Philadelphia Mississippi Elects First Black Mayor

By: Michael H. Cottman

James Young, a Pentecostal minister and self-described “country boy,” choked back tears while talking about his place in history as the first black mayor of Philadelphia, Mississippi, an infamous town where members of the Ku Klux Klan murdered three civil rights workers in 1964.

"When you've been treated the way we've been treated ... " Young told CNN recently, as he paused to wipe tears from his cheeks. "That's why it's so overwhelming to be a part of this history."

Young told CNN that he still remembers how the Ku Klux Klan tore through his Mississippi neighborhood and how his father once sat on the living room couch cradling a shotgun, prepared to unload on racist intruders.

A Philadelphia native, Young integrated the local elementary school in the 1960s. He was the only black student in his sixth-grade class. And today, Young is mayor of a city that is trying to move beyond its racist past.

Philadelphia Mississippi Elects First Black Mayor....