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Granted such caveats, the elections nonetheless mark a new point of departure in American politics. They answer at least in part the growing demands of moderate Negro leaders like the Urban League's Whitney Young to "give us some victories" to offset the revolutionary preachings of black extremists. Even more important, the success of Stokes and Hatcher underscores an important new stage in the Negro's political evolution. Neither of the new mayors fits the traditional mold of the ghetto politician, seeking and getting solely Negro support and campaigning principally on racial issues in the style of Adam Clayton Powell. Nor are they products of the Negro middle class such as HEW Secretary Robert Weaver and Edward Brooke, who as public personages seem so nearly white that the Negro workingman is hard put to identify with them.
Stokes and Hatcher were both born in the slums, both reared in grinding poverty. While they embody the Negro's quest for social recognition and economic advancement, they ran and were elected on their ability to represent the entire community. They have shown a sophistication and professionalism rarely seen in Negro campaigns. Further, as big-city mayors, they break the tradition whereby most Negro politicians have been forced to settle for legislative or judicial office. Running a city is one of the most demanding jobs in American politics, and one that more intimately affects the day-to-day lives of the voters than any other office.
"Cool for Carl." While a few extremists dismissed the elections as "tokenism," black militants purposefully helped Stokes and Hatcher by avoiding violence in their cities this past summer. In Cleveland the byword was "Cool it for Carl." The more moderate majority of Negroes, who all too often in the past have been too apathetic, fearful or despairing to use the ballot as an effective weapon, this time showed rare cohesion and voted their interests. If bloc voting wins no seal of approval in civics texts, it has been the device by which every ethnic group in American history has exerted and earned its political muscle.
Negroes, in some cases with white help, also showed new strength in lesser contests. In the racially mixed Richmond district, Dr. William Ferguson Reid became the first Negro elected to the Virginia legislature since 1891. Charles City County, Va., elected a Negro sheriff, James M. Bradby, and a county clerk, lona Adkins. Bradby defeated a white incumbent of 43 years' standing. In New Orleans, Attorney Ernest Morial won a seat in Louisiana's state legislature. In Mississippi, Holmes County's Robert Clarke was elected, thus integrating the state legislature, while six other Negroes won posts as county supervisors, justices of the peace and constables.
Boston Negroes, who constitute only 13% of the population, had the triple satisfaction of defeating Mrs. Hicks and her loyal anti-integration ally, School Committeeman William O'Connor, while helping to elect Thomas Atkins to the city council. Atkins, 28, who has a master's degree from Harvard in Near Eastern studies and is former executive secretary of Boston's N.A.A.C.P. chapter, will be the first Negro on the council in 16 years.