Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-335) and index.
Contents:
Introduction -- From politics to protest -- Shifting alliances -- Winning by losing? -- We were invisible -- The grassroots challenge -- Race and a new democratic coalition -- Fighting wars of all kinds -- Latinos and a governing majority -- The fragility of coalitions -- Epilogue: Legacies and the new machine.
Summary:
"Harold Washington was the first African American mayor of Chicago. Elected in 1983 by a multiracial coalition of voters, his victory was seen as a rebuke of the city's longstanding machine politics. Washington's Political Education Project, formed in 1984, helped organize this emerging Democratic coalition and brought him growing influence over national politics as the party sought a viable alternative to Reagan Republicanism. This book is less a biography than a narrative and analysis of Chicago's complicated role in late twentieth century American political history. Mantler places Harold Washington at the center of a complicated, multiracial political movement. The coalition politics associated with Washington's rise has lived on and is now regarded as the foundation of the contemporary Democratic Party electorate"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.