Ready to sit in the York mayoral seat: Linked in with neat history stuff: Dec. 2, 2009
An Associated Press reporter and photographer recently caught up with York, Pa.’s Mayor-elect Kim Bracey as she prepared to assume office in January. Here’s an excerpt from the AP story: A little girl who trembled in her house as a National Guard tank rumbled past during York’s chaotic 1969 race riots has grown up to become the first black mayor of the central Pennsylvania city. Kim Bracey, 45, an energetic veteran of the struggling manufacturing city’s improvement efforts will take office in January, to the delight of many African-Americans who thought they would never see a black mayor. “President Obama was one thing, but here in York where few people vote … I really didn’t think I would live to see this take place,” Bracey said in a recent interview at her transition office. (To read more about the interview and to view another photo of Bracey, see below.) Also of interest: Former York, Pa., police chief Tom Chatman ranks high on list of local pioneering minorities and Mattie Chapman’s barrier-breaking legacy apparent in York County 30 years later and A short test of your York black history knowledge – Part III.
Visitors to Washington, D.C., looking to see a piece of York County there have more to visit than just the National Christmas Tree, with its roots in Shiloh.
A painter captured Special Olympian and York native Loretta Claiborne in a portrait of Eunice Shriver at the National Portrait Gallery. Her work is a must visit… .
Until recently, an exhibit featuring first Apalachian Trail through-hiker and York County native Earl Shaffer was available at the Museum of American History in D.C. But visitors can still catch up on Shaffer and his feat at a Smithsonian Web exhibit.
The Corcoran Gallery occasionally exhibits 19th-century York artist Horace Bonham’s “Nearing the issue at the Cockpit.” But you’ll need to check to see if it’s available for public viewing.
Not a bad York County showing in the nation’s capital.
– 20-minute show: The Putz, a large nativity whose story is told with lights and sound, is now open to the public at York’s First Moravian Church. Tours of the beautifully 1910 period style sanctuary are offered along with showings. To see the schedule, visit First Movavian’s Web site.
Post of the day: In her Only York blog, Joan Concilio is collecting words or phrases that are special to York County and that start with a particular letter. See: The ABCs of York County.
Forum of the day, on York bulletin board, The Exchange: Thoughts on York County restaurants that no longer exist.
York Mayor-elect Kim Bracey celebrates on her way into a local restaurant to make her make her acceptance speech on Tuesday, Nov. 3. That day, according to the AP, Bracey was out greeting voters at a polling place when a woman rolled up in a van. Inside was her young daughter, probably 10 or 11, who had wanted to meet Bracey and get her autograph. “We started talking – ‘Well what do you want to be when you grow up?’ – and she wants to be a lawyer,” Bracey said. “I’ll never forget it. It was really humbling to think I came home for this purpose. And here it is, it’s happening. I’m making a little difference here in this little girl’s life.” York Daily Record/Sunday News file photo.
– See additional posts that are part of Linked in/Neat stuff series by clicking here.
