The Vault

CHICAGO (CBS) ― In 1983, Chicago was a metropolis in transition.

The service and financial industries were booming in the Loop and surrounding areas, but the once-broad shoulders of heavy industry were drooping badly. The Union Stockyards had been gone for 12 years, and now the Southeast Side steel mills were meeting their demise as a consequence of economic change. Once-highly paid blue collar workers were standing in unemployment lines.

The city's share of the state taxes had declined dramatically. The Chicago Public Schools were widely seen as a failure, and were $202 million under budget. Public housing developments that had been built under the senior Mayor Daley were deteriorating and ridden with crime. The CTA was demanding $95 million from the Regional Transportation Authority, and much like in 2007, they were warning of a financial crisis.

And the influence of old-time machine politics was beginning to peter out, but it was still blamed for a deep racial divide in the city. Under the administration of Mayor Richard J. Daley and earlier, African-American aldermen consistently delivered votes for the machine, but were not rewarded with city services in the same fashion as Caucasian wards. The city was often called the most segregated in the country, and unemployment in African-American wards far exceeded that in white wards, particularly politically-connected ones.

It was this Chicago that Harold Washington inherited as its first African-American mayor. Here is a look at how he got there. 

 February 1983: The Democratic Primary
 February-April 1983: A City Divided
 April 12, 1983: Election Day
 April 29, 1983: Washington Enters Office


February: The Democratic Primary
In 1979, Mayor Jane Byrne was elected on a platform of political independence and reform, and a large number of African-American Chicagoans turned out to vote for her. But she angered many of them when she appointed three white commissioners to the board of the Chicago Housing Authority.

In protest, the Rev. Jesse Jackson led a boycott of ChicagoFest, a city-sponsored summer music festival at Navy Pier, and disappointment in her administration mounted among African-Americans, as well as Latinos, and predominantly white progressives who lived in lakefront wards who had also supported Byrne.

Calls for an African-American mayoral candidate for the 1983 race mounted, and new voters began registering. The candidate they had in mind was Washington, a 60-year-old World War II veteran who had gained an understanding of the old Machine as a Democratic precinct captain, and had gone on to serve in the Illinois House and Senate. He had lost a bid for mayor in a special election in 1977, and was serving in Congress when he was asked to consider running again.

Initially, Rep. Washington was less than enthusiastic about running for mayor. He said he would run only if $1 million were raised in campaign funds, and most importantly, 50,000 new voters were registered.

"He used 50,000 knowing that no way in the world are they going to come up with 50,000 new registered voters," late journalist and political activist Lu Palmer told the public radio program "This American Life." "It was hard in those days to come up with 50,000 new registered voters."

But the goal was met with little trouble. Beginning in the fall of 1982, new African-American voters registered first by the thousands, then by the tens of thousands. And ultimately, 130,000 new voters had been registered. Finally, Washington declared his candidacy, pitted against Byrne and then-Cook County State's Attorney Richard M. Daley.

Three-way debates between the candidates began on Jan. 18, 1983. Critics said Washington stood out against Daley and Byrne, for his aptitude at public speaking and willingness to address specific issues in city government that he believed needed to be changed, including patronage hiring, police misconduct and taxes.

While he strived to engage all Chicagoans, Washington was also openly critical of old-time political bosses, including the elder Mayor Daley, who had died in 1976. The senior Daley was still beloved by many in white Chicago, but he was remembered by many in African-American Chicago for warehouse-like public housing, highways that segregated neighborhoods, and his handling of the unrest that followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.

"I regret anyone dying. I have no regrets about him leaving. He was a racist from the core, head to toe, and hip to hip," Washington said in comments replayed on "This American Life."

Meanwhile, reports surfaced that several years earlier, Washington had been convicted of failing to file tax returns, although the taxes in question had been withheld and paid. He had been sentenced to a jail term and his law license had been temporarily suspended as a result.

Mike Royko, then with the Chicago Sun-Times, wrote in a November 1982 column: "It's not that he just didn't file those returns… it's that he never provided what I consider a reasonable explanation. If he had said something like, 'Look, I was going through a mid-life crisis… my private life was in turmoil… I split with a girlfriend and fell apart.' But 'I forgot' as an excuse? That's pretty thin since his birthday is April 15."

The column infuriated Washington, and his supporters resented talk of the conviction as personal attacks.

"I've made mistakes in my life," Washington said during his campaign. "I'm not proud of them, but I'll tell you, I've paid an inordinate price."

Critics also questioned the fact that Washington was not married. Washington said the issue was irrelevant to his campaign.

On the eve of the primary election on Feb. 21, crowds of Washington supporters held candles and sang "We Shall Overcome," hoping that after years of the city being run by a political machine they had felt neglected them, Washington could bring fairness.

Washington won 36 percent of the vote, compared to 34 percent for Byrne and 30 percent for Daley. The nominee declared victory in the wee hours of the morning on Feb. 23, 1983.

"(The people of Chicago) want City Hall to be purged of every appearance of criminal influence, inside dealing and corruption. In Chicago, the people want an open and fair government, in which all the people of Chicago, regardless of race, creed or color, be treated fairly, equally and equitably," Washington said in his victory speech. "By today's vote, the Democratic Party has been returned to the people."


February-April: A City Divided
Chicago has not had a Republican mayor since "Big" Bill Thompson, who served two terms between 1915 and 1931. Before partisan primaries were abolished for Chicago municipal offices in 1997, the winner of the Democratic primary was a shoo-in for the office.

But when Washington won that primary, 90 percent of white voters in Chicago, including ward bosses, turned their back on the Democratic Party. The atmosphere of the city became divisive and hostile in ways that would be difficult to imagine nearly a quarter century later.

Byrne briefly tried a write-in campaign, but gave it up for lack of support. Thus, Washington was pitted against Bernard Epton, a relatively unknown Republican Illinois State representative. It became a campaign of slurs, accusations, charges and counter-charges, and a contest dominated by the issue of race.

Both candidates had said they hoped race would not be a key issue, but some of Epton's supporters made certain that it was. Hate literature was distributed in neighborhoods on the Northwest and Southwest sides, in some cases by police officers. A slogan in one of Epton's campaign commercials was "Epton for Mayor, Before It's Too Late."

The most infamous incident in the campaign came when Washington was stumping with then-Presidential candidate Walter Mondale at St. Pascal Roman Catholic Church on West Irving Park Road. Epton supporters gathered in a vitriolic mob, holding signs and screaming at the candidates. Racist, threatening graffiti was discovered scrawled on the side of the church.

Washington's campaign staff turned footage from the St. Pascal melee into a commercial of their own. "When you vote Tuesday, be sure it's a vote you can be proud of," they said after showing the hostile Epton supporters.

Some Epton supporters claimed that the city would suffer or decay under a Washington administration; that property values would fall and businesses would leave. Washington's supporters said his mission was to improve the city for all, and that the doomsday prophecies were reflections of racism.


April 12: Election Day
When Election Day finally came, many Chicagoans were weary. But they turned out in larger numbers than ever before.

Many of the video clips that accompany this story are taken from CBS 2's hour-long 6 p.m. newscast on Election Day 1983. The newscast began an hour before polls closed, and when former CBS 2 anchors Don Craig, Walter Jacobson and Harry Porterfield went on the air, it was far from certain whether Washington or Epton would win the race. A winner was not declared for more than five hours afterward.

But even in the early evening, it was already clear that the election was making history. The new voters who had been registered during the campaign turned out in droves, and by 6 p.m. on Election Day, city election officials estimated turnout at 88 percent. The final estimate was slightly lower, but it still set a record for municipal elections.

"Historically, this is the highest turnout we've ever had, as far as we know, for a municipal election," said then-Chicago Board of Election Commissioners Chairman Michael Lavelle. "It approaches the highest we've had for any election. In 1944, we had a 91 percent turnout for a presidential election."

And unlike the mayoral campaign, the election itself was one of the cleanest.

"I do think that all of the indications are that it was a very clean election, and we'll just have to wait and see to verify that," Lavelle said.

The number of complaints dwindled because of a massive effort by the Board of Elections and law enforcement agencies. In addition to Republican and Democratic judges, poll watchers were dispatched to watch the judges, while uniformed Chicago Police officers were sent to polling places to watch the poll watchers and judges.

State's attorney's office investigators were sent to check them all, and representatives from the Illinois attorney general's office, the U.S. Attorney's office and the FBI made spot checks. U.S. Marshals also stood by.

Eighty-five percent of the registered voters in the African-American community turned out, with all but 2 percent casting their ballots for Washington. Latino voters and the predominantly white "lakefront liberal" voters of the North Side also turned out for Washington.

But turnout was also high among Epton supporters on the Northwest and Southwest sides.

And whether excited about voting or not, many politically weary Chicagoans were glad the race was over.

"I'm sick from this election, because I have never seen anyone throwing mud at each other like they've been doing," one woman told CBS 2.

Another man said, "I think it's rotten the way things have been carried out, things that happened, because there's racial discrimination."

On Election Day, some Chicagoans wished things had been different, without the rancor and divisiveness that many voters said overshadowed policy issues in the campaign.

One man said he was unclear on "who or what the issues they're supporting, some of the stances that both Washington and Epton are taking. I'd like to have a clear idea."

Ultimately, Washington won the election by 3.3 percent, and was declared the winner around midnight. A crowd that had grown to call him just by his first name shouted, "We want Harold!" "We want Harold!" as they waited for Washington to take the podium.

"You want Harold? Well, here's Harold!" he replied jubilantly upon arriving.

Epton, meanwhile, disappointed his supporters by going home.


April 29: Washington Enters Office
Mayor Washington was inaugurated on April 29, 1983, at Navy Pier. The theme was unity and renewal, and even the orchestra struck that note, playing "Fanfare for the Common Man."

Immediately, the new mayor's objectives were clear.

"The first thing you told me is to do no harm. You told me that the valued principle of government is to do the greatest good. Your instructions, which I heard from neighborhood after neighborhood, said to be patient and fair; to be candid, and in short, to continue to tell the truth," he said.

And even if the truth hurt, the mayor kept that mandate. He announced that the city's fiscal troubles were worse than believed during the mayoral campaign, and announced that city hiring and raises would be frozen and several hundred new city employees would need to be laid off.

The speech laid out plans to cut spending at every level, including the mayor's office.

"Business as usual will not be accepted by the people of this city. Business as usual will not be accepted by any part of this city. Business as usual will not be accepted by this chief executive of this great city," Mayor Washington said. "The only greater challenge in our history in Chicago was 110 years ago when Mayor Joseph Medill looked over a city burned to the ground and called for an enormous outpouring of civic spirit and resources to make the city new."


Video Library
CBS 2 Election Coverage:
 Harold Washington Declares Primary Victory
 North Lakefront Crucial To '83 Mayoral Election
 A Look At International Media Coverage In The Election
 Harold Washington's Election Sets Voter Turnout Record
 Washington Optimistic On Election Day '83 
 2 Crucial Voting Blocks In The 1983 Election
 Washington-Epton Race Was Often Ugly
 CBS 2 Poll Provides Insight On Mayoral Voters
 Harold Washington Is Projected Winner Of Mayoral Race

CBS 2 News Special: Harold Washington -- The Man And The Mandate
 Mayor Washington Emphasizes Unity, Renewal At Inauguration
 Walter Jacobson's Thoughts On What The New Mayor Had To Do
 A Look At The State Of The City In 1983
 A Look At Harold Washington's Background, Political Beginnings
 Tracing The Road To City Hall For Mayor Harold Washington

 Continue To PART II: Reform And Rancor

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