Montgomery, Alabama, swore in its first black mayor last week. It’s fitting. The birthplace of the Confederacy is now majority black.
Steven Reed won last month’s mayoral race in Alabama’s capital city by nearly 35 points against a white opponent. Local blacks were ecstatic. “Tonight is important,” a resident told CNN, “as a person of color, from a place with the history that Montgomery has, to see the city being represented by a person who shares values and understands the history of the city and who understands the struggle of this space is a huge deal.” He said it was like President Obama’s inauguration.
Another black told the Montgomery Advertiser it was vital “to see a black man with the same face as my brothers, my father, my son.” This kind of racial solidarity would be unthinkable among the city’s whites.
The Advertiser wrote that many black residents thought past leaders had “left their needs behind.” They expect Mayor Reed to act differently. He doesn’t sound radical. He mostly talks about improving schools and attracting businesses, but this will be hard. Montgomery, the first capital of the Confederate States of America, is 60 percent black. In 1960, it was almost 65 percent white. ...
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