Racial fear

“You’re not voting for Harold Washington, are you?” the Democratic precinct captain asked the White voter in 1983 when she didn’t respond favorably to his pitch for Mayor Jane Byrne nor react to his criticism of challenger Rich Daley.

“As a matter of fact, I am,” she replied.

“But he’ll build public housing right next door to you,” the captain warned. “Do you want that?”

When Blacks ran for office with party organization support, White precinct captains assured White voters that it was OK to vote for them. Jesse White, Cecil Partee, and John Stroger, they were told, weren’t going to make any “trouble.”

But when Black candidates emerged from the Black or Reform communities, as Washington did, racial fear became the primary vote-getting tactic.

And that hasn’t changed.

(Exerpted from “Chicago Political Stories: Devious, Comical, and Just Plain Memorable.”