Harold Washington

Back in the early eighties, there was still a lot of civil strife in the City of Chicago. Things had possibly come to a head with the assassination of Martin Luther King, but that was hardly the end of it. What really marked a turning point in Chicago was the election of the city's first black mayor, Harold Washington.
Harold Washington passed away from a heart attack 20 years ago this month, on November 25, 1987, at the age of 65 and to commemorate his legacy, WBEZ public radio ran a feature called "Harold". You can hear the program free online at This American Life (www.thislife.org) through their November 9th episode #84.
One of the things that struck me as I began to listen to this episode was how much Chicago has changed over the past 20 years. Back when Washington was elected in 1983, the black and white areas of the city were still very much segregated. The unemployment rate in the black neighborhoods were some 25% and the projects were referred to by city officials as "the colonies". One alderman featured on the WBEZ episode said that the pressing issue in those neighborhoods was cleaning it up, literally, by trying to figure out what to do with all the garbage. But of course, at that point in time, before Chicago had any curbside recycling programs or "blue bag" projects, we all thought our social problems of race and gender were the pinnacle of civil movements. And it's true; we can't move on to issues that require cooperation and citizen involvement if massive portions of our society are externalized.
So now that environmental issues have been pushed up to the forefront, does that mean that we have reached a point in civil society where equality amongst humankind is finally recognized? Well, with the two leading Democratic candidates for President being a black man and a woman, and people putting accepting these candidates as viable ones, it certainly gives one hope.