Real Change Comes to Mississippi Town

Philadelphia, Mississippi is the town best known for the killings of three civil rights workers in 1964. And nothing about James Young’s childhood ever made him think he could be the mayor of that town. What Mayor James Young still remembers is the Ku Klux Klan tormenting his neighborhood. He can still see his father holding a gun on the living room couch ready to shoot anyone who threatened his family.

That's the way it was for Black kids growing up in this place of racial hostility -- big dreams were often killed. Sitting on a sprawling Southern front porch, Mayor Young broke down in tears about what it means to be elected the town's first Black mayor. Young described the victory as "an atomic bomb of change." Another resident rejoiced, saying Young's win symbolized the scab finally falling off this town's wound.

Philadelphia was the site of one of the most notorious killings of the civil rights era. On June 21, 1964, three civil rights workers -- James Chaney, a 21-year-old Black man from Mississippi; Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24, both Jewish White men from New York -- were shot to death at the edge of town. The killings inspired the 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning."

The 53-year-old Young was elected the mayor of Philadelphia, a town of about 8,000 in the east-central part of the state. Despite a 55 percent white majority, Young defeated Rayburn Waddell, a White, three-term incumbent, by the slim margin of 46 votes. "I couldn't even have [written] that in a fairy tale," Young said. "Who would have thought a little country boy like me would be mayor of Philadelphia, Mississippi?" The mayor-elect says his election symbolizes a dramatic shift away from his hometown's racist past. And for many Black residents, it means they can finally call this place home. "The places where we were locked out, I'm gonna have the key," he said. "The places we couldn't go, I've got the key."

The groundwork for Mayor Young's climb to the top of Philadelphia's political world started decades ago. Young was one of the first Black students to integrate Philadelphia's White schools. After graduating from high school, he worked in a motor factory and then as a hospital housekeeper. A White boss noticed Young's charming people skills and recommended that he become a paramedic. He eventually worked his way up to become the director of the EMT unit, and that catapulted him to his first elected job as a county supervisor in 1991. He is also a Pentecostal minister preaching on Sunday and organizing weekly Bible studies.