A quarter of a century ago, a freshman state representative from the South Side made history by becoming the city’s first Black mayor. Harold Washington was elected the city’s 51st mayor April 12, 1983.
Already a politician, but not looking to lead the city, Washington was pegged to run for mayor by several community activists and journalists such Lu Palmer and Vernon Jarrett.
Washington, according to a former aide and a South Side alderman, said he would consider a mayoral run, but based on a few conditions: campaign dollars had to reach at least $250,000 and there had to be a minimum of 100,000 newly registered voters during his quest for office.
The prerequisites were well on their way to being fulfilled and Washington’s campaign was in full force, but there were obstacles.
“His candidacy was not a popular one. His main support base came from the Black community, and he struggled to find a toe-hold in the white community,” said William “Dock” Walls, a former aide to Washington.
The mayoral hopeful hit the streets to gain the residents’ support, but some weren’t listening. A more aggressive grassroots approach had to be developed if Washington was to have a chance at being elected, Walls said.
Washington took his message wherever he could and participated in four mayoral debates. He did well in all the debates, but it was the last debate, broadcast on the city’s public broadcast station, WTTW-Ch. 11, that sealed the deal for his election, he said.
Washington won the three-way primary election in February 1983 against incumbent mayor Jane Byrne and Richard M. Daley, current mayor and then-Cook County State’s Attorney. Two months later in the general election, he beat Republican Bernard Epton for the mayoral office. “I knew he was going to win when I left my office one day and I saw this sea of blue.
There were blue ‘Harold Washington’ buttons on just about everyone on State Street,” recalled Cliff Kelley, former 20th Ward alderman who served on the City Council during Washington’s tenure. Washington went on to be win a second term as mayor in 1987, but died of a heart attack a few months after the term began.
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