Washington, Harold (1922-1987), won election as the first African American mayor of Chicago in 1983. Washington, a Democrat, defeated Republican Bernard E. Epton, a former state representative. Washington received about 52 percent of the total vote. He won support from about 99 percent of Chicago’s black voters and 18 percent of its white voters, including Hispanics. At that time, blacks made up about 40 percent of the city’s population. Washington was reelected in April 1987. He had a fatal heart attack on Nov. 25, 1987.
Washington was the first black mayoral nominee of Chicago’s Democratic Party. He became the nominee by defeating Mayor Jane M. Byrne and Cook County State’s Attorney Richard M. Daley in a primary election.
Washington was born on April 15, 1922, in Chicago. His father was a lawyer and a Methodist minister. Washington graduated from Roosevelt University in 1949 and from the Northwestern University School of Law in 1952. He became a lawyer in 1953. He served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1965 to 1976 and in the Illinois Senate from 1976 to 1980. Washington represented Illinois’s First Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1983.
