Telling lies

Republican Alderman Jack Sperling resigned mid-term in 1973 to accept appointment as a Cook County Circuit Court Judge. A special election was held, and the Democratic Machine was eager to regain the 50th Ward seat it had lost eighteen years earlier.

Republicans were no longer a factor, but the major obstacle to a Machine victory was Independent Theodore Berland, "Mr. Community," as some called him.

He had led the fight to save what came to be known as Warren Park for public use, following the premature death of Laurence Warren, the original leader of the effort.  He headed the local community council and district school council and enjoyed grassroots support in the ward's Jewish and Irish neighborhoods, which comprised a majority of the electorate. He was a formidable adversary.

He had the misfortune, however, of sharing a surname with a slumlord who was making headlines at the time for violating city housing codes on the city’s west side. So, some Democratic precinct captains told voters he was that person.

To racists, they claimed he would bring Black people to live in the ward. One bigoted captain even told voters on Election Day that busloads of Black people were sitting at that moment at the ward boundary, and that if Berland was elected, they'd move into the ward that night.

To others, they simply suggested that he was not the kind of person residents should want as their representative in the City Council.

The charge was a lie, but that didn't matter to those who advanced it. Berland forced the Democrat into a runoff and lost a costly race. He never ran for office again.