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By The Skanner News | The Skanner News
Published: 05 January 2010

YORK, Pa. (AP) -- A woman who watched National Guard troops patrol this central Pennsylvania city during racial unrest four decades ago was sworn in Monday as its first Black mayor.
Democrat Kim Bracey said her short-term priorities include establishing a community policing network and attacking blight.
"The slate is clean, and the foundation is ours," she said.
During a frigid outdoor ceremony attended by hundreds, Bracey said York faces social challenges as well as a potential "fiscal tsunami" in the coming years.
"Many of York's most menacing problems have been festering for 50 years or more," she said.
She wants to improve city workers' dealings with the public through training, auditing and rewards for performance.
Bracey, who turns 46 on Tuesday, worked as a top adviser to her predecessor, John Brenner, before quitting a year ago to run for office. She won a four-way primary in the spring and handily beat a Republican in the general election.
York suffered through violent racial unrest in the late 1960s as the city became more multiracial, and two unsolved murders from racial rioting in 1969 resulted in criminal trials against more than a dozen defendants a decade ago.
Bracey is not the city's first woman mayor, however. In her inaugural remarks, Bracey thanked Elizabeth Marshall for breaking that barrier in 1978.

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The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast