York Town Square

With a landslide win Tuesday night, Kim Bracey became York, Pa.’s first black mayor and third woman to hold that office since 1887. Also of interest: Mattie Chapman, first black elected county official profiled, Pioneering women in state politics and 10 years ago, York’s exclusive Lafayette Club became less exclusive.

The election of Kim Bracey as the first black person to hold the mayoral seat in York City and Chuck Patterson as the first black person to sit on the bench in York County calls for an updating of the list of political and community firsts.

Patterson also became the second person of color – and the first male – to win countywide office. Mattie Chapman gained election to the post of prothonotary in 1975.

Here are updated lists of pioneers, plus an updated list of York mayors since 1887, when York became a city:

Friends and campaign workers greet Chuck Patterson, York County’s first black judge, Tuesday night. (For another photo of Judge Patterson, see below.)

York City School District
First Latino school board president: Jeanette Torres
First Latino school board member: Vilma Garcia-Jones
First Latino school superintendent: Carlos Lopez
First black school board member: W. Russell Chapman.
First black female school board member: Doris Sweeney
First black school board president: Douglas Smallwood
First black school superintendent: Frederick D. Holliday
First black female superintendent: Tresa Diggs
First black homecoming queen, William Penn High School: Linda Woodward
York City
First appointed female mayor of York: Jessie M. Gross
First female candidate for York mayor (1973 Dem. primary): Genevieve Ray
First elected female mayor of York: Elizabeth Marshall
First elected black mayor of York: Kim Bracey
First black chief of police: Thomas Chatman
First black male member of city council: Roy Borom
First black female member of city council: Carol Hill-Evans
First black candidate for mayor: Ray Crenshaw
First black female candidate for mayor: C. Kim Bracey
First black city controller: Charles B. Walker
First Latino York City Council member: Abe Amoros
York County
First black elected York County county official/row officer: Mattie Chapman, prothonotary
First black elected male county official: Chuck Patterson
First female county commissioner: Lorraine Hovis
First female York County Common Pleas Court judge: Sheryl Dorney
First black York County Common Pleas Court judge candidate (2005): Chuck Patterson
First black York County Common Pleas Court judge: Chuck Patterson.
Legislature
First female state representative: Jane Alexander, 1964
Other community positions
First black member, York College board: Bobby Simpson
First black member, York County Chamber of Commerce Board: Bobby Simpson
First black chairman, York County Chamber of Commerce: Vernon Bracey
First black member, Lafayette Club: Vernon Bracey
First black member, Country Club of York: George Ruffin
First black nurse, Memorial Hospital: Mary E. White
First black York Hospital board member: Joseph Douglas
First black Wellspan board member: Daniel Elby
First female member, York County Bar: Mary Jane Yohe (1949)
+++
Mayors of York:
Daniel K. Noell, 1887-1893.
George W.S. Loucks, 1893-1896.
Charles W. Brandt, 1896-1899.
Frank Geise, 1899-1900.
Robert Gibson, 1900-1902.
Milton Gibson, 1902-1905.
J. St. Clair McCall, 1905-1908.
Jacob E. Weaver, 1908-1911.
John R. Lafean, 1911-1916.

E.S. Hugentugler, 1916-1928.
Jacob E. Weaver, 1928-1932.
Harry B. Anstine, 1932-1942.
Harvey Werner, 1942-1944.
John L. Snyder, 1944-1948.
Felix Bentzel, 1948-1952.
Howard Eyster, 1952-1956.
Fred A. Schiding, 1956-1962.
John L. Snyder, 1962-1969.
Jesse M. Gross, 1969-1970.
Eli Eichelberger, 1970-1974.
John D. Krout, 1974-1978.
Elizabeth M. Marshall, 1978-1982.
William J. Althaus, 1982-1994.
Charlie Robertson, 1994-2002.
John Brenner, 2002 – present
Kim Bracey, 2010 –

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Chuck Patterson of the District Attorney’s Office finishes taping a segment of ‘Forensic Files’ in 2006.

(Sources for information about Mattie Chapman and the “firsts” above: James McClure’s “Never to be Forgotten,” “Almost Forgotten,” various newspaper accounts. Also, Georg Sheets’ “Lawyers and Leaders.”)