For a dozen fat years the Democrats have owned Philadelphia. To dispirited Republicans, the prospects for this fall's city election appeared so bleak that party leaders ran through 57 men before finding one to oppose affable, lackluster Democratic Mayor James H. (for Hugh) J. (for Joseph) Tate. They finally settled for Lawyer James Thomas McDermott, 37, who twice before had run for office and been badly beaten.
It ail promised to be rather cut and dried. But that was before the City of Brotherly Love sweated through a long, hot summer of less than brotherly racial strifeĀand before many white Philadelphians...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
