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Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the death of Harold Washington. The Chicago of 1983 was very different from the Chicago of 2007: factories were shutting down, and white middle-class homeowners were leaving the city in droves, taking their property taxes and urban stability with them. An alarming upswing in crime and drugs, coupled with escalating racial tensions left many Chicagoans nervous about the future. Richard J. Daley had been dead for seven years, and the power vacuum he left behind was filled with political chaos. It was this Chicago that Harold Washington inherited in 1983.
Although he ran as an anti-Machine reform candidate, the media labeled Washington as the "black candidate." Chicago Democratic Party chairman Ed Vrdolyak, a white Machine hack from the far South Side, declared that the election was a battle between the races. In the neighborhoods, "Whites for Epton" buttons appeared, and white voters rejected Washington, voting instead for Republican Bernard Epton, whose campaign slogan was "Before It's Too Late." After the election, Vrdolyak, who was also the 10th Ward Alderman, established a voting bloc of 28 other white aldermen in the city council who opposed Washington, and together they blocked many of the reforms he tried to enact. This video from Image Union, written and produced by Lynn Sweet, shows about 45 commercials from the 1983 mayoral race, pretty much in chronological order, and gives a glimpse of Chicago during the campaign.
The Trib's Clarence Page called Washington's victory "a triumph of civil rights movement politics over America's last big-city political machine," and that analysis explains more about the Washington years than any other. Washington worked to make his administration inclusive at a time when many feared it would be about black retribution. His leadership gave progressive and independent voices a stake in the future of the city, regardless of class or race. He worked to open the doors of city government to many Chicagoans who had previously been excluded, settling the Shakman case, cutting the city's payroll, and working to eliminate patronage. He invested city resources into the neighborhoods, including white wards where he was opposed. He worked with community and neighborhood groups to enact legislation that improved life for all city residents, including the Tenants Bill of Rights.
The narrative of the Washington legacy is that he broke down barriers, clearing the way for women and minorities to serve in city government. But his legacy left us with the notion that city government can be transparent and open, equal and fair. Although more powerful forces prevailed after Washington's death, the ideals and values of Harold Washington are still with us. Washington broke with tradition in Chicago, bringing outsiders and professionals into city government, giving them positions of authority that had been previously reserved for friends of the Machine. More than any local politician since, Harold Washington represented the best of what Chicago can be.
You can listen to This American Life's retrospective on Harold Washington here
For an in-depth look at Harold Washington and his times, check out Gary Rivlin's book, Fire on the Prairie.
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It was 29 alderbeasts counting Eddy V.
Washington was imperfect, there were scandals during his terms, but he was a damn site better than the current occupant of the 5th floor. At least the man had a genuine and hearty laugh.
The man was not perfect, but a million times better than Daley or anyone else in the last 40 years (including Daley I).
There is one thing he had that nobody else has had. He actually cared about the city and its citizens across the board. I still remember coming home from school in an all white (Irish) neighborhood and having me father tell us that for the first time in his life he'd seen the mayor outside inspecting the neighborhood.
Never ever seen Daley in the neighborhood. Nor Jane Byrne or Sawyer or anyone else. Never saw them spend a dollar on the streets and sidewalks and sewers in that particular neighborhood either.
Yet, the neighborhood was 100% (including us for the first few years) in the anti-Washington camp.
Sickening in retrospect. Is it too much to ask that we can look at a candidate today and believe they actually care about the whole and not their little piece?
I've longed believed that a substantial amount of Mayor Daley's success is largely based on the foundation Harold Washignton laid while he was mayor. I wasn't old enough to vote in the '87 general election (wouldn't turn eighteen until June of that year) but there was a palpable sense of optimism with Washington's re-election. He beat Ed Vrdolyak by a considerable margin that March and held the tie-breaking vote on any deadlocks in City Council. His un-served second term remains one of the great "What if's?" in this city's history.
Harold Washington was in term when the orange line was finished.
Daley was in term when the pink line was finished.
winner: HW
http://www.chicago-l.org/operations/lines/midway.html
The Orange Line opened in 1993 under Daley though construction began under Washington in 1985. Reagan and Washington cut a funding deal as a favor for Lipinski's vote on a issue important to Reagan. Construction on the O'Hare Blue Line extension began in 1979 and finished under Washington in 1984.
It's a shame he did not live for at least his entire second term.
Reagan and Washington cut a funding deal as a favor for Lipinski's vote on a issue important to Reagan.
That's what made Washington so different from the rest of the idealists and lakefront liberals. He not only was he not averse to cutting a deal, he enjoyed the horse trading that came with politics.
Yeah, Harold Washington WAS IN OFFICE WHEN THE ORANGE LINE WAS FINISHED IN 1993. I still remember it like it was yesterday.
It's ridiculous that we never got to see Harold Washington finish things out. That plan for the Orange Line began in the 1930s, and none of the Mayors of this city ever did a darned thing about it until Harold.
Today, we have a Leperchaun King who thinks he knows whats good for this city. Let me fill you in on something: he doesn't. Don't ask me why, he just doesn't. Harold lives on in infamy, as he should. They just don't make people like him anymore, and it's ridiculous.
Kevin knows the score on this one.
What happened to the video?
That dude inspired me long before I could even vote. I still have the blue and white button I wore like a badge in grade school. I remember reading a story before the election about women who had just cashed her check for 800 dollars. Some kid ran up and snatched her purse. She was crying and beside when the police responded and took her home. When the police walked her to her door, some one picked the lock, (CHA) put the purse inside the door and left. When the police and the women checked the purse, the money was all there, but her Harold Washington button was the only thing missing.
I hate the bastard for dying on me, yea I said it and yea I'm crazy.
p.s any body interested in reading about "that time", check out "Fire on the Prairie: Chicago's Harold Washington and the Politics of Race:
p.p.s Perhaps If Barack O'Bama spent more time studying Harold instead of pandering to his ambition, his now dwindling campaign might have been about an actual growing inspired base as opposed to a few white pubic radio types and some well dressed African-Americans who attend mega churches with cash ATM's machines in-between the crosses lead by CEO ministers
That This American Life episode on Harold is phenomenal, by the way, at least for someone like me who didn't grow up in Chicago and didn't know his story.
Joel: That video has been the bane of my existence these last few weeks. Cobbled together from video, and then digitized (also from video), it's been difficult to handle. Plus it's large (80MB).
For whatever reason, it's not on Vimeo anymore. BUT! You can download it here.
Kevin, the video was deleted because Vimeo only allows original content. They're very good about patrolling their site. That's why it was deleted.
As a Chicago transplant, I didn't know the history of Harold Washington. Thanks for your insight; it sparked my own research.