Party marks Harold Washington’s 100th birthday at his namesake library

The group of attendees was as various because the coalition he introduced collectively as Chicago’s first Black mayor.

“My uncle stood for, believed in, fought for a unified metropolis,” stated Karen Stone, niece.

“The legacy is politics. He actually put the nail within the coffin of the Democratic machine,” stated Roland Burris, former Illinois comptroller and lawyer common.

Fellow “Council Warriors,” civil rights icons and civic leaders he mentored gathered for the centennial celebration. Washington, who died in 1987, would have turned 100 this Friday.

“I do not know what he would do, however I believe that what he would do is sing some time,” stated Chief Decide Timothy Evans, who was additionally a Chicago alderman from 1973 to 1991. “He’d dance some time with a lot of you. He actually would seize a handful of cake if there was any cake left.”

“Any individual’s learn to offer us energy in order that we is usually a transformative agent in our personal group. That is what Harold Washington meant to Latinos,” stated Luis Gutierrez, former Chicago alderman and U.S. consultant.

“He was additionally a really accessible politician. We had his telephone quantity on the Metropolis Information Bureau. You can actually name his residence and he would reply the telephone instantly,” stated John Holden, former Metropolis Information Bureau reporter.

It was, after all, an evening to commerce tales, but additionally to look forward. The work Washington championed continues, in accordance with many.

“He all the time understood that the way forward for any constructive change in our nation and on the earth laid in younger individuals,” stated U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who additionally served as a Chicago alderman from 1986 to 1993.

A century after his start, many say the legacy of Chicago’s first Black mayor continues to be written.