Richard Daley
Boss, Richard J. Daley of Chicago written by Mike Royko depicts the life of Richard J. Daley and his career as the leading political influence in the city of Chicago. Considered by many as the last of the true “Bosses” Daley represented all that was considered machine politics. During his twenty-year reign as Mayor extensive urban expansion, political extortion, and a clear disregard for social justice characterize his administration. Royko clearly presents Daley’s performance as Mayor in an objective perspective identifying his accomplishments as well as his weaknesses. He provides the reader a record of Richard J. Daley the person, the politician, the Mayor and the corruption that plagued his political machine.
Richard was born on May 15, 1902 to Lillian and Michael Daley. He was raised in a flat on 3602 South Lowe in the segregated neighborhood of Bridgeport, on the south side of Chicago. This simple Irish community made up of mostly blue-collar workers exhibited all the characteristics of a small town with “taverns, the funeral parlor, the bakery…” (31). Chicago was home to a diverse collection of ethnic cultures: English, Irish Protestants, Polish, Italian, Jewish and African American. It is this diversity of community and the conflict persistent along the boundaries of racial differences, which Royko suggests, carved Daleys’ resilient personality. His father provided for the family by working as sheet-metal worker, while his mother volunteered at the local Church. Information regarding his childhood is limited, except for the fact that it was “typical and happy” (33). His early education included a strict curriculum provided by the nuns at Nativity Church and part-time jobs selling papers. After completing elementary he continued his education at De La Salle Institute, a three-year commercial high school. His education focused on developing office skills such as typing and bookkeeping. After graduating in June of 1919, Royko mentions Daley’s questionable involvement in the south side race riots as a member of the Hamburg Social and Athletic Club. Considered as the worst race riots in the city's history leaving "15 whites and 23 blacks dead, 178 whites and 342 blacks injured. About one thousand homes were burned” (36). Daley refused to respond to questions regarding his involvement in the rioting, but he could not deny, as Royko po...
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... led by Edward Hanrahan raided a Black Panther apartment in search of unregistered guns. “ When the raid was over they had the guns, and two panther leaders were dead…Fred Hampton…and Mark Clark…” (211).
Royko’s representation of Richard J. Daley provides his readers an impartial glimpse into the obscure life of a true political power. Daley’s genius in gaining control as mayor of Chicago and then sustaining it from 1955 to 1976 characterizes his tenacity as politician. His explicit understanding of machine politics and use of patronage centralized the power of his administration. On one hand his constituents admire him for his contribution toward urban expansion, influence on the Democratic Party, and patronage of friends and family. On the other hand he is resented for his destruction of homes in the name of progress, corruption of local government, and absolute rule over his city. Royko concludes his colorful story on Richard Daley in quoting Alderman Paddy Bauler in his statement after Daley was first elected in 1995 as saying ” Chicago ain’t ready for reform yet, “(214). Royko completes Bauler’s statement as saying " And in 1970, ready or not, it wasn’t getting any.”(214)!
The fourth chapter of City Politics by Dennis R. Judd & Todd Swanstrom covers the rise of "Reform Politics" with many local governments during the first half of the 1900s as a way to combat the entrenched political machines that took control of many large city governments in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Over the course of the chapter, Judd & Swanstrom quickly cover the history of the "reform movement" with different examples of how the reform movement affected city politics in different areas.
There were groups such as the Black Panthers, and the US Organization, which were known to have been rivals due to false rumors that had been spread by the government and the media. Black Panthers were known to have offered a more reliable source of protection during this time than the police did for African Americans. Sloan interviews current and former gang members from a variety of gangs spread throughout Los Angeles. He gives us a different perspective on where gangs came from and why they formed. Although they were originally formed to protect African Americans, they have strayed far from where they started.
Roosevelt led the reform committee that brought Tammany to its knees – by the 1960s, the once glorious machine had been destroyed. The urban political machine was a force that provided stability and growth for the “out-of-control” urban population. Cities grew at uncontrollable rates and organizations like Tammany Hall instituted public improvements and created millions of jobs because of the torrential flow of immigrants into Ellis Island. It can even be argued that Tammany and other political machines made the transition easier for these immigrants, without whom the cities would not have been able to prosper to the extent that they did. The political machine created a type of politics that was purely practical in nature, and although it allowed for an immoral amount of corruption, the contributions it made to growth, stability, and production cannot be understated.
The New York governor captivates his audience with the image of a “better tomorrow” in the hands of a Democratic president. President Reagan was in office until 1989 when he was succeeded by another Republican president, George H. W. Bush. His term saw a mere 2% GDP increase until 1993 when the United States inaugurated the first Democratic president in over twelve years. President Bill Clinton’s strategic fiscal discipline created over 22 million jobs, while unemployment for African Americans and Hispanics fell to the lowest rates on record. The Clinton years are remembered as an era of progress and prosperity in America, and they fulfilled Cuomo’s vision of an abundant
Chicago, one of the most popular cities in America. Visits from families all around the country, what makes this place so great? Is it the skyscrapers that protrude the sky? Or is it the weather people loved? Does Chicago being the second most favored city in America show that this town has some greatness? In the nonfiction novel The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson uses imagery, tone, and figurative language to portray the dreamlike qualities of Chicago and the beauty that lies within this city.
As the mayor of Chicago until his death in 1976 and as chairman of Chicago's Cook County Democratic Central Committee from 1953 to 1976, Richard Joseph Daley was one of the most powerful politicians in the United States. He easily won reelection to office in five successive campaigns from 1959 to 1975, and during his mayoralty Chicago was the scene of an unprecedented building boom, improvement in city services, and urban renewal programs. Daley ran Chicago when federal government was pouring billions into highways, public transit, housing for poor. He used it to advantage, mounting massive urban renewal...
Dale Earnhardt grew up in automotive racing. Ever since he was a kid that is what his family did, and now his family carries on that legacy.
Rosenfield, Seth. "Richard Aoki, Man Who Armed Black Panthers, Was FBI Informant." Huffington Post. N.p., 21 Aug. 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
When Richard is arrested with his friends, the cop immediately lump them into the same category as the zootsuiters who they all suspected of raping women. This altercation was the final blow Richard’s innocence sustained before it crumpled completely. Richard realized how much his skin color mattered to other’s perceptions of him. The cop, upon recognizing his mistake and Richard’s potential, attempts to recruit him into another job that the cop believes is the best job a Mexican could get. Richard once again rejects the job offer and society’s vision for
In this course we have learned that a city's character is "a legacy for seeing, interpreting, exploiting, and transforming its social, cultural and political opportunities as a physical community." How is it possible for a city like Boston to have character? Well, the institutional and cultural continuity along with the resistance and reconstruction of culture has allowed the character of Boston to be defined simply by the underlying idea of conflict. Through J Anthony Lukas' Common Ground and Richard Broadman's Mission Hill and the Miracle of Boston, we can see that the catalyst for this sense of conflict has been social dissentions between classes and races. These dissentions are clearly detailed through both the Urban Renewal plans of Mission Hill in the 1960s and 1970s and the school busing case of 1974.When looking at the character of Boston one must understand the amount of controversy our city has encountered as well as the way they have identified and resolved these crisis's. Through this deduction along with my own personal experience of living in Boston a step towards finding a distinct character of Boston may be possible.
Following the years of Congressional Reconstruction during the Johnson administration, former Union General Ulysses S. Grant was elected president, despite his lack of political experience. Although Grant was an excellent soldier, he proved to be an insufficient politician, failing to respond effectively to rampant corruption throughout his two terms in office. Both government and businesses were plagued by corrupt schemes, as Republican leaders used the spoils system to gain political favors and “robber barons,” such as Jay Gould and James Fisk, stole large sums of money at the public’s expense. New York Mayor William “Boss” Tweed, leader of the “Tammany Hall” political machine, took advantage of the influx of immigrants to the United States by manipulating newly arrived immigrants, promising employment, housing, and other favors in return for their electoral support. This blatant corruption severely damaged the opinions of many Americans regarding their government, and prompted the election of numerous reform-minded politicians. Rutherford B. Hayes and James Garfield both attempted to restore honest government following the tainted Grant administration, yet political divisions between the “Halfbreed” and “Stalwart” factions of the Republican Party prev...
On July 27, 1919, a young black man named Eugene Williams swam past an invisible line of segregation at a popular public beach on Lake Michigan, Chicago. He was stoned by several white bystanders, knocked unconscious and drowned, and his death set off one of the bloodiest riots in Chicago’s history (Shogun 96). The Chicago race riot was not the result of the incident alone. Several factors, including the economic, social and political differences between blacks and whites, the post-war atmosphere and the psychology of race relations in 1919, combined to make Chicago a prime target for this event. Although the riot was a catalyst for several short-term solutions to the racial tensions, it did little to improve race relations in the long run. It was many years before the nation truly addressed the underlying conflicts that sparked the riot of 1919. This observation is reflected in many of author James Baldwin’s essays in which he emphasizes that positive change can only occur when both races recognize the Negro as an equal among men politically, economically and socially.
The Chicago riot was the most serious of the multiple that happened during the Progressive Era. The riot started on July 27th after a seventeen year old African American, Eugene Williams, did not know what he was doing and obliviously crossed the boundary of a city beach. Consequently, a white man on the beach began stoning him. Williams, exhausted, could not get himself out of the water and eventually drowned. The police officer at the scene refused to listen to eyewitness accounts and restrained from arresting the white man. With this in mind, African Americans attacked the police officer. As word spread of the violence, and the accounts distorted themselves, almost all areas in the city, black and white neighborhoods, became informed. By Monday morning, everyone went to work and went about their business as usual, but on their way home, African Americans were pulled from trolleys and beaten, stabbed, and shot by white “ruffians”. Whites raided the black neighborhoods and shot people from their cars randomly, as well as threw rocks at their windows. In retaliation, African Americans mounted sniper ambushes and physically fought back. Despite the call to the Illinois militia to help the Chicago police on the fourth day, the rioting did not subside until the sixth day. Even then, thirty eight
Gerald Benjamin and Stephen P. Rappaport, Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science Vol. 31, No. 3, Governing New York State: The Rockefeller Years (May, 1974), pp. 200-213
Kerr, Walter. "'Chicago' Comes On Like Doomsday." Rev. of Chicago. New York Times 8 June 1975, Arts and Leisure sec.: 109. New York Times Archives. New York Times. Web. 1 May 2014.