Overview

In April 1983, a dynamic, multiracial political coalition did the unthinkable, electing Harold Washington as the first Black mayor of Chicago. Washington's victory was unlikely not just because America's second city was one of the nation's most racially balkanized but also because it came at a time when Ronald Reagan and other political conservatives seemed resurgent. Washington's initial win and reelection in 1987 established the charismatic politician as a folk hero. It also bolstered hope among Democrats that the party could win elections by pulling together multiracial urban voters around progressive causes. Yet what could be called the Washington era revealed clear limits to electoral politics and racial coalition building when decoupled from neighborhood-based movement organizing. Drawing on a rich array of archives and oral history interviews, Gordon K. Mantler offers a bold reexamination of the Harold Washington movement and moment. Taking readers into Chicago's street-level politics and the often tense relationships among communities and their organizers, Mantler shows how white supremacy, deindustrialization, dysfunction, and voters' own contradictory expectations stubbornly impeded many of Washington's proposed reforms. Ultimately, Washington's historic victory and the thwarted ambitions of his administration provide a cautionary tale about the peril of placing too much weight on electoral politics above other forms of civic action—a lesson today's activists would do well to heed.

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9781469673851

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Reviews

"Essential reading for anyone interested in Chicago history and politics. . . . Mantler's account offers sharp analysis of the problem of sustaining commitment, solidarity, and hope in the face of the constraints and compromises of policy making.""--Journal of American History This is a finely crafted and deeply sensitive book, which makes one of the most politically complex cities in North America legible, without over-simplifying its subjects or draining them of their humanity and particularity. It's evident, too, as it was in his first book, that Mantler cares profoundly about his subjects.""--Society for US Intellectual History The book's strengths lie in the interviews Mantler conducted with activists from the era, his use of archival materials, and his focus on the period's street-level politics. He demonstrates how white supremacy, deindustrialization, and opposition from the business community blocked Washington's plans . . . . Recommended.""--CHOICE"

""Mantler's final chapter on the fragile, situational, nature of coalition election politics provides numerous lessons for those seeking to form and sustain such coalitions in the future. . . . Mantler repeatedly rises to the challenge of periodization.""--Journal of Urban History ""Thoroughly researched and cogently argued. . . . Historians, political scientists, and aficionados of the Windy City's always-entertaining politics will profit from a close reading of The Multicultural Promise.""--Pacific Historical Review ""Essential reading for anyone interested in Chicago history and politics. . . . Mantler's account offers sharp analysis of the problem of sustaining commitment, solidarity, and hope in the face of the constraints and compromises of policy making.""--Journal of American History ""The book's strengths lie in the interviews Mantler conducted with activists from the era, his use of archival materials, and his focus on the period's street-level politics. He demonstrates how white supremacy, deindustrialization, and opposition from the business community blocked Washington's plans . . . . Recommended.""--CHOICE ""This is a finely crafted and deeply sensitive book, which makes one of the most politically complex cities in North America legible, without over-simplifying its subjects or draining them of their humanity and particularity. It's evident, too, as it was in his first book, that Mantler cares profoundly about his subjects.""--Society for US Intellectual History

"The book's strengths lie in the interviews Mantler conducted with activists from the era, his use of archival materials, and his focus on the period's street-level politics. He demonstrates how white supremacy, deindustrialization, and opposition from the business community blocked Washington's plans . . . . Recommended.""--CHOICE"

Author Information

Gordon K. Mantler is associate professor of writing and history and executive director of the University Writing Program at George Washington University. He is author of Power to the Poor: Black-Brown Coalition and the Fight for Economic Justice, 1960–1974.

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