HISTORY PRESENTATION HAROLD LEE WASHINGTON By Helen Wu

CONTENT  Autobiography  Meat parking  World war II  Race  Mayor in the office

AUTOBIOGRAPHY  Name: Harold Lee Washington  D.O.B. APRIL  P.O.B. Chicago, Illinois, USA  Parents: Bertha Washington Roy Lee Washington Sr.  Spouses: Nancy Dorothy Finch (JULY 22, 1942 (17) -- February 25, 1950)  Mary Ella Smith (engaged)  Service/branch United States Army Air Force ( )  Battles/ wars: world war two (south pacific, Phillipine)

MEAT PARKING  17yrs drop from DuSable High School  Join the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC. Found by president Franklin Delano Roosevelt)  1940 worked in the Union Stockyards (freezer department)  Worked in the cold and wet  Gloves, high boots, rubber shoes and layers of clotheing  Need to warm up  Worked for one year, then worked in the U.S. Treasury Department

WORLD WAR II  From  07/12/ 1941 Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor  08/12/1941 Germany and Italy declared war with United States  Anti- German in Chicago/ didn’t respond the killing, dropped the Germen Culture  All the whites needed to the war from 20 to 45  The blacks grown quickly in Chicago, worked in the North of City  Black soldiers in fall 1942  Joined air force/ got his high school diploma from DuSable High School  In the south Pacific /Nancy wrote love letter to him  Served 3 ½ yrs /discharged with honor

POLITICIAN/RACE  Roosevelt College 1946/ Student Government  Speech /closed with the whites  It was very stranger to black walked with the whites  Northwestern University/ Law/ only black  Became lawyer/worked with his Dad  Black people involved in the politician  His father motivated his a lot  Working with Ralph Metcalfe/ Richard J. Daley/ William Dawson  Organize Young Democrats organization  He dropped by Daley/ threaten to Daley

POLITICIAN/RACE  Illinois House  Martin Luther King’s birthday  Tension with Daley and the rest of the Machine leadership  Human Rights Act of 1980/restricted discrimination  Hard as steel/soft as butter

MAYOR IN THE OFFICE   First black mayor  Made end of the race  First term/ ugly/ whites  Became better/support by African American, Latino and White liberal aldermen  Death in his office/ discussing school board issues  Suddenly slumped over his desk,  Northwestern Memorial Hospital  Heart attack/248 lbs/enlarged heart/ hypertension/ high cholesterol  Lot of people went to his funeral

PLACE TO REMEMBER  Harold Washington College  Harold Washington Library  Harold Washington Cultural Center  Harold Washington Park

REFERENCE   City of Big Shoulders A History of Chicago by Robert G. Spinney  “HAROLD” The People’s Mayor by Dempsey J. Travis 

THE END