(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Chicago history is Black history, and that union is perhaps strongest in the story of Chicago's first Black mayor.
“We're actually in the Harold Washington exhibit, in the Harold Washington wing of the museum,” said Perry Diggs, the education programs associate The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center.
He explained the space where visitors are surrounded by the legacy of Harold Washington, who made history in 1983.
“He ended up winning that primary, and he beat the incumbent Jane Byrne, and then the future Daley, and so, usually in Chicago when you're a Democrat and you win that it's pretty much a done deal. But it was such a shock to the Democratic machine at the time that many of them threw their weight behind Bernie Epton, who was the Republican challenger, but Harold Washington was able to pull it out.”
Washington City Hall battles were only just beginning as the council wars dominated Chicago politics for years before the mayor was finally able to enact his agenda.
“His legacy looms large here in the city of Chicago, you know, it was a couple months after he won his second term, a young man named Barack Obama made his way up to the city because he was inspired.”
An animatronic Mayor Washington still sits at his desk.
“I love the fact that we have this exhibit here celebrating just a little bit of his legacy,” Diggs said.
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