Raised in a political family on Chicago's South Side, Harold Washington made history as the city's first African American mayor. His 1983 electoral triumph, fueled by overwhelming black support, represented victory over the Chicago Machine and business as usual. Yet the racially charged campaign heralded an era of bitter political divisiveness that obstructed his efforts to change city government. Roger Biles's sweeping biography provides a definitive account of Washington and his journey from the state legislature to the mayoralty. Once in City Hall, Washington confronted the back room deals, aldermanic thuggery, open corruption, and palm greasing that fueled the city's autocratic political regime. His alternative: a vision of fairness, transparency, neighborhood empowerment, and balanced economic growth at one with his emergence as a dynamic champion for African American uplift and a crusader for progressive causes. Biles charts the countless infamies of the Council Wars era and Washington's own growth through his winning of a second term—a promise of lasting reform left unfulfilled when the mayor died in 1987. Original and authoritative, Mayor Harold Washington redefines a pivotal era in Chicago's modern history.|Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Race, Reform, and Redistribution 1
1 From Machine Regular to Progressive Democrat 15
2 The Plan and the Man 53
3 The Devalued Prize 105
4 Chicago Works Together 145
5 Balanced Growth 189
6 In Search of a Mandate 231
7 The Final Months 270
8 Harold Washington and Chicago 307
Notes 331
Index 377
Photographs follow page 181| "This is a must read for all who seek valuable insight into Mayor Harold Washington—the man, his administration, and the power struggle that accompanied the election of Chicago's first African American mayor."—David Orr
"Highly recommended." —Choice
"One of the most comprehensive overviews to date of Washington's politics and policies while in office." —South Side Weekly
|Roger Biles is Professor Emeritus of History at Illinois State University. His books include Richard J. Daley: Politics, Race, and the Governing of Chicago and The Fate of Cities: Urban America and the Federal Government, 1945-2000.