Roger Biles, “Mayor Harold Washington: Champion of Race and Reform in Chicago” (U Illinois Press, 2018)

New Books in African American Studies · Jul 5, 2018 · 1h 2m

Harold Washington’s election as mayor of Chicago in 1983 sent a shockwave through the politics of America’s third largest city, one that reverberated for decades afterward. Yet as Roger Biles describes in his book Mayor Harold Washington: Champion of Race and Reform in Chicago (University of Illinois Press, 2018), Washington’s promise as mayor was in many respects unfulfilled. The son of parents who moved to the city during the Great Migration of the early 20th century, Washington was involved in politics from an early age. Though a member of the powerful party organization led by Richard J…