Arkansas’ capital city elects first black mayor

LITTLE ROCK ( Arkansas): A banking executive and former highway commissioner won a runoff for Little Rock mayor, becoming the first African-American elected to lead Arkansas’ capital six decades after it was the centre of a school desegregation crisis.

Frank Scott, 35, defeated Baker Kurrus on Tuesday in the runoff election for the non-partisan, open seat.

He’ll succeed outgoing Mayor Mark Stodola, who announced earlier this year he wouldn’t seek re-election.

Scott served as an adviser to former Gov Mike Beebe and on the state Highway Commission, and he assembled a coalition that crossed racial and political lines.

His supporters included Demo- cratic state legislators from the area and prominent Republicans such as Will Rockefeller, grandson of Arkansas’ first Republican governor since Reconstruction.

He also was endorsed by New Jersey Sen Cory Booker, a Democrat who’s considering running for president in 2020

Scott had said he wasn’t running to be Little Rock’s first elected black mayor, but had sought to bridge some of the city’s biggest divides: race, income and geography.

“If you believe it’s time to unify this city, let’s do it,” Scott told supporters on Tuesday night.

Little Rock has had two black mayors, but they were elected city directors chosen for the job by fellow board members and not by voters.