Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold Washington, carried Aries’s crusading spirit 

By Anne M. Nordhaus-Bike 

Over the course of every year, the Sun travels through all 12 signs of the zodiac, one month at a time. So every month we have the opportunity to experience a different astrological energy, observe how its positives and negatives unfold in our lives, and integrate what we learn to achieve a new level of personal harmony. One way to make the most of this cyclical energy is to study the lives of public figures born under the sign the Sun currently occupies. Besides learning from their mistakes, we can take heart from how they overcome challenges and take inspiration from how they express the noblest aspects of their Sun signs.

            Harold Lee Washington was born at Cook County Hospital on April 15, 1922. He was the fourth child of Ray Lee Washington, a lawyer, Methodist minister, and precinct captain in the South Side’s 3rd Ward Democratic organization, and Bertha Jones Washington, a singer and theatre enthusiast who abandoned the family in 1926. Washington’s parents divorced soon after, and Roy later remarried, as did Bertha, who went on to have six more children.

            Ray sent his daughter and oldest son to live with relatives; he sent the two other boys to a Catholic boarding school in Milwaukee but in 1929 brought them to live with him near 47th St. and Michigan Ave. Thanks to his serious, introspective father, Washington began reading before age four and by seven had become the voracious reader he remained for life. Roy also fostered his son’s gift for oratory by practicing sermons on Washington, and he nurtured his natural political talents by involving him in precinct work.

            At DuSable High School, Washington’s brilliance let him excel academically with little effort, so he poured his ample free time and energy into sports and distinguished himself in public speaking. At 17, he dropped out, spent six months in the Civilian Conservation Corps, and then worked in the civil service and the stockyards. In 1941, he married 17-year-old Dorothy Nancy Finch, and in 1942 he was drafted into the army, serving as an engineer in the Pacific. He rose to sergeant and earned his high school diploma via correspondence courses.

            In 1946, he enrolled in the recently opened Roosevelt College (now Roosevelt University), one of the few schools that welcomed black students. He earned his BA in 1949 and went on to law school at Northwestern University. In 1951, he and Dorothy divorced, and the next year Washington earned his law degree. In 1953, Washington passed the bar exam and joined his father’s law office; after his father died suddenly that year, Washington succeeded him in his jobs as precinct captain and lawyer in the City of Chicago’s corporation counsel office.

Washington’s drive and speaking skills attracted attention from Mayor Richard J. Daley, who began grooming him for a high position, but Washington could not endure the entrenched racial bias and harassment at his city job. After a heated argument with a colleague, he was advised to learn to get along; instead, he withdrew, was often absent from work, and left after only three years. From 1960 to 1964, he worked as a state labor arbitrator.

            Most of Washington’s energy went into politics, however. Besides becoming a top precinct captain and aldermanic secretary, he took over the 3rd Ward’s Young Democrats organization and turned it into the city’s biggest minority political force in less than a year. In 1963, he led a nearly successful attempt by blacks to take leadership of the citywide Young Democrats, paving the way for a black member to become head of the organization in 1964. During that period, he also began dating Mary Ella Smith, a relationship that continued until his death.

            In 1965, Washington won a state representative seat in the Illinois House, where he balanced obligations to the Chicago machine with his desire to help the disadvantaged. He racked up a mostly progressive voting record, won acclaim from his peers (they voted him one of Illinois’s top ten legislators 11 times), and earned a reputation for eloquent oratory. In 1976, he won an Illinois State Senate seat, and in 1977 he finally broke with the machine when he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Chicago. In 1980, Illinois’s first congressional district elected him to the U.S. House of Representatives and re-elected him two years later.

In 1982, he ran for mayor again. By building a coalition that united the black community’s diverse and often contentious segments with Hispanics and white reformers and progressives, he won the Democratic primary against Jane Byrne and the city’s current mayor, Richard M. Daley, in early 1983. Based on Chicago’s past elective history, the general election should have been a mere formality, but racial hatred and bitter opposition erupted against Washington when the regular Democratic organization rallied behind his Republican opponent. The coalition carried the day, however, and Washington became Chicago’s 42nd mayor in April 1983.

            City government then degenerated into the infamous “Council Wars” when 21 aldermen aligned with Washington and 29 banded together with Alderman Edward Vrdolyak to oppose the mayor. The 29 blocked Washington’s appointments to key jobs and voted down his proposed legislation; Washington stymied the 29’s proposals because they lacked the 30th vote to override his veto. Finally, in 1986, court-ordered elections in wards found to be racially biased gave Washington 25 votes in the City Council, and his own vote enabled him to break the tie and end the stalemate.

As mayor, Washington opened up Chicago’s government by placing blacks, Hispanics, and women into powerful positions; submitting the budget process to public scrutiny; and creating freedom of information rules. He also made good on his promise of reform and his personal vision of democracy and government in service to the people by reducing patronage drastically, pushing a strong ethics ordinance through the City Council, and increasing minority contracts with the City. He also ensured city departments and workers distributed services fairly across all wards instead of a favored few.

In 1987, he won a second term but had little chance to continue his reform agenda because he died suddenly of a massive heart attack while working in his office on the day before Thanksgiving. A shocked city mourned the man who came to be called simply “Harold,” with more than 4,000 people per hour filing past his coffin as it lay in state in the City Hall rotunda for 56 hours before his funeral. He was buried in Oak Woods Cemetery on the South Side. His memory lives on in the city’s main library, which opened in 1991 in the South Loop as the Harold Washington Library Center, and in a new generation of politicians—including Barack Obama—inspired by Washington’s example and accomplishments.

 

Aries at its best—and its worst

Washington’s complex character reflects Aries at its best—and its worst. His life soared in triumph and service to others when he took on the Ram’s role as crusader against injustice, but he made enemies, brought unnecessary problems on himself, and cut short his life when he succumbed to this sign’s weaknesses.

            Washington demonstrated this sign’s leadership when his Roosevelt classmates elected him the school’s first black class president in 1948 and when he was elected treasurer of the junior bar association at Northwestern; it continued with numerous successful political campaigns. He showed Aries’s pioneering spirit as the only black in his law school class and the first black mayor of Chicago; as an Illinois state legislator, he achieved ethics and consumer credit reform and pushed passage of his bill that made Illinois the first state to honor Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday as a legal holiday.

            The Ram’s high spirits led Washington to rebel at his rigid boarding school, and he and his brother ran away to their father 14 times in the 34 months they spent there. By age ten, however, he was channeling his need for independence into Aries’s love of self-employment by starting a successful window washing business; in college, he and his oldest brother ran a lucrative decorating and maintenance firm.

            This sign’s fiery quality came through in Washington’s trademark smile, deep laugh, engaging manner, and exceptional physical stamina and determination. As a child, his brother and classmates bullied him, but Washington used his window washing money to buy the famous Charles Atlas mail order bodybuilding course; after two years of dogged practice, he beat both brother and bullies and ended their persecution. He then combined his newfound physical strength with Aries competitiveness to become a great high hurdler and middleweight boxer.

            Washington later gave up sports for politics and voluminous reading, primarily biographies. In Aries style, his stamina became legendary: while campaigning during a meeting of the local Young Democrats at a downtown hotel, Washington had a volunteer buttonhole people in the lobby until 3 a.m. When he talked of going home, Washington kept him campaigning until dawn, then ordered him to go home to shower, change, and report back by 9 a.m. to work until after the organization’s election that evening.

            Like many Rams, Washington bored easily without challenges, as when he left high school; in the military, he fought this trait by taking more than 30 education courses. Impulsiveness and Aries’s tendency to fall in love fast caused him to marry an unsuitable partner at age 19. Also, like many Rams, his first reaction to obstacles or opposition was anger, and while he worked hard to control his temper, it often exploded under stress.

Washington also could be careless about details. He lost his law license for a time because he did not complete minor work clients had paid for. He paid his taxes but neglected to file income tax returns for a few years, an offense typically punished with a fine; in Washington’s case, political enemies made when Washington led half the Illinois legislature’s black delegation in boycotting Republican vice president Spiro Agnew’s appearance in 1971 ensured he not only was prosecuted but served an unheard of 36 days of his 40 day sentence.

Neglect extended to his personal life. Consumed with politics and habitually staying up all night to read his ever present stack of new books, Washington had no time to balance his checkbook or even do his laundry. He ignored his body’s need for rest, regular meals, and exercise. Gifts of a stationary bicycle and treadmill sat unused in his Hyde Park apartment, meals consisted of food grabbed on the go, and doctor’s visits routinely were canceled. At the end of his life, he weighed 284 pounds, and his reckless disregard of health made it impossible for medical personnel to revive him after the massive heart attack that struck on November 25, 1987.

            Yet in politics, no detail was too small for Washington’s attention, and he became a master strategist and winning campaigner. His knowledge of parliamentary procedure allowed him to bog down the legislature when necessary to push for anti-discrimination measures. His maverick spirit helped him hold fast to his vision of fairness even as he endured the Council Wars.

            Throughout his life, Washington avoided the Aries risk of becoming self-focused or self-centered by becoming a political crusader to help others and to make government responsive to average people. He made politics his life and lived an almost spartan existence in a rental apartment, rejecting riches and self-importance in favor of public service. In that sense, he lived Aries’s noblest expression and left a legacy that continues to benefit Chicagoans of all races and backgrounds.

 

Making the most of Aries energy

            Washington’s life as a child of Aries shows the trouble the Ram creates when it gives in to its negative traits as well as the powerful, beneficial influence it exerts when it finds a cause worthy of its prodigious energy. During the Sun’s journey through this sign, all of us can make the most of Aries’s confidence and refreshing decisiveness by discovering our passion and having the courage to follow it.

            To reach our potential, we must recognize that life’s true battle lies within. By controlling our tempers, facing our faults, and cultivating the Ram’s bravery, we gain the strength to overcome our weaknesses and set an inspiring example for others.

Over time, we come to realize that our happiness cannot be complete unless we assist the well being of others. With the patience won in battle against our own flaws, we will be ready to devote our crusading spirit to uplifting humanity and making life’s noblest ideals real.