Know Your Mayors (Entry 10)- Durham, NC's Bill Bell

Municipal Elections are underway in many parts of the United States, including North Carolina.

The City of Durham, NC, is a college town (ironically so is Durham, NH) which is home to Duke University. But, the city is also known for the famous minor baseball team the Durham Bulls, which recently won the Triple-A World Series (see Sept. entry).

Bill Bell (pictured above) serves as the mayor of Durham, which has approximately 263,000 residents.

Bell, a Howard University alumnus, was first elected to office in 2001 and he was twice re-elected in 2003 and 2005.

The Durham mayor is among those seeking re-election in November, along with the likes of Greensboro's mayor Yvonne Johnson (see last entry in the series). Bell will be challenged by Steven Williams (I), also an African-American.

Bell is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, a bi-partisan group started by Boston mayor Tom Menino (subject of entry 14 in this series) and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg (when Bloomberg was a Republican as opposed to an independent).

The Durham mayor was challenged in 2005 by Thomas Stith (R) over a range of city issues, including violence. Stith charged that Bell needed to supply the city with more police officers.

Bell won the election over Stith with 58 percent of the vote.

The City of Durham is also part of the Research Triangle, which also includes the cities of Raleigh and Chapel Hill. Durham is also home to the mostly African-American college North Carolina Central.

Some four years ago, an incident between a female North Carolina Central student and Duke lacrosse players resulted in a famous scandal which lead to the resignation of Durham County's district attorney Mike Nifong.