 Nevertheless, discrimination persisted in areas like employment and housing.Shut out of the town's political leadership since the 1880s, when two blacks had served on the city council, African-Americans regained a foothold by winning a school-board seat in 1968 and a city-council seat in 1971.This political breakthrough was matched by Hispanics, whose numbers had reached 39,399 by 1970, or 16 percent of the population.