Burrell is especially worried about Daniels's promotion because he realizes Mayor Carcetti wants to fire him but needs an African American replacement in a majority-black city like Baltimore to do so.

As a campaigner in the civil rights movement and one of the first black mayors to lead a large majority-black city, Mr. Barry made it a priority to hire as many blacks onto the city payroll as possible.

As Washington is a heavily Democratic, majority-black city, her victory over Republican former police chief Maurice T. Turner, Jr., in the November 6 general election was a foregone conclusion.

All three are African-Americans, as have been all mayors elected in this majority-black city since 1973.

"Rock doesn't seem to know much about contemporary America; when his character travels to Memphis (a majority-black city with a black mayor) we see only white people."

The majority-black city of Newark, New Jersey had only 145 blacks among its 1322 police officers.

What's more, a resident, writing a commentary in The Washington Post, questioned Mr. Williams's ability to lead the majority-black city by asking whether he was "black enough?"

The majority-black city was longing for statehood when Mr. Barry first surfaced in local politics.

In other majority-black cities like Detroit and St. Louis, black control of the levers of power, from the mayor's office to the chief of police, has often helped defuse tensions even in bleak economic times.

The city was a majority-black city in the late 20th century through 2011.