James Perkins
On this date in 2000, in Selma, Alabama, Black businessman James Perkins Jr. defeated white incumbent Joe Smitherman for mayor. Smitherman, a former segregationist, was first elected before the "Bloody Sunday" civil rights march of 1965.
Perkins became the first Black mayor of that pivotal southern city a focal point of the American Civil Rights movement.
Perkins received 6,326 votes, 57 percent of the vote in the nonpartisan runoff which featured a heavy turnout. Smitherman had 4,854 votes, 43 percent.
