[1] Milner largely grew up on Hartford's South End, though he spent some parts of his youth living in Asylum Hill.

While in college, a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. inspired Milner to pursue a life of public service.

[2] Milner worked as a hospital orderly, a clerk at a drug store, an insurance salesman, an anti-poverty worker, and a civil rights activist.

Athanson had won the first primary by 94 votes but it was re-run after Milner contested the results and a court agreed that there had been irregularities.

Milner was elected mayor in a three-way race against Independent Robert F. Ludgin and Republican Michael T. McGarry.