The Multiracial Promise: Harold Washingtons Chicago and the Democratic Struggle in Reagans America Mantler Gordon K.
In April 1983, a dynamic, multiracial political coalition did the unthinkable, electing Harold Washington as the first Black mayor of Chicago. Washington's victory was unlikely not just because…
Specifikacia The Multiracial Promise: Harold Washingtons Chicago and the Democratic Struggle in Reagans America Mantler Gordon K.
In April 1983, a dynamic, multiracial political coalition did the unthinkable, electing Harold Washington as the first Black mayor of Chicago. Washington's victory was unlikely not just because America's second city was one of the nation's most racially balkanized but also because it came at a time when Ronald Reagan and other political conservatives seemed resurgent. Washington's initial win and reelection in 1987 established the charismatic politician as a folk hero. It also bolstered hope among Democrats that the party could win elections by pulling together multiracial urban voters around progressive causes. Yet what could be called the Washington era revealed clear limits to electoral politics and racial coalition building when decoupled from neighborhood-based movement organizing.Drawing on a rich array of archives and oral history interviews, Gordon K. Mantler offers a