Harold Washington

Harold Washington

Harold Washington was an Illinois State Senator, Illinois Congressman and Mayor of Chicago.

Student politics

Marian Despres, wife of socialist Leon Despres played a part in launching Harold Washington's political career.

From 1946 to 1951 she was an assistant psychology professor at Roosevelt University, where she urged a young student named Harold Washington to run for the student council presidency, which he won. As mayor of Chicago, Washington often said that Despres had launched his political career.

Illinois politics

In 1964, Washington won election to the Illinois state house of representatives where he served until 1976... Elected to the state senate in 1976, he turned in 1977, following the death of Mayor Richard J. Daley, to a failed attempt to win the Democratic Party nomination for Chicago mayor.

In 1981, Washington won election to the US House of Representatives from Chicago’s predominantly African American 1st district.

The Lumpkins

Harold Washington had a close relationship with one of Chicago's leading Communist Party USA families, the Lumpkins.

Long-time Chicago Party leader Bea Lumpkin, recalled a "rainy afternoon in the early 1970s" at which a few hundred Chicago residents gathered at a rally sponsored by the communist controlled Chicago Peace Council, to protest the war in Vietnam.

“Harold spoke strongly against the war. He was one of the more progressive legislators. I was very impressed that he spoke in the rain and grateful to him for coming and giving our rally greater impact.”

In 1978, Harold Washington served on the Committee to Elect Dr. John R. Lumpkin for the 7th Ward Alderman, Chicago.

John Lumpkin was the son of Communist Party USA leaders Frank Lumpkin and Bea Lumpkin. Several Party members worked with Washington on the committee.

When plant closings in northern Illinois, Indiana, and southern Wisconsin pounded the Chicago region economically in the late 1970s and early 1980s with no relief in sight, "Washington could be counted on to be part of the struggle to save jobs and provide relief..."

The 1980 closure of Wisconsin Steel located in Chicago’s east side "was the final straw for many disaffected workers..."

Frank Lumpkin, a retired steel worker and husband of Bea Lumpkin , who had also campaigned for Harold Washington in his earlier state and federal campaigns, formed the Save our Jobs committee.

They organized public protests, demanding relief for workers in the form of the benefits that Harvester, the billion dollar operation that owned Wisconsin Steel, refused to pay after the mill closed. and the organization of resources to keep the mills opened. The committee circulated a petition, gathering some 4,000 steelworkers’ signatures, and delivered it to the Illinois state legislature and to members of Congress, including Rep. Harold Washington.

By the middle of 1981, the struggle to re-open Wisconsin Steel, win back benefits and to re-gain lost jobs, shifted as Ronald Reagan took power. It seemed clear that Reagan would simply defund the federal Economic Development Administration, which held the Wisconsin Steel plant, and force its closure.

In the end, the struggle was partially victorious, retirees were paid partial benefits, but the plant never re-opened. According to Bea Lumpkin in "Always Bring a Crowd, the biography of Frank Lumpkin", Washington won the support of Chicago’s steelworkers with his strong support for their struggle.

Washington’s determination to speak up on this issue enabled him to win labor’s endorsement in the campaign for mayor even as the party machine set up obstacles to that labor endorsement.

Committee in Support of Southern Africa

Committee in Support of Southern Africa was an anti-Apartheid group active in Chicago in the early 1980s.

Members of the committee iincluded;

Charles Hayes, Rep. Carol Moseley Braun, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Bob Simpson, Frank Rosen, Congressman Harold Washington, Harold Rogers, Rep. Monica Stewart, Jim Wright, Alderman Danny Davis, Alice Peurala, Lu Palmer, Milt Cohen, Timuel Black.

Mayoralty bid

Having been soundly defeated in the 1977 mayoral primaries, Washington made his 1983 candidacy for mayor contingent on the success of registering 100,000 new Black voters and raising a certain amount of funds before an official campaign would be put together. But he refused to confine his appeal to African Americans. In the summer before the 1983 primary, he said, “As a practical politician, I would seek to build a coalition of Black and white campaign workers throughout the city. The issue would not be anti-race, but anti-greed and anti-corruption.” After the 1983 victory, Washington stated:

In our ethnic and racial diversity, we are all brothers and sisters in a quest for greatness. Our creativity and energy are unequalled by any city anywhere in the world. We will not rest until the renewal of our city is done. ...[W]e are going to do some great deeds here together.

Washington felt that white voters who initially resisted his candidacy could be won over if a dominant theme of his campaign and his administration of the city was to eliminate corrupt forces that also hurt the city’s white residents as much as its people of color.

Chicago journalist Ron Dorfman, who edited the recently published photographic essay of Washington’s career, Harold!: Photographs from the Harold Washington Years, said...“Harold brought together different factions in the Black community together.” Uniting labor progressives, nationalists, and traditional civil rights people in the African American community, Dorfman suggested, was a key element of Washington’s candidacy, and “there really wasn’t anybody else who could pull that part of the coalition together.”

CBTU support

The Communist Party USA influenced Coalition of Black Trade Unionists played a big role in Washington's successful 1983 campaign for the Chicago mayoralty.

According to Chicago Communist Party USA member Pepe Lozano;

Washington’s election was the outcome of a multi-racial citywide coalition beginning within the African American community. Then immediately he included the involvement of Latino and white working-class communities representing a progressive and independent reform movement that eventually carried him to victory.

One thing that has been unsung was how the Chicago labor movement, especially Black trade unionists, led the way in registering tens of thousands of new voters, including a recruitment drive of petition signers, door knockers, phone bankers and an army of volunteer foot-soldiers on Election Day...

By 1983 when Washington decided to run for mayor, he was a respected member of Congress and became an important ally in progressive political circles throughout Chicago. Still, many people in the city’s political machine just didn’t believe an African American could win. And some – deeply influenced by racism — were extremely hostile to the idea of a Black mayor

Despite the racism, a labor coalition for Washington was formed and led by Black unionists. It became one of the most organized forces in his campaign.

Before the 1983 mayoral primary, the Chicago Teachers Union held a delegates’ meeting where pro-Washington campaign literature including “Washington for Mayor” buttons were passed out before a motion was made to have the union endorse his run.

During the meeting teachers were chanting Washington’s name, and the white and Black union leadership had no choice but to endorse him with overwhelming support. After that, support for Washington started steam rolling within some of the city’s unions.

Leaders of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists , including service workers and Teamsters, endorsed Washington. It was CBTU that pressed the Chicago Federation of Labor — made up of integrated unions with white, Black, Latino and Asian memberships — to endorse Washington in the 1983 general election.

Lozano quotes Elwood Flowers, former vice-president of the Illinois AFL-CIO and a close friend of Washington.

“We saw Washington as a viable candidate and we endorsed him wholeheartedly, and we felt he was more qualified than those before him...But we as labor were just one arm of the Washington movement.”

Several Black labor leaders were important allies for Washington and played influential roles in his administration.

Flowers cited Charles Hayes, vice president of the United Packinghouse Workers Union , who won Washington’s Congressional seat after Washington was elected mayor.

Other important allies included Addie Wyatt, who was vice president of the Packinghouse Workers and Jim Wright, who was the first Black director of United Auto Workers Region 4. Jackie Vaughn, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union was also instrumental in Washington’s administration. All were leading members of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists.

Latino support

Pepe Lozano's father, Communist Party USA ally, Rudy Lozano also played a big role in mobilizing Latino support for Harold Washington's 1983 campaign;

In the predominantly Latino communities of Pilsen and Little Village, my father, the late Rudy Lozano was also a key ally in Washington’s labor-based coalition.

He was also a community activist and decided to run for alderman in the 22nd Ward, a predominantly Mexican and Mexican American neighborhood. Although he narrowly lost, Lozano was a rising political star and leader that advocated for multi-racial coalitions and worker unity. He rallied and mobilized the Latino constituent base to vote for Washington.

Lozano understood the need for Black, Latino and white working class unity, especially the importance of union solidarity among all workers including undocumented immigrant workers. Lozano’s independent and grassroots-based organizing, along with Washington’s mayoral victory, sparked a movement throughout Chicago’s Latino communities, which hardly had any representation in City Council. Washington’s victory galvanized the majority of the Latino electorate and soon new Latino leaders emerged as viable elected officials under his administration.

Socialist connections

Harold Washingto enjoyed a close relationship to the Chicago Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee and to its successor Democratic Socialists of America

In 1981 Washington MCed the socialist's annual Thomas-Debsdinner.

Right: Chicago Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee dinner, 1981. Left Carl Shier, Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, founding member in 1982 of Democratic Socialists of America , Centre Egidio Clemente-ex? Socialist Party USA. Right Democratic Party Congressman and soon to be Mayor of Chicago,Harold Washington.

However Washington had to cancel out of the 1983 event;

The 1983 Norman Thomas - Eugene V. Debs Dinner was held at the McCormick Inn on Saturday, May 7... Newly elected Mayor Harold Washington was unable to attend at the last minute. Carl Shier, who was to have introduced him, read a message from him instead, and spoke of DSA's considerable role in Washington's election campaign.

DSA support

In 1983, Chicago Democratic Socialists of America threw its support behind the Harold Washington mayoralty bid.

In 2002 Chicago Democratic Socialists of America member Bob Roman wrote;

DSA's role in the 1983 Washington campaign is one of the more interestingly unreported, unrecorded aspects of that campaign...

Comprand

In 1987 Harold Washington was a Member of the Exective Committee of Chicago based Comprand (Comprehensive Research and Development).