On the Scene: Vouchers and the Pharaoh’s Son

TWO YEARS ago this St. Patrick’s Day, on the eve of yet another contentious election, the subject in Chicago—or Beirut-on-the-Lake, as it had come to be called—was race. And providing the focus for that issue was Richard M. Daley, then State’s Attorney and son of Himself, Richard J. Daley, whose death in 1976 had led to the total demolition of the city’s fabled Democratic machine and opened the door to a new era of intense racial politics.

The progression of events leading to the election of 1989 was a scriptwriter’s dream and civic teacher’s nightmare. There were the great snow years of 1978 and 1979, with a beleaguered Mayor Bilandic comparing his plight to the Crucifixion; there were the Jane Byrne years of lakeside festivals, mayoral songfests, and a highly publicized move to Cabrini Green; there were the Harold Washington years, epitomized by City Council wars and the death of the mayor from overeating; and there was the brief interregnum of Alderman Eugene Sawyer, who was elected to succeed Washington after a raucous all-night session at City Hall. So reluctant was Sawyer to accept the designation that he sobbed during his acceptance remarks and had to be physically supported by his fellow aldermen as he delivered them.

JR

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John R. Coyne Jr.

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TWO YEARS ago this St. Patrick’s Day, on the eve of yet another contentious election, the subject in Chicago—or Beirut-on-the-Lake, as it had come to be called—was race. And providing the focus for that issue was Richard M. Daley, then State’s Attorney and son of Himself, Richard J. Daley, whose death in 1976 had led to the total demolition of the city’s fabled Democratic machine and opened the door to a new era of intense racial politics.

The progression of events leading to the election of 1989 was a scriptwriter’s dream and civic teacher’s nightmare. There were the great snow years of 1978 and 1979, with a beleaguered Mayor Bilandic comparing his plight to the Crucifixion; there were the Jane Byrne years of lakeside festivals, mayoral songfests, and a highly publicized move to Cabrini Green; there were the Harold Washington years, epitomized by City Council wars and the death of the mayor from overeating; and there was the brief interregnum of Alderman Eugene Sawyer, who was elected to succeed Washington after a raucous all-night session at City Hall. So reluctant was Sawyer to accept the designation that he sobbed during his acceptance remarks and had to be physically supported by his fellow aldermen as he delivered them.