Negroes Do Well In U.S. Elections

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30900, 5 November 1965, Page 17

Negroes Do Well In U.S. Elections

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) NEW YORK, Nov. 4. Negro candidates brought off a series of political break-throughs in Tuesday’s local elections in four American States. ■_ Seven out of 15 Negro candidates seeking office in Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania were elected to offices ranging from mayor to circuit court judge. In Cleveland, Ohio, Mr Carl Stokes came within 2458 votes of becoming the first Negro mayor of a major American city. Another Negro was eleeted Mayor of

the nearby suburb of Woodmere.

In Chester, Pennsylvania, the scene of racial violence earlier this year, voters chose their first Negro city councillor.

In Wayne County, Michigan, a Negro scored another political first by being elected circuit court judge. But in Boston, Massachusetts, a white woman who had been under attack by civil rights groups over the racial imbalance in schools had an easy victory. A Negro opponent, who came seventh, denounced the outcome as a victory for “bigotry and racism.”