Harold Lee Washington (April 15, 1922 – November 25, 1987) was an American politician and lawyer who was the 51st mayor of Chicago from 1983 until his death in 1987. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first Black person to hold the office.
Entering politics as a critic of Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley, Washington served in both houses of the Illinois General Assembly. He was subsequently elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1980 and was reelected in 1982. He ran for Mayor of Chicago in the 1983 election. During the Democratic primary, he defeated incumbent mayor Jane Byrne and State's Attorney Richard M. Daley, son of the late mayor. Many members of the city's ethnic white Democratic political machine backed his Republican opponent, Bernard Epton, in the general election. However, Washington prevailed, winning the close race.
Washington's first term as mayor was dominated by a racially polarized political conflict dubbed the Council Wars. A 29-alderman majority on the Chicago City Council, led by Edward Vrdolyak and Edward Burke, battled Washington and effectively blocked his agenda. Running for reelection in 1987, he won the Democratic primary against former mayor Jane Byrne. He went on to defeat Vrdolyak in the general election, expanding upon his 1983 margins. Starting his second term with a supportive majority on the city council, the Council Wars largely subsided. However, Washington died in office a few months later.
Considered one of the most prominent Black elected officials of the 1980s, Washington's progressive agenda and multi-racial political coalition inspired many, including future President Barack Obama. Multiple Chicago landmarks are named in honor of Washington, including the Chicago Public Library's main branch and one of the city's community colleges.
Biography Ancestry The earliest known ancestor of Harold Lee Washington, Isam/Isham Washington, was born a slave in 1832 in North Carolina. In 1864, he enlisted in the 8th United States Colored Heavy Artillery, Company L, in Paducah, Kentucky. Following his discharge in 1866, he began farming with his wife, Rebecca Neal, in Ballard County, Kentucky. Among their six children was Isam/Isom McDaniel (Mack) Washington, who was born in 1875. In 1896, Mack Washington married Arbella Weeks of Massac County, who had been born in Mississippi in 1878. In 1897, their first son, Roy L. Washington, father of Harold Washington, was born in Ballard County, Kentucky. In 1903, shortly after both families moved to Massac County, Illinois, the elder Washington died. After farming for a time, Mack Washington became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church, serving numerous churches in Illinois until the death of his wife in 1952. Reverend I.M.D. Washington died in 1953.
Early life and education Harold Lee Washington was born on April 15, 1922, at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, to Roy and Bertha Washington. While still in high school in Lawrenceville, Illinois, Roy met Bertha from nearby Carrier Mills and the two married in 1916 in Harrisburg, Illinois. At a time when most African Americans and Chicago residents supported the Republican Party, Roy Washington was one of the first black precinct captains for the Chicago Democratic Party; he also worked as a lawyer and Methodist minister.Hamlish Levinsohn, p. 246, relates that Washington identified himself with his grandfather and father Roy's Methodist background. notes that at age 4, Harold and his brother, 6, were sent to a private Benedictine school in Wisconsin. The arrangement lasted one week before they ran away from the school and hitchhiked home. After three more years and thirteen escapes, Roy placed Harold in Chicago city public schools.
Bertha left the family, possibly to seek her fortune as a singer, when Harold was four. Harold Washington grew up in Douglas, Chicago a neighborhood on the city's South Side that was the center of black culture for the entire Midwest in the early and middle 20th century. Edward and Harold stayed with their father, while Roy Jr. and Geneva were cared for by their grandparents. After attending St. Benedict the Moor Boarding School in Milwaukee from 1928 to 1932, Washington attended DuSable High School, a new racially segregated public school, from 1936 to 1939. In a citywide track meet in 1939, Washington claimed first place in the 110-meter high hurdles and second place in the 220-meter low hurdles, playing a key role in the school's victory in the Chicago Public League Championship that year.
Washington left high school during his senior year and joined the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1939. He later worked at a meatpacking plant before his father helped him get a job at the U.S. Treasury branch in the city. There he met Nancy Dorothy Finch, whom he married soon after; Washington was 19 and Dorothy was 17.
Military service In 1942, Washington was drafted into the United States Army for the war effort and, after basic training, sent overseas as part of the 1887th Engineer Aviation Battalion, a racially segregated unit of the Air Force Engineers. Washington was part of a unit that built a bomber landing strip on Angaur island in Palau in just 29 days, an action that earned the unit a Meritorious Service Unit Award. Eventually, Washington rose to the rank of First Sergeant in the Army Air Forces; he was honorably discharged in 1946 and was awarded his high school diploma from DuSable.Harold, the People's Mayor, The Biography of Harold Washington Dempsey Travis, 2017.
Roosevelt College In the summer of 1946, Washington, aged 24 and a war veteran, enrolled at Roosevelt College (now Roosevelt University).Hamlish Levinsohn (1983), pp. 42–43. Washington joined other groups of students not permitted to enroll in other local colleges. Local estimates place the student population of Roosevelt College at about 1/8 black and 1/2 Jewish. A full 75% of the students had enrolled because of the "nondiscriminatory progressive principles". Washington chaired a student fundraising drive, and then was named to a committee that supported citywide efforts to outlaw "restrictive covenants" in housing, the legal means by which members of ethnic minority groups (especially blacks and, to a lesser extent, Jews) were prohibited from purchasing real estate in predominantly white neighborhoods of the city.Hamlish Levinsohn (1983), p. 44.
In 1946, Washington was elected the third president of Roosevelt's student council; he was also the first black student to win that office. Washington saw Henry A. Wallace as an influence. Under his leadership, the student council successfully petitioned the college to have student representation on Roosevelt's faculty committees. At the first regional meeting of the newly founded National Student Association in the spring of 1948, Washington and nine other delegates proposed student representation on college faculties, and a "Bill of Rights" for students; both measures were roundly defeated.Hamlish Levinsohn (1983), pp. 51–53. The next year, Washington went to the state capital at Springfield to protest Illinois legislators' coming probe of "subversives". The probe would outlaw the Communist Party and require "loyalty oaths" for teachers. Washington led students' opposition to the bills, which would pass later in 1949.
During his college years, Washington came to be known for his stability. His friends said that he had a "remarkable ability to keep cool", reason carefully and walk a middle line. Washington intentionally avoided activities considered extremist, including street actions and sit-ins against racially segregated restaurants and businesses. Overall, Washington and other radical activists ended up sharing a mutual respect for each other, acknowledging both Washington's pragmatism and the activists' idealism. With the opportunities found only at Roosevelt College in the late 1940s, Washington's time at the Roosevelt College proved to be pivotal.Hamlish Levinsohn (1983), pp. 54–55, 59, 62. Washington graduated in August 1949, with a Bachelor of Arts degree. In addition to his activities at Roosevelt, he was a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.Hamlish Levinsohn (1983), p. 63.
Northwestern University School of Law In 1949, Washington began studies at the Northwestern University School of Law. where he was the only black student in his class (there were six women in the class, one of them being Dawn Clark Netsch). In 1951, his last year, he was elected treasurer of the Junior Bar Association (JBA). The election was largely symbolic, however, and Washington's attempts to give the JBA more authority at Northwestern were largely unsuccessful.Hamlish Levinsohn (1983), p. 66. On campus, Washington joined the Nu Beta Epsilon fraternity, largely because he and the other people who were members of ethnic minority groups which constituted the fraternity were blatantly excluded from the other fraternities on campus. Overall, Washington stayed away from the activism that defined his years at Roosevelt. During the evenings and weekends, he worked to supplement his GI Bill income. He received his JD in 1952.Hamlish Levinsohn (1983), pp. 68–70.
While attending law school, Washington divorced from his wife Dorothy in 1950; they had no children and had often lived separately during their marriage.
Early political career After completing law school, Washington went into private practice with his father in 1952. His law office was near those of Ralph Metcalfe, former Olympic track athlete turned Chicago city alderman for the Third Ward. Following his father's death in 1953, Washington succeeded his father as Third Ward precinct captain in 1954 and became an assistant prosecutor with the Chicago corporation counsel office. Richard J. Daley was elected party chairman in 1952. Daley replaced C.C. Wimbush, an ally of William Dawson, on the party committee with Metcalfe. Under Metcalfe, the 3rd Ward was a critical factor in Daley's 1955 mayoral election victory and ranked first in the city in the size of its Democratic plurality in 1961.Hamlish Levinsohn (1983), p. 75. While working under Metcalfe, Washington began to organize the 3rd Ward's Young Democrats (YD) organization. At YD conventions, the 3rd Ward would push for numerous resolutions in the interest of blacks. Eventually, other black YD organizations would come to the 3rd Ward headquarters for advice on how to run their own organizations. Like he had at Roosevelt College, Washington avoided radicalism and preferred to work through the party to engender change.Hamlish Levinsohn (1983), pp. 86–90. While working with the Young Democrats, Washington met Mary Ella Smith. They dated for the next 20 years, and in 1983 Washington proposed to Smith. In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Smith said that she never pressed Washington for marriage because she knew Washington's first love was politics, saying, "He was a political animal. He thrived on it, and I knew any thoughts of marriage would have to wait. I wasn't concerned about that. I just knew the day would come."