Going the Distance

At 13, Harold Washington was already savvy about the byzantine world of Chicago politics: he worked with his father, a Democratic precinct captain, organizing voters on the South Side. He also received an early education in the rigors of competition. While at Du Sable High School, he won the city championship in the 120-yd. high hurdles. At the Civilian Conservation Corps camps, he became a no-nonsense amateur middleweight boxer who won 50 of 60 fights, 15 by knockout. Laughs the mayor-elect today: "I'm a pretty good bare-knuckles fighter too."

Now 61, Washington chain-smokes Kools and, except for an occasional jog, fencing match or pool game, prefers being a spectator. But, with 215 Ibs. packed solidly on a 5-ft. 10-in. frame, he wore out bodyguards 25 years his junior during the campaign, getting by on five hours' sleep a night. The schedule was typical of the Congressman, an amiable but intensely private man. His modest Hyde Park apartment in Chicago is strewn with newspapers and books. He rarely indulges in vacations and avoids the social scene in Washington.

Sloppy about his personal finances, with a careless disdain for paying bills and taxes that hurt him during the campaign (and cost him a month in jail in 1972), Washington has not profited financially from a lifetime of politics. His first marriage, to his high school sweetheart, ended in divorce in 1955 after ten years and no children; he is now engaged to Mary Ella Smith, a Chicago teacher he has known for 20 years.

Few politicians are as much a product of their cities as Washington is. Both his grandfather and father were Methodist ministers there. After his parents were divorced, Harold, the youngest of four children in a family in which there were also six stepchildren, was raised by his father Roy, who was a lawyer as well as a minister, and a Democrat in an era when most blacks were Lincoln Republicans. During World War II, Harold did a three-year stint in the Army Air Corps and emerged with sergeant's stripes. He attended Roosevelt College on the G.I. Bill and, though one of only some 20 blacks among 400 seniors, was voted president of his class. He graduated from Northwestern Law School in 1952. When his father died the following year, Harold inherited his law practice and stake in the party organization.

Washington served in the state legislature for 16 years until he was elected to Congress in 1980 from Illinois' First District. He had run for mayor in 1977, but was embarrassed when black voters stuck with the Democratic machine candidate, Michael Bilandic, and he netted only 11% of the vote. After his loss, he denounced Bilandic as a "third-rate Boss Daley" and drew the wrath of the machine.

In his efforts to dismantle the machine, and in other challenges ahead, Washington says that his father will be his role model. "For many years he was not only my father, but my mother too. Every night he came home, put his feet under the table and had dinner with me. He was a good man, hard as nails and soft as butter, depending on the circumstances." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.