By Mark Potter, NBC News correspondent
Philadelphia, MISS. -- In the 1960s, when he was a child, James Young used to hide behind the couch in his family home as armed Ku Klux Klan thugs prowled through town terrorizing blacks after nightfall. Decades later, Young was elected the first black mayor, by a multi-racial majority in a much different time and place. His swearing in was this morning. "It's just unbelievable that it could happen to me," he said. "Who would have thought that I would be the mayor of Philadelphia, Mississippi?"
Although Philadelphia has changed dramatically since the '60s, much of the world still remembers it as the site of one of the worst moments in the history of the U.S. civil rights movement. In June, 1964, three young civil rights activists-- Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner-- were murdered on a dark and lonely road by Klansmen, after the three had come to town as part of the Freedom Summer movement, an effort to register blacks to vote. (See archival video from iCue here.)
The killings threw a harsh national spotlight on Philadelphia and led to an intense FBI search for the bodies and the killers, which was dramatized in the 1988 movie, "Mississippi Burning."
Philadelphia is intent on revising its image and washing away the stain. "I've always believed in this town, this community and know that there was an underlying decency," said Jim Prince, the publisher of the Neshoba Democrat, the local newspaper. "I think you've seen that sort of decency raise up here in electing James Young."
"The community has emerged together to make things better for everybody in Philadelphia," said Nettie Cox, a long-time resident and political activist who is African-American.
Watch an interview with James Young
Mayor Young, who is also a minister at an area church, agrees that times have changed for the better and that his election is an important symbol of that. "It's a heart change. Has every heart changed? No. But the majority are moving in the right direction."
With his election in a town that is 55 percent white, Young insists he will govern fairly and represent everyone here. The memory of the slain civil rights workers weighs heavy on him. "We can't forget what they gave up and sacrificed, their families. It's a constant reminder."
That memory is also why so many people from around the world have been electrified by Young's election. He has been called from all over the United States, Europe and Japan. "After listening to so many calls and e-mails from elderly, white, black crying on the phone and me being choked up because they're crying, and the more they do it, the more I realize, my God, this is something extraordinary that happened before us," he said.
Watch the NBC Nightly News report here.
