print
YORK, Pa. Kim Bracey was only 5 when the riots brought soldiers, barricades, and fear to her hometown. But she remembers the National Guard tanks rolling down the street, the shotgun blasts echoing through the neighborhood, and her parents hiding her in a back room when the sun went down, lest she get caught in the cross fire.
On Tuesday 40 years after York erupted in racial violence Bracey, a retired Air Force sergeant, is poised to become the first African-American mayor of this working-class central Pennsylvania city.
"York had a horrific time then," said Bracey, 45, a former economic-development official who has spent the last decade trying to revive a downtown that has, for the most part, languished since the riots. "But I am ready to be the mayor for everyone."
The election of a black mayor Tuesday is all but guaranteed. Bracey's Republican rival, Wendell Banks, is also African-American and has barely campaigned. He failed to appear at a scheduled debate and at newspaper editorial-board meetings. York County Republican Chairman A. Carville Foster Jr. has called Banks a "sporadic candidate" and has essentially conceded victory to Bracey, calling the Democrat "a qualified candidate."
Efforts to reach Banks for an interview were unsuccessful. The only other candidate is Steven Young, a last-minute write-in candidate who is white.
A smokestack city of 40,000, York is more than 60 percent white. But a quarter of the population is African-American, and the number of Hispanic residents is rising, so minorities soon could be the majority.
York was thrust into national headlines 10 years ago, when prosecutors reopened the unsolved 1969 killing of a black woman from South Carolina who was fatally shot while visiting relatives here. One of the 10 white men indicted, Charles Robertson, was mayor when he was charged in 2001. The district attorney also brought charges against two black men for the killing two days earlier of a white police officer.
In a decade when violence was erupting in much larger cities, with more devastating results, York received little attention 40 years ago when a white youth shot and wounded a black man, touching off almost two weeks of rioting and violence here.
When word of the new charges came 10 years ago, many white residents of York said they wanted to bury that ugly chapter, when dozens of city blocks were torched and hundreds of people injured. In contrast, black residents expressed relief that prosecutors were at last seeking justice in the death of Lillie Belle Allen, a 27-year-old mother of two.
Allen was visiting relatives here in July 1969 when she and four family members drove into an ambush involving about 100 youths, many of them armed. Allen, a preacher's daughter, was trying to switch drivers with her panic-stricken sister when she was shot.
Allen's killing came just two days after a black mob had ambushed 22-year-old Police Officer Henry Schaad, who was white, as he rode in an armored vehicle to rescue an injured motorcyclist.
Robertson was a police officer during the riots; prosecutors said he provided ammunition to the shooters and helped incite the violence. He was acquitted in 2002.
In recent decades, the city has struggled to retain good-paying industrial jobs, but public/private investment has rejuvenated some blocks of the business district and brought in a new minor-league baseball park, where the York Revolution plays its home games. At the same time, community leaders have worked to try to repair the emotional wounds left by the riots.
"They used to call York 'the South that never grew up,' " said Abe Amoros, who was elected the city's first Latino city council member in 1990. "But York has made great strides."
Some African-American residents say racial tension is still evident and hope Bracey will help change that. "You hear the car-door locks click when we walk by," said Bryant Starling, a trade-union staff member and Philadelphia native who moved to York six years ago. "There is still prejudice and discrimination. It's time for change."
Others say they see big problems in York and are not impressed with the candidates.
"Color shouldn't have anything to do with it," said Clarence Smith, 62, who is white. He said he hadn't decided how to vote.
Smith, who retired from his job as a film restorer at the Library of Congress and moved to York in 1995 to care for his aging mother, said he is fed up with crime in the city, which he believes has its roots in bad schools and a bad economy. "Look at the paper. What jobs are there? There's no hope," he said.
One could call South George Street the corridor Kim Bracey built. As executive director of a local economic-development group, she helped bring life back to the heart of York's business district, and worked to reverse the exodus of residents after the riots. After that, York's current mayor, Democrat John Brenner, hired her to run the city's Community Development Office. Brenner chose not to run again; Bracey resigned in January to run for his post.
"This is where it all began for me," Bracey said during a walk down South George Street, waving her arms at the commercial strip of restored historic buildings and brand-new construction. She was on her way to a senior center to thank residents who had helped her campaign.
On Tuesday 40 years after York erupted in racial violence Bracey, a retired Air Force sergeant, is poised to become the first African-American mayor of this working-class central Pennsylvania city.
"York had a horrific time then," said Bracey, 45, a former economic-development official who has spent the last decade trying to revive a downtown that has, for the most part, languished since the riots. "But I am ready to be the mayor for everyone."
The election of a black mayor Tuesday is all but guaranteed. Bracey's Republican rival, Wendell Banks, is also African-American and has barely campaigned. He failed to appear at a scheduled debate and at newspaper editorial-board meetings. York County Republican Chairman A. Carville Foster Jr. has called Banks a "sporadic candidate" and has essentially conceded victory to Bracey, calling the Democrat "a qualified candidate."
Efforts to reach Banks for an interview were unsuccessful. The only other candidate is Steven Young, a last-minute write-in candidate who is white.
A smokestack city of 40,000, York is more than 60 percent white. But a quarter of the population is African-American, and the number of Hispanic residents is rising, so minorities soon could be the majority.
York was thrust into national headlines 10 years ago, when prosecutors reopened the unsolved 1969 killing of a black woman from South Carolina who was fatally shot while visiting relatives here. One of the 10 white men indicted, Charles Robertson, was mayor when he was charged in 2001. The district attorney also brought charges against two black men for the killing two days earlier of a white police officer.
In a decade when violence was erupting in much larger cities, with more devastating results, York received little attention 40 years ago when a white youth shot and wounded a black man, touching off almost two weeks of rioting and violence here.
When word of the new charges came 10 years ago, many white residents of York said they wanted to bury that ugly chapter, when dozens of city blocks were torched and hundreds of people injured. In contrast, black residents expressed relief that prosecutors were at last seeking justice in the death of Lillie Belle Allen, a 27-year-old mother of two.
Allen was visiting relatives here in July 1969 when she and four family members drove into an ambush involving about 100 youths, many of them armed. Allen, a preacher's daughter, was trying to switch drivers with her panic-stricken sister when she was shot.
Allen's killing came just two days after a black mob had ambushed 22-year-old Police Officer Henry Schaad, who was white, as he rode in an armored vehicle to rescue an injured motorcyclist.
Robertson was a police officer during the riots; prosecutors said he provided ammunition to the shooters and helped incite the violence. He was acquitted in 2002.
In recent decades, the city has struggled to retain good-paying industrial jobs, but public/private investment has rejuvenated some blocks of the business district and brought in a new minor-league baseball park, where the York Revolution plays its home games. At the same time, community leaders have worked to try to repair the emotional wounds left by the riots.
"They used to call York 'the South that never grew up,' " said Abe Amoros, who was elected the city's first Latino city council member in 1990. "But York has made great strides."
Some African-American residents say racial tension is still evident and hope Bracey will help change that. "You hear the car-door locks click when we walk by," said Bryant Starling, a trade-union staff member and Philadelphia native who moved to York six years ago. "There is still prejudice and discrimination. It's time for change."
Others say they see big problems in York and are not impressed with the candidates.
"Color shouldn't have anything to do with it," said Clarence Smith, 62, who is white. He said he hadn't decided how to vote.
Smith, who retired from his job as a film restorer at the Library of Congress and moved to York in 1995 to care for his aging mother, said he is fed up with crime in the city, which he believes has its roots in bad schools and a bad economy. "Look at the paper. What jobs are there? There's no hope," he said.
One could call South George Street the corridor Kim Bracey built. As executive director of a local economic-development group, she helped bring life back to the heart of York's business district, and worked to reverse the exodus of residents after the riots. After that, York's current mayor, Democrat John Brenner, hired her to run the city's Community Development Office. Brenner chose not to run again; Bracey resigned in January to run for his post.
"This is where it all began for me," Bracey said during a walk down South George Street, waving her arms at the commercial strip of restored historic buildings and brand-new construction. She was on her way to a senior center to thank residents who had helped her campaign.
Digg
Twitter
Facebook
StumbleUpon
