50 Years Ago This Week: Cleveland’s Carl Stokes Becomes A New Mayor for a New Era

Milestone moments do not a year make. Often, it’s the smaller news stories that add up, gradually, to big history. With that in mind, in 2017 TIME History will revisit the entire year of 1967, week by week, as it was reported in the pages of TIME. Catch up on last week’s installment here.

Week 46: Nov. 17, 1967

Cleveland's newly elected Mayor Carl Stokes made the cover of TIME this week, but he was only one example of a striking phenomenon, embodied in Gary, Ind.