Many people probably thought it would be a whole lot easier for America to elect a Black president than for York, Pa., to elect a Black mayor.

That’s because the south central Pennsylvania city, which is about 60-percent White, 25-percent African American and 17-percent Latino, was once locked in racial animus. In 1969, York was embroiled in weeks of race rioting, and the killings of a White police officer and African-American woman went unsolved for decades.

On Tuesday, remembrances of those bygone days gave way to a new era when Democrat Kim Bracey beat Republican Wendell Banks to become the city’s first Black mayor. Democratic voters in York outnumber Republicans by nearly 2 to 1. Bracey is the city's former director of community development.