Apartheid. USA 1988

[p. 24]

January 27, 1987:

Clarence H Du Burns (68) was sworn in as Baltimore, Maryland's first black Mayor. Mr Burns had worked for 22 years as a locker attendant at a city high school before being elected to the City Council in 1971. He became Mayor automatically when William Donald Schaefer vacated this seat to become Governor of Maryland. ‘What happened to me is a miracle that could only happen in America,’ Mr Burns said. ‘I am at the peak of a personal mountain-top, and the altitude is just fine... There are those who believe my academic credentials are inadequate. There are those who believe that I am not eloquent enough to speak as Mayor. They are entitled to their opinion; this is America, but you know what I think.’ He continued, ‘I will show no partiality to any race, sex, creed, religion or nationality. Nor will I condone such partiality from anyone in my Administration’. Blacks account for slightly more than half of the city's population of about 775 000.^36.

36. The New York Times reported by the Associated Press.