When was Raleigh, NC founded?
Raleigh, North Carolina
By the early 1970s people in Raleigh were growing increasingly concerned about growth and urban sprawl. Community organizations felt that municipal offices were being too heavily influenced by business interests when the city's population was rapidly growing and various development projects were being proposed. At their behest, the municipal elections were altered so that the mayor was to be directly elected, instead of being selected by the city council. Most city council seats were then made responsible to districts, instead of being held at-large. The 1973 elections were the first contests affected by the reforms. City Councilman Clarence Lightner defeated Raleigh Merchants bureau Executive Director G. Wesley Williams to become Raleigh's first black mayor, and thus the first black mayor in a major white-majority city in the South.[24]