Mississippi Turns Infamous to Famous: First Black Mayor Elected

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ivan Seeking
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Turning
Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the election of James Young as the first African American mayor of Philadelphia, Mississippi, exploring themes of race, historical context, and changing social dynamics in the region. Participants reflect on past racial tensions and the significance of this electoral outcome in a predominantly white town.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Historical
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants highlight the significance of James Young's election as a milestone in a town with a troubled racial history, referencing the murders of civil rights workers in 1964.
  • Others share personal experiences of racial segregation in the South, suggesting that while progress has been made, deep-seated issues may still persist.
  • There is a discussion about the election of Mike Espy to Congress in 1987, with some arguing that his election in a district with a black majority differs from Young's election in a mostly white town.
  • Some participants express skepticism about generalizing the racial attitudes of Mississippi based on specific electoral outcomes, arguing that assumptions about widespread bigotry may not be justified.
  • Disagreements arise regarding the implications of past elections and whether they reflect broader social changes or persistent divides.
  • Some participants challenge the interpretations of others, questioning the validity of assumptions made about racial attitudes over time.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

The discussion features multiple competing views regarding the implications of the election results and the historical context of racial dynamics in Mississippi. There is no consensus on whether the election signifies a broader change in social attitudes or if it is an isolated incident within a complex historical framework.

Contextual Notes

Participants reference various historical events and personal anecdotes that illustrate the complexities of race relations in the South, but the discussion remains unresolved regarding the current state of racial attitudes and the significance of recent electoral outcomes.

Ivan Seeking
Staff Emeritus
Science Advisor
Gold Member
Messages
8,215
Reaction score
2,661
...James Young, a 53-year-old minister, narrowly defeated incumbent Mayor Rayburn Waddell by a 64 vote margin to become the first African American mayor in the town's history.

...Philadelphia, Mississippi, a mostly white city of 7,300 people, was once the scene of a different milestone in 1964. In August of 1964, civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were murdered as they attempted to organize voters during the "Freedom Summer."...
http://thedailyvoice.com/voice/2009/05/mississippi-turning-infamous-t-001911.php

It is one thing for Obama to win in a general election, but when a small, mostly white town, in Mississippi, elects a black man as mayor, I know that we have entered the Twilight Zone. It is hard to imagine that the country has come this far in my lifetime.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Physics news on Phys.org
In the late '80s/early '90s I did some consulting work for a paper mill in Pine Hill Alabama. I had spent time in Atlanta, Raleigh, Wickliffe, Paduca, and Moss Point doing contract work, but I was not prepared for the environs of Pine Hill. The only decent food to be had anywhere near that mill was at a diner at a crossroad on the way to Thomasville. The wait-staff and cashier were white and were the only employees in the dining area. From what I could see through the pass-through from the kitchen, the kitchen staff were all black. Never once in my several visits did a black person enter that air-conditioned dining area. There were lots of black people patronizing the place, but they ordered their lunches at a take-out window at the kitchen and ate their meals outside at picnic tables. I worked at that mill twice, both times for 2 weeks in late-July/early-August on boiler-automation projects and it was SOME hot outside. Still, the place was very strictly segregated and nobody but white customers ate in the dining area.

In the intervening year, I was doing some consulting work for Kone Wood in Atlanta (wood-yard upgrade for a mill in Panama City) and one weekend a pastor was fired for daring to invite a black family to the church picnic. The family showed up and were challenged by church members, and when they said that the pastor had invited them, the deacons convened a board meeting and fired the pastor on the spot.

I hope things have gotten better in the intervening years.
 
Ivan Seeking said:
It is one thing for Obama to win in a general election, but when a small, mostly white town, in Mississippi, elects a black man as mayor, I know that we have entered the Twilight Zone. It is hard to imagine that the country has come this far in my lifetime.
Mississippi elected Mike Espy to Congress in 1987. The state was 62% white in the 2000 census. I don't know about 1987, but I expect it was similar. Espy is black.
 
jimmysnyder said:
Mississippi elected Mike Espy to Congress in 1987. The state was 62% white in the 2000 census. I don't know about 1987, but I expect it was similar. Espy is black.

Since he was a Congressman, the demographics of the State are irrelevant. While credited with forging a black and white coalition, he was elected in a district that has a black majority. That is quite a bit different than getting elected in a small, mostly white town.

The demographics of the sprawling district, whose voting-age population is 58 percent black
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/12/us/racial-lines-seen-as-crucial-in-mississippi-runoff.html
 
I should have looked at the demographics for his district before I posted. What I thought was a story about a state willing to vote on the issues turns out to be just another story of sharply drawn color lines. But I still disagree with the implications of your post. You shouldn't have assumed that the entire state of Mississippi was bigotted just because of this single district. As the town of Philadelphia shows, the people of Mississippi are willing to put racial divides aside even if the second district is not.
 
Some fallacies in that paragraph:

Ivan never gave any indication that he was generalizing about the state based on the second district - he may not even have known about that (Espy) election when he wrote the OP. If anything, he indicated (in his response) that there was nothing in the 1987 result in the second district to dispel his (implied) assumption of widespread bigotry in the state (prevalent in earlier years).

Lack of support for the statement that the second district put aside racial divides can not lead to a conclusion that it did not put aside such divides (else you would also have to conclude that every single white Congressman ever elected from a white majority district was elected for racial reasons).

Even were the above assertion correct, the inference would not follow, given the significant time difference between 1987 and 2009.
 
Gokul43201 said:
Even were the above assertion correct, the inference would not follow, given the significant time difference between 1987 and 2009.
Why? Who does the second district send to congress now? But you may be right. I simply assumed that Ivan's prejudice against the people of Mississippi was based on the second district because it was he that pointed out the shameful voting record there. Do you think his prejudice is based on a general distaste for Americans?
 
Gokul43201 said:
Or a general distaste of Americans that love to engage in blatant misrepresentations?
The entire state of Mississippi loves to engage in blatant misrepresentations? I see an ugly pattern here.
 
jimmysnyder said:
Why? Who does the second district send to congress now?
It doesn't matter. The inference is incorrect because it assumes without justification that social values have not changed noticeably in the last two decades.
 
  • #10
jimmysnyder said:
The entire state of Mississippi loves to engage in blatant misrepresentations? I see an ugly pattern here.
I deleted that post. Given how you've been seeing all manner of thoughts that were never expressed, I wouldn't be surprised if you saw an poledancing elephant in that post (even now, after it's been deleted).
 
  • #11
Gokul43201 said:
It doesn't matter.
Finally a voice of reason. It doesn't matter Ivan. Only racists would care.
 
  • #12
jimmysnyder said:
Finally a voice of reason.
What's that? A confession?
 
  • #13
Thread temporarily locked while we try to figure out how to get it back on track...