Tag Archives: black history

“It was quite common in the ‘eighties and ‘nineties to find in the Nation, Harper’s Weekly, the North American Review, or the Atlantic Monthly Northern liberals and former abolitionists mouthing the shibboleths of white supremacy regarding the Negro’s innate inferiority, shiftlessness, and hopeless unfitness for full participation in the white man’s civilization. Such expressions doubtless did much to add to the reconciliation of North and South, but they did so at the expense of the Negro. Just as the Negro gained his emancipation and new rights through a falling out between white men, he now stood to lose his rights through the reconciliation of white men.”

Excerpted from: Woodward, C. Vann. The Strange Career of Jim Crow. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Harold Washington: (1922-1987) U.S. politician and mayor of Chicago (1983-87). Born in Chicago, he practiced law and served as a city attorney 1954-58). He was elected successively to the Illinois legislature (1965-78), state senate (1976-80), and U.S. House of Representatives (1980-83). After a hard-fought campaign for reform and an end to city patronage, he was elected mayor of Chicago, becoming the first black to hold that office. He was elected to a second term in 1987, but died soon after.

Excerpted/Adapted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.