Divided Loyalties: The Chicago Defender and Harold Washington’s Campaign for Mayor of Chicago

Abstract

Congressman Harold Washington campaigned in the 1983 Democratic primary to become Chicago’s first African-American mayor against two white opponents. The Chicago Defender hesitated to endorse him despite its history as a leader of the black press. Unlike some of its competitors in the black media, the Defender was slow to recognize that a progressive African American movement was gaining political momentum. The Washington campaign cared deeply about the Defender’s endorsement because it relied heavily on the city’s black media to strengthen its grassroots efforts in African-American neighborhoods. The Defender finally endorsed Washington only after his campaign put intense public and behind-the-scenes pressure on owner John Sengstacke and it became clear that Washington could actually win the primary.

Notes

1 Quoted by Chester Higgins Sr., “Is the Black Press Dying?” The Crisis (August/September 1980), 240.

2 Paul Kleppner, Chicago Divided: The Making of a Black Mayor (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1986), 152.

3 Patrick S. Washburn, The African American Newspaper: Voice of Freedom (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2006), 199–200.

4 “Our Endorsement,” Chicago Defender, February 12, 1983, 1; “An Editorial,” Chicago Defender, February 17, 1983, 1; Edward G. Gardner and Terri Gardner, interview by authors, January 31, 2014, tape recording; Chinta Strausberg, interview by authors, January 10, 2014, tape recording; Robert T. Starks, interview by authors, April 18, 2014, tape recording; Telegram from Robert T. Starks, chairman of Task Force for Black Political Power, to John Sengstacke and Tom Picou, February 9, 1983; The Task Force for Black Political Empowerment, “Statement of Position on the Matter of the Candidacy & Endorsement of Harold Washington for Mayor of Chicago by the ‘Chicago Defender’. February 9, 1983; Telegram from Edward G. Gardner, president and chairman of the board of Soft Sheen Products, Inc., to John Sengstacke, February 11, 1983. All documents available in Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers, 1947–1997 [Box 121, Folder 14], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library of the Chicago Public Library.

5 Scholarship on the Defender includes Ethan Michaeli, The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America From the Age of the Pullman Porters to the Age of Obama (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016); Fred Carroll, Race News: Black Journalists and the Fight for Racial Justice (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2017); Alan D. DeSantis, “A Forgotten Leader: Robert S. Abbott and the Chicago Defender from 1910–1920,” Journalism History 23, no. 2 (1997): 63–71; Roi Ottley, The Lonely Warrior: The Life and Times of Robert S. Abbott (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1955); Armistead S. Pride and Clint C. Wilson II, A History of the Black Press (Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1997); Brian Thornton, “The ‘Dangerous’ Chicago Defender,” Journalism History 40, no. 1 (2014): 40–49; Patrick S. Washburn, The African American Newspaper: Voice of Freedom (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2006); Roland E. Wolseley, The Black Press, U.S.A. (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1971).

6 For more on Washington, the 1983 campaign, and African-American politics in Chicago, see Abdul Alkalimat and Doug Gills, Harold Washington and the Crisis of Black Power (Chicago: Twenty-First Century Books, 1989); William J. Grimshaw, Bitter Fruit: Black Politics and the Chicago Machine, 1931–1991 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992); Paul Kleppner, Chicago Divided: The Making of a Black Mayor (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1985); Alton Miller, Harold Washington: The Mayor, the Man (Chicago, Bonus Books, 1989); Peter Nolan, Campaign! The 1983 Election That Rocked Chicago (Chicago: Amika Press, 2011); Gary Rivlin, Fire On the Prairie: Chicago’s Harold Washington and the Politics of Race (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1992); Dempsey J. Travis, Harold! The People’s Mayor: An Authorized Biography of Mayor Harold Washington (Chicago: Urban Research Press, 1989).

7 Searches conducted using keywords “Chicago Defender” and “Harold Washington” ∼2 in EBSCO Historical Abstracts, EBSCO American History & Life, EBSCO Communication & Mass Media Complete, JSTOR, and ProQuest ABI/Inform.

8 Interviews conducted with former Chicago Defender employees Robert McClory, Chinta Strausburg, and LeRoy Thomas, and Washington campaign organizers Edward G. Gardner, Terri Gardner, and Robert Starks.

9 Six clippings from a fourth black newspaper, the Citizen, and its sister publication Chicago Weekend, were found and examined at the Harold Washington Archives & Collection, but the authors could not locate any other copies of either newspaper. Archivists at the Chicago History Museum, the Special Collections section of the Harold Washington Library Center at the Chicago Public Library, Northwestern University, and the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature at the Carter G. Woodson Regional Library of the Chicago Public Library were consulted in an effort to locate other issues of the Chicago Citizen or Chicago Weekend, but none could be found. No copies from 1982 and 1983 were available through the NewsBank or the ProQuest Ethnic NewsWatch databases, and the ArchiveGrid search tool did not locate any archives associated with the Chicago Citizen. The authors also called the current offices of the Chicago Citizen, but the staff said they no longer had copies of issues from 1982 and 1983.

10 Carroll, 27–30; Ottley, 85–88, 138–39, 160–64, 207–08, 210–12, 219; Michaeli, 20–77, 108–36; James R. Grossman, Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), 74–88; Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff, The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), 14, 16; Wilson, 58; Pride and Wilson, 136–37, 217–18; DeSantis, 64–69; Washburn, 81–100, 110–12; Rodger Streitmatter, Voices of Revolution: The Dissident Press in America (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), 142–153, 156–58; Felicia G. Jones Ross and Joseph P. McKerns, “Depression in ‘The Promised Land’: The Chicago Defender Discourages Migration, 1929–1940,” American Journalism 21, no. 1 (2004): 67; John D. Stevens, “The Black Press Looks at 1920’s Journalism,” Journalism History 7, no. 3 (1980): 109–13; Caryl A. Cooper, “The Chicago Defender: Filling in the Gaps for the Office of Civilian Defense, 1941–1945,” The Western Journal of Black Studies 23, no. 2 (1999), 112.

11 Caroll, 133; Earnest Perry, “We Want In: The African American Press’s Negotiation for a White House Correspondent,” American Journalism 20, no. 3 (2003), 38–43; Thornton, 24, 41; “7 Negro Newspapers Affiliate as a Team,” New York Times, January 6, 1953, 2; Wolseley, The Black Press, U.S.A., 70; Clint C. Wilson II, Black Journalists in Paradox: Historical Perspectives and Current Dilemmas (New York: Greenwood Press, 1991), 66–67; Leonard Ray Teel, “The African-American Press and the Campaign for a Federal Antilynching Law, 1933–34,” American Journalism 8, no. 2/3 (Spring/Summer 1991): 84–107; Brian Carroll, “North vs. South: Chicago Defender Coverage of the Integration of Professional Baseball in the City,” Journalism History 33, no. 3 (2007): 163–72; Roberts and Klibanoff, 20, 76, 94, 166; Jones Ross and McKerns, 68; Dianne M. Pinderhughes, Race and Ethnicity in Chicago Politics: A Reexamination of Pluralist Theory (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 176–77.

12 In its promotional material to advertisers, the Defender boasted it reached 127,500 households, but its internal circulation reports contradict that claim. See Chicago Defender advertising promotion package, Ravella M. Hobson, January 21, 1983, accessed in Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers, 1947–1997, [Box 56, Folder 8], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library of the Chicago Public Library; Chicago Defender circulation report, September 1982 – September 1983, accessed in Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers, 1947–1997, [Box 65, Folder 7], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library of the Chicago Public Library. Estimates of the Defender’s earlier circulation vary. See Wilson 85; Michaeli, 476–77; Washburn, 140.

13 Wilson, 84–88.

14 Carroll, 3–4, 7.

15 McClory interview; Strausberg interview; Starks interview; Levinsohn, 229. Historian Brian Thornton noted that the Defender’s conservative editorials during the 1960s argued that the status quo for African Americans was good, endorsed Republican Richard Nixon for president in 1968, and criticized African American students who demanded their own housing and Olympic athletes who gave Black Power salute (see Thornton, 44–45); In his book The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America, Ethan Michaeli describes a 2009 speech by Richard J. Daley, the son of the legendary mayor, when he said: “My dad, [Congressman] Bill Dawson, and John Sengstacke – they were the trifecta of business and politics in Chicago. They did unbelievable things behind closed doors.”

16 Wolseley, 292.

17 U.S. Census Bureau, 1980, 21, http://www2.census.gov/prod2/statcomp/documents/1981-02.pdf (accessed May 15, 2014); Rosemary Jenks and Leon F. Bouvier, “Shaping Illinois: The Effects of Immigration, 1970–2020,” Center for Immigration Studies, March 1996, http://cis.org/ImmigrationEffectIllinois-1970-2020 (accessed May 15, 2014).

18 Harold Washington speech at Hyde Park Hilton, Chicago, November 10, 1982, cited in Travis, An Autobiography of Black Politics, 564–65; Peter W. Colby and Paul Michael Green, “Byrne’s Victory: True Grit and Heavy Snow,” Illinois Issues 5, no. 5 (1979): 8–9; Paul Green, “Washington’s Victory: Divide and Conquer,” Illinois Issues 9, no. 4 (1983): 15–26; Travis, An Autobiography of Black Politics, 534–43; Michaeli, 479.

19 Lawrence Muhammad, “Lu Palmer’s Political Punch,” Columbia Journalism Review 22, no. 2 (1983): 31; Travis, An Autobiography of Black Politics, 536–37; Rivlin, 21–33, 35; Paul McGrath, “Washington Strategy,” Chicago Reader, November 26, 1982, 24, 29, 30.

20 Rivlin, 39–40; Travis, An Autobiography of Black Politics, 547; David Axelrod, “Washington Key Black in Mayor Race,” Chicago Tribune, July 26, 1982, 6.

21 Thomas interview; Gardner interview; McGrath, “Washington Strategy,” 30; Travis, An Autobiography of Black Politics, 553–58, 592–93; Rivlin, 96.

22 Gardner interview; “How Washington pulled classic upset,” Chicago Sun-Times, February 27, 1983, 5; McGrath, “Washington Strategy,” 30; Travis, An Autobiography of Black Politics, 553–58, 592–93; Rivlin, 48. For an example of the close connection between Soft Sheen and Washington advertising, see the February 15, 1983 edition of the Defender, where a full-page Washington advertisement on p. 9 ran next to a full-page Soft Sheen advertisement wishing Gardner a happy birthday on p. 10.

23 David Axelrod, “Group Urges Washington Mayoral Bid,” Chicago Tribune, November 2, 1982, B1; Green, 15–26; Nolan, 121; Travis, 559; McClelland, 38.

24 Lewis Caldwell, “Social Commentary,” The Crusader, November 6, 1982, 5; DiLores Bell, “Black Votes Unpredictable Factor in Election Results,” The Crusader, November 6, 1982, 1–2; “State Results,” Chicago Tribune, November 3, 1982, 20.

25 Travis, An Autobiography of Black Politics, 559; Rivlin, 57.

26 Oscar De Priest became the city’s first African-American alderman in 1915 as more blacks began arriving in the city at the Defender’s urging. In 1928 De Priest won a seat in Congress representing Chicago’s Black Belt neighborhoods, and the city has had at least one American representative ever since.

27 Pinderhughes, 1; Arnold R. Hirsch, “Harold and Dutch Revisited: A Comparative Look at the First Black Mayors of Chicago and New Orleans,” in African-American Mayors: Race, Politics, and the American City, edited by David R. Colburn and Jeffrey S. Adler (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001), 113; Kleppner, 87–89; Rivlin, 92; Richard F. Ciccone, “Bilandic Wins,” Chicago Tribune, April 20, 1977, 1, 12; Levinsohn, 123–24; Melvin G. Holli and Paul M. Green, Bashing Chicago Traditions: Harold Washington’s Last Campaign: Chicago, 1987 (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1989), 5.

28 Karl Taeuber, “Racial Residential Segregation, 28 Cities, 1970–1980,” CDE Working Paper 83–12 (Madison: Center for Demography and Ecology, 1983).

29 Gardner interview; Starks interview; Rivlin, 342; Leanita McClain, A Foot In Each World (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1986), 83.

30 Hugh Hough, “Washington – Popular but a Puzzle,” Chicago Sun-Times, November 11, 1982, 9, accessed in Harold Washington Archives and Collections, 1983 Mayoral Campaign, [Box 40, Folder 24], Special Collections, Chicago Public Library.

31 “White businesses and black mayors,” Crain’s Chicago Business, December 13, 1982, accessed in Harold Washington Archives and Collections, 1983 Mayoral Campaign, [Box 40, Folder #25], Special Collections, Chicago Public Library.

32 David Axelrod, “Washington key black in mayor race,” Chicago Tribune, July 26, 1982, 1, 6, accessed in Harold Washington Archives and Collections, 1983 Mayoral Campaign, [Box 40, Folder 24], Special Collections, Chicago Public Library; Michaeli, 480–81.

33 Chinta Strausberg, Chicago Defender, January 26, 1983, 3.

34 Starks interview; Gardner interview; Barnaby Dinges and Stan West, “The Axeman Cometh: The Emergence of Nate Clay,” Chicago Reporter, December 7, 2007; “The Hot Skillet,” Chicago Metro News, November 6, 1982, 4. Articles and columns in the Metro News accessed through Chicago Metro News archived editions, African American Newspapers 1827–1998 section of America’s Historical Newspapers database.

35 “Washington Declares Candidacy for “All” People,” Chicago Metro News, November 13, 1982.

36 “The Hot Skillet,” Chicago Metro News, November 13, 1982, 4.

37 Carroll, pp. 5–6; Paul Davis, “Next: Black Mayor,” Chicago Weekend, November 4–7, 1982, 2, accessed in Harold Washington Archives and Collections, 1983 Mayoral Campaign, [Box 40, Folder #24], Special Collections, Chicago Public Library. The Citizen and Chicago Weekend, had been edited and published by Gus Savage, who by 1983 had stopped his work with the newspapers and become elected as a Democratic congressman serving the city’s South Side.

38 William Garth, “Betrayal by Black Officials,” Chatham-Southeast Citizen, November 18, 1982, 1, 10, Harold Washington Archives and Collections, 1983 Mayoral Campaign, [Box 40, Folder #25], Special Collections, Chicago Public Library.

39 “Washington Makes It Official, Lu’s Notebook First Casualty,” Crusader, November 13, 1982.

40 Lewis Caldwell, “Social Commentary,” Crusader, November 13, 1982, 5.

41 “Editorial: Beware the Rhetoric,” Crusader, November 20, 1982, 4.

42 “Mayor Byrne Shades Record,” Chicago Metro News, November 27, 1982, 1; “Perkins Disputes Byrne on City’s Financial Health,” Chicago Metro News, November 27, 1982, 1.

43 The Axeman, “Of Fools, Jackasses and ‘Kneegrow’ Politicians,” Chicago Metro News, November 27, 1982, 4.

44 Rivlin, 27.

45 “Black Vote: A Message,” Chicago Defender, November 4, 1982, 3.

46 “Political Realities,” Chicago Defender, December 21, 1982, 9.

47 The note appears to be in handwriting of longtime Defender editorial writer Metz T.P. Lochard. Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers, 1947–1997, [Box 14, Folder 121], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library of the Chicago Public Library.

48 Strausberg interview.

49 Verner Reid, “Commentary on Washington as Candidate,” Chicago Defender, December 29, 1982, 8.

50 Chinta Strausberg, “React to Washington’s Mayoral Bid ‘Exciting,’” Chicago Defender, November 11, 1982, 3; Chinta Strausberg, “‘Chicago Ripe for a Black Mayor,’” Chicago Defender, November 11, 1982, 3.

51 Strausberg interview.

52 Robert A. Washington, “Urges Blacks to Unite for Washington,” Chicago Defender, December 11, 1982. There is no indication that Robert A. Washington and Harold Washington were related.

53 Chicago Defender. Letter to the editor. January 4, 1983, 3

54 Njeri Talibah Ali, “Warns Blacks to be Careful During Campaign,” Chicago Defender, January 4, 1983, 9.

55 Pamela Rowland, “Thinks Young People Should Join Washington,” Chicago Defender, January 12, 1983, 11.

56 Chinta Strausberg, “Jobs from Byrne Draw Wrath,” Chicago Defender, January 10, 1983, 5.

57 “Protest Ministers’ Support of Richie Daley for Mayor,” Chicago Defender, January 13, 1983, 1.

58 Chinta Strausberg, “‘Man in Street’ Calls Washington Winner in First Mayoral Debate,” Chicago Defender, January 20, 1983, 5.

59 Kenneth Green, “15,000 at Rally for Washington,” Chicago Defender, February 7, 1983, 5.

60 “Civic Leaders Form Group for Washington,” Citizen, December 30, 1982, 8, accessed in Harold Washington Archives and Collections, 1983 Mayoral Campaign, [Box 40, Folder 25], Special Collections, Chicago Public Library.

61 Malcolm Mac, “Critical Commentary,” Crusader, December 25, 1982, 5. The authors have not been able to find any records that indicate whether Malcolm Mac was the columnist’s real name or a pseudonym.

62 Lewis Caldwell, “Social Commentary,” Crusader, December 25, 1982, 5.

63 Malcolm Mac, “Critical Commentary,” Crusader, January 1, 1983, 5; Malcolm Mac, “Critical Commentary,” Crusader, January 8, 1983, 5.

64 “WE’RE FOR HAROLD!” Crusader, February 12, 1982, 1, 4.

65 “Washington is the Best Choice,” Chicago Weekend, February 10–13, 1983, 1, accessed in Harold Washington Archives and Collections, 1983 Mayoral Campaign, [Boxes 39, Folder 31], Special Collections, Chicago Public Library.

66 “Why We Back Congressman Washington,” Chicago Metro News, February 12, 1983, 1.

67 Ralph Whitehead, “The Chicago Story: Two Dailies, a Campaign – and an Earthquake,” Columbia Journalism Review 22, no. 2 (1983): 25–26; Starks interview; Rivlin, 144; Nolan, 130; For extensive files of articles clipped from the city’s African-American press kept by the Washington campaign, see Harold Washington Archives and Collections, 1983 Mayoral Campaign, [Boxes 30, 39 and 40], Special Collections, Chicago Public Library.

68 Alkalimat and Gills, 56; Travis, Harold!, 163–65; Travis, An Autobiography of Black Politics, 572–73; Basil Talbott Jr., “Washington’s TV Ads Start – But on a Skimpy Budget,” Chicago Sun-Times, February 8, 1983, accessed in Harold Washington Archives and Collections, Mayoral Campaign Records, Chicago Public Library.

69 Interoffice Memorandum, Harold Washington Archives and Collections, 1983 Mayoral Campaign, [Box 26, Folder 10], Special Collections, Chicago Public Library; Memorandum to Al Raby, “OUTLINE FOR A VARIETY PACKAGE MEDIA EVENTS,” January 29, 1983, Harold Washington Archives and Collections, Mayoral Campaign Records, Chicago Public Library; Starks interview; Sheppard, 9; Strausberg interview; Adrienne Raiford, “Unveil Media Messages for Candidate Washington,” Chicago Defender, February 8, 1983; Nathaniel Sheppard Jr., “Black Radio was a Key in the Chicago Primary,” New York Times, March 15, 1983, 9; Michaeli, 486.

70 Chinta Strausberg, “Coalition Tells ‘Political Targets,’” Chicago Defender, January 11, 1983, 1; Starks interview; Rivlin, 143.

71 Starks interview.

72 “John Madigan views the Press,” February 3, 1983, accessed in Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers, 1947–1997 [Box 14, Folder 121], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library of the Chicago Public Library.

73 “Let’s Stop ‘Ego Tripping,’” Chicago Defender, February 8, 1983, 1.

74 Palmer had an increasingly antagonistic relationship with Sengstacke and the Defender, filing a lawsuit against them twelve days earlier. Palmer’s lawsuit accused them of libeling him in a Strausberg article appearing the previous August that said the FBI was investigating whether he skimmed $77,000 from the proceeds of a benefit fight featuring Muhammad Ali in 1979. The case dragged on until 1987, when it was dismissed. Material pertaining to the lawsuit can be found in the Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers, 1947–1997 [Box 93, Folders 15–19], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library of the Chicago Public Library.

75 Starks interview; Western Union Telegram from Robert T. Starks, chairman of Task Force for Black Political Power, to John Sengstacke and Tom Picou, February 9, 1983, in Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers, 1947–1997 [Box 14, Folder 121], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library of the Chicago Public Library.

76 Capitalization and underlining are in the original document. The Task Force For Black Political Empowerment, “STATEMENT OF POSITION ON THE MATTER OF THE CANDIDACY & ENDORSEMENT OF HAROLD WASHINGTON FOR MAYOR OF CHICAGO BY THE ‘CHICAGO DEFENDER’,” February 9, 1983, accessed in Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers, 1947–1997 [Box 14, Folder 121], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library of the Chicago Public Library.

77 The Task Force For Black Political Empowerment, “STATEMENT OF POSITION ON THE MATTER OF THE CANDIDACY & ENDORSEMENT OF HAROLD WASHINGTON FOR MAYOR OF CHICAGO BY THE ‘CHICAGO DEFENDER’,” February 9, 1983, in Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers, 1947–1997 [Box 14, Folder 121], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library of the Chicago Public Library.

78 Chinta Strausberg, “Coalition Tells ‘Political Targets’,” Chicago Defender, January 11, 1983, 1; Strausberg interview.

79 Higgins, 241; Starks interview.

80 “Our Endorsement,” Chicago Defender, February 12, 1983, 1.

81 Telegram by Edward G. Gardner, accessed in Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers, 1947–1997, [Box 14, Folder 121], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library of the Chicago Public Library.

82 Nolan, 124–25, 132; Travis, 585–586; Michaeli, 483; Green, 15–26.

83 “Research Memorandum,” Black Opinion Poll, February 16, 1983, accessed in Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers, 1947–1997, [Box 14, Folder 121], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library of the Chicago Public Library; “Mayor Byrne Slips Among Black Voters,” Chicago Defender, November 16, 1982, 1.

84 David Axelrod, “Dems Slugging in Last Round,” Chicago Tribune, February 21, 1983, 1; Arnold R. Hirsch, “Harold and Dutch Revisited: A Comparative Look at the First Black Mayors of Chicago and New Orleans,” in African-American Mayors: Race, Politics, and the American City, edited by David R. Colburn and Jeffrey S. Adler (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001), 113; Nolan, 132; Travis, An Autobiography of Black Politics, 593.

85 “An Editorial,” Chicago Defender, February 17, 1983, 1. Capitalization of “MAN” used in the original.

86 “For Washington,” Chicago Defender, February 21, 1983, 1; Ethel L. Payne, “Chicago Native Reflects on Political Aura,” Chicago Defender, February 21, 1983, 12; Russ Meek, “Punch 9; Don’t Vote Yourself into Slavery,” Chicago Defender, February 21, 1983, 12; Verner Reid, “Another Look at Politics, Chicago Style,” Chicago Defender, February 21, 1983, 12.

87 Holli and Green, 9; Green, 15–26; Sheppard, 9.

88 Chicago Defender, February 23, 1983, 1.

89 Henry Locke, “Washington: Healing Chicago Is My Goal,” Chicago Defender, February 28, 1983, 1, 8.

90 Strausberg interview. The Defender’s internal reporters show that circulation in September 1983 had reached 35,925 on weekdays and 41,287 on weekends, about 4,000 more than a year earlier. Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers, 1947–1997, [Box 65, Folder 7], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library of the Chicago Public Library.

91 Green, 15–26; McClain, 76; Rivlin, 170.

92 Douglas Frantz and Thom Shanker, “Mayoral Media Advisers Clash Over Ads,” Chicago Tribune, April 6, 1983; McClain, 79–81; Michaeli, 489–91; Pinderhughes, 2–3; Holli and Green, 15; Travis, An Autobiography of Black Politics, 600; Rivlin, 182, 186, 188.

93 Tim Franklin, “Washington Win Spurs Blacks’ Political Hopes,” Chicago Tribune, April 26, 1983, A3, accessed in Harold Washington Archives and Collections, 1983 Mayoral Campaign, [Box 30, Folder 18], Special Collections, Chicago Public Library; Pinderhughes, 4; Holli and Green, 17; Rivlin, 196.

94 Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers, 1947–1997, [Box 15, Folder 121], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library of the Chicago Public Library.

95 Miller, 192.

96 Rivlin, 362–83; Miller, 1–18, 192; Thomas Hardy, “Richard M. Daley Elected Mayor of Chicago,” Chicago Tribune, April 4, 1989, 1; Alkalimat and Gills, 45–54; Keith Koeneman, First Son: The Biography of Richard M. Daley (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013), 140; Paul M. Green, “Chicago’s 1991 Mayoral Elections,” Illinois Issues 25 (June 1991): 17–20, http://www.lib.niu.edu/1991/ii910617.html (accessed December 8, 2017).

97 Cooper, 112.

98 Alkalimat and Gills, 52; Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers, 1947–1997, [Box 13, Folder 121], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library of the Chicago Public Library.

99 Miller, 191–192.

100 Michaeli, 475, 480.

101 Strausberg interview; McClory interview.

102 McClory interview; Grimshaw, 104.

103 Strausberg interview.

104 Carolyn Frazier, “The Chicago Defender and the Black Consumer,” presentation to Marshall Field’s, accessed in Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers, 1947–1997, [Box 56, Folder 9], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library of the Chicago Public Library; McClory interview; Pinderhughes, 25–26. In addition to Marshall Field’s, the Defender was seeking more advertising from J.C. Penny, Montgomery Ward, and Carson Pirie Scott.

105 Strausberg interview.

106 Higgins, 241.