Harold Washington was Chicago’s first black mayor. He was persuaded to run against Jane Byrne when the Committee to Elect A Black Mayor decided that he was the man for the job.  Harold wasn’t so sure.  He was already a US Congressman and he wanted to stay in that position to fight Reagan’s economic policies.  But seeing the urgency in the black community, he said he would run after a couple of conditions had been met: $250K in the bank and 50K new registered voters.

The committee worked hard and met those conditions and Harold put his name in the race for mayor of Chicago.

Not everyone was happy that there was a Black man running for Mayor of Chicago.  He endured a lot of racist slurs and attacks, but in the end Harold was elected Mayor of Chicago. And this is where the real fight begins.

Harold was a very progressive Democrat and most of the city council was also Democrat, but when it came to matters of city business they couldn’t have been more divided.  Ed Vrdolyak created a voting block nicknamed the “Vrdolyak 29” and they voted against anything that Harold proposed. This gridlock became known as the Council Wars.  The Vrdolyak 29 had the majority of votes and Harold’s supporters were the remaining 21. They were locked in a stalemate until Harold petitioned the courts to have a new ward map drawn since the old map hadn’t factored in the growing Hispanic population. The judge agreed that the map was to be redrawn and a special election was needed to right the wrong. 

Harold found qualified Hispanic to run in the special elections.  There were 7 wards in question and Harold needed to win 4 of them.  His people won 3 of the wards and it came down to the 4th race.  Manny Torres and Luis Gutierrez faced off in a runoff election.  Manny was with the Vrdolyak 29 and Luis was with Harold.  It was a close race, but Luis came away with the victory.

At the next city council meeting, the newly elected council members evened out the sides.  Vrdolyak now only had 25 members in his voting block and Harold had 25 members.  In the case of a tie, the mayor, Harold Washington would break all ties.  And that’s how Harold regained control of the city council.

Harold ran again and won re-election in April 1987.  Harold died of a heart attack six months later.

Many people in Chicago believe that they killed Harold because they couldn’t stop him at the polls.  Others believe he died of natural causes.  In either case, Harold’s story is fascinating and one that deserves to be on the big screen!

Click here to view the pitch deck