When Zohran Mamdani won the primary race for New York mayor, the Democratic establishment's lukewarm response echoed the treatment of another charismatic, unconventional candidate decades earlier. This week, we bring you the story of Harold Washington, the greatest politician you've probably never heard of, and the backlash that ensued when he became Chicago's first Black mayor.
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Prologue
A look at the Chicago political machine in the days before our story begins.
Yesterday
A history of the brief mayoral career of Harold Washington, and its lessons for Black and white America, as told by people close to him. Many are activists and politicians: Lu Palmer, Judge Eugene Pincham, Congressman Danny Davis, and then-alderman Eugene Sawyer. There are people from his administration—Jacky Grimshaw and Grayson Mitchell—and some reporters who followed his story: Vernon Jarrett, Monroe Anderson, Gary Rivlin, Laura Washington (who became his press secretary). Harold Washington died on November 25, 1987. This show was first broadcast ten years later, in 1997. (46 minutes)
The Present and the Future
Then, WBEZ reporter Robert Wildeboer talks to some of those voters, in wards where Harold did badly in the 80s, about what changed for them.
And we hear an excerpt from "Dreams From My Father," where Barack Obama writes about what Chicago was like in the days after Harold’s death. (11 minutes)
Song:
Related
Act Four: A Girl's Guide To Mending The Unmendable
Act Two: Government Assistance
Act Three: U-F-No!
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20 Acts in 60 Minutes
All kinds of little stories that we ordinarily can't use on the radio show because they are just too short.
Secrets
Why we tell them, and what happens after we do.