James Perkins
PROFESSION: Politician
First black mayor of Selma, Alabama, site of the famous "Bloody Sunday" civil rights march to Montgomery. Beat out incumbant,Joe Smitherman , who had held the seat of mayor for 36 years. When he became mayor in 2000, white residents erected a cast-iron statue of Nathan Beford Forrest, a Confederate General and founder of the Ku Klux Klan, on city owned property.
First black mayor of Selma, Alabama, site of the famous "Bloody Sunday" civil rights march to Montgomery. Beat out incumbant,Joe Smitherman , who had held the seat of mayor for 36 years. When he became mayor in 2000, white residents erected a cast-iron statue of Nathan Beford Forrest, a Confederate General and founder of the Ku Klux Klan, on city owned property.
