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By Request of the People

The Harold Washington Story explores how Harold Washington became the first elected African American Mayor of Chicago in 1983 and chronicles his work as a public figure serving in the Illinois House of Representatives, the Illinois Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives.

In 1967, civil rights leader Martin Luther King considered Chicago to be the “north’s most racist city.” By the early 1980s, little had changed. Chicago still was a city divided by classism and racism. At the time of Harold Washington’s announcement that he would enter the Mayoral election in 1982, Chicago was rapt with the powerful Democratic Machine of backdoor politics wrought with political favors and questionable appointments that fostered the cliche attributed to notorious Chicago mobster Al Capone “Vote early and often.”

Harold Washington embarked on a campaign trail that would unite man of the City’s minority communities under this campaign slogan “Let’s come together for one City.” Opposition to Washingt

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April 15,1922Born in Cook County Hospital, Chicago, IL1936-9Attended DuSable High School1939Enrolled in the Civilian Conservation Corps.1943-45Enlisted in the U. S. Army1946High School diploma awarded after serving in the military1949Bachelor's degree from Roosevelt University in Chicago, IL1952Law degree, Northwestern University School of Law in Evanston, IL1952Became practicing attorney 1954 Assistant City Prosecutor and 3rd Ward Precinct Captain1965-77Illinois State Representative-26th district1977Ran for mayor, but lost1977-81Illinois State Senator1981-83U.S. Congressman-1st District 1983Ran for Mayor of the City of Chicago, winning1987Re-elected to MayorNovember 25,1987Died in office of heart attack

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HAROLD WASHINGTON

FRIEND OF THE COMMUNITY | Inducted 2007 [Posthumous]

Harold Washington (1922–1987), as mayor of Chicago, promoted and facilitated LGBT political participation and empowerment, which laid groundwork for passage of the City’s 1988 Human Rights Ordinance. He appointed the first mayoral liaison to the LGBT community; was the first Chicago mayor to address a gay rights rally; and established the City’s first official Committee on Gay and Lesbian Issues (forerunner of today’s Advisory Council on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues) with an openly lesbian staff director.

Washington was born in Chicago on April 15, 1922. After four years of military service, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Roosevelt University in 1949 and a law degree from Northwestern University School of Law in 1952. After a period of private practice and service in city and state legal jobs, he served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1965 to 1976 and in the Illinois Senate from 1977 to 1980. He then served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 198