Steven Reed, the Montgomery County probate judge, beat TV station owner David Woods and will be sworn in as the city's first black mayor Nov. 12.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Montgomery, a city where more than half the population is black and known as the birthplace of the civil rights movement, elected an African American to the highest position in municipal government for the first time in its 200-year history.
Montgomery is one of only three cities in six Deep South states with a population of 100,000 or more that had not previously elected an African American as mayor. Beginning in the late 1960s, the election of first black mayors in Cleveland, Ohio, Newark, New Jersey, Detroit, Michigan, Gary, Indiana, and Los Angeles manifested black power, said Derryn Eroll Moten, chairman of Alabama State University's Department of History and Political Science.
Changes materialized in the South in the wake of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, with the election of Sheriff Lucius Amerson in Alabama and the election of Julian Bond to the Georgia House of Representatives. Both were elected in 1966 and became the first African Americans to hold these offices since Reconstruction.Some say it's a paradox that Montgomery is both the birthplace of the civil rights movement and the cradle of the Confederacy.
"This will be a historic day in Montgomery," Bailey said."For the first time, the people of this city, especially African Americans, will be able to say that we have someone in the mayor's office who understands the pulse of the black community."
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Montgomery elects Steven Reed as its first African-American mayor
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Alabama capital elects first black mayor in 200-year historyMontgomery, Alabama, once known as the cradle of the Confederacy and later the birthplace of the civil rights movement, has elected Steven Reed as its first African American mayor in the city's 200-year history.
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Montgomery, Alabama, could elect its first-ever black mayor todayMontgomery County Probate Judge Steven Reed is facing TV station owner David Woods in a mayoral run-off election to take leadership of the majority-black city. If elected, Reed would become the first black mayor of Montgomery since it was founded in 1819.
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Montgomery elects first black mayor in city's 200-year historyThe Alabama city served as the first capital of the Confederate States of America, and about a century and a half later was the site of the historic bus boycott.
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Alabama capital elects first black mayorProbate Judge Steven Reed won Tuesday's runoff election in Montgomery by a wide margin over David Woods, a white businessman.
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