Fact Check: the Chicago Crusader’s questionable endorsement of Bill Daley
We expect nothing from the Tribune Editorial Board. But for a Black woman-owned publication to bury a Bill Daley endorsement on their website truly has us scratching our heads.
We’re talking about the Chicago Crusader. On Feb. 21, the historic Black weekly published an article entitled “Our time has finally come.” Instead of beginning the piece with its most newsworthy declaration, a Daley endorsement for Chicago mayor, it goes on and on about the need for change and Black progress before even announcing that this is a story about their municipal election picks.
The interesting thing, though, is the Crusader backs up its endorsement with a slew of misinformation about the legacies of old man Richard J. Daley and son Richard M. Daley.
In this piece, we’re breaking down questionable statements found in the Crusader’s Daley endorsement.
Many have talked about the Daley years of Bill’s father and brother. But if we look at that era, the crime in the streets was not as high, Black businesses prospered, new schools opened, communities developed, and a Black middle class bloomed. We must move forward and be steadfast as we go. Bill Daley is ready to assume the Mayor mantel and we need to give him our vote to move forward as the 45th mayor of the City of Chicago
Daley’s father, often referred to as Old Man Daley, was the mayor of Chicago from April 1955 to December 1976. That’s 21 years. According to the Chicago Tribune, the 1960s marked a turbulent change in the city. Homicides nearly doubled during that time, including two major events that devastated the Black community. On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, and Daley issued a call for local and federal law enforcement to “shoot to kill” in order to tame rioting Black folks on the South and West sides. On Dec. 4, 1969, police raided the West Side apartment of the Illinois Black Panther Party, killing leaders Fred Hampton, 21, and Mark Clark, 22, in cold blood.
One of Chicago’s deadliest years on record happened in 1974 with 970 homicides.
Old Man Daley’s son, Richard J. Daley, took office in 1989 and lasted through 2011. That’s 22 years. Throughout the 1990s, homicides hovered around the 900 mark. In 2004, homicides fell below 500 for the first time in 40 years, according to the Tribune. It wouldn’t spike above 750 again until 2016.
The South Side’s Bronzeville community was the height of Black culture and business from the 1920s through the 1950s. According to WTTW, more than 300,000 people lived in Bronzeville at its peak. Talk to any Black person who’s lived in Chicago for a reasonable amount of time, and they’ll refer to Bronzeville as the “Black Metropolis” in its heyday.
Soon, Bronzeville fell into decline. Between the 1940s and 1960s, public housing projects moved into the area: the Robert Taylor Homes, Stateway Gardens, Dearborn Homes, Harold Ickes Homes, and the Hilliard Homes. According to the Chicago Defender, many argue that Richard J. Daley lined the projects along State Street and built the Dan Ryan Expressway as a barrier to keep Blacks contained on the east side of the expressway. The neighborhood eventually became a place of poverty, crime and despair.
Schools in Chicago took a controversial turn during Richard M. Daley’s mayorship. The charter-school movement made its way to the city under his watch in the late 1990s. And in 2004, Daley announced his Renaissance 2010 plan to close dozens of poorly performing schools to create 100 new – mostly charter – schools by 2010, according to the Chicago Reporter.
By communities, do you mean enclaves like Cabrini Green, where thousands of Black people were displaced in the tearing down of the projects for Richard M. Daley’s Plan for Transformation?
It’s one thing to endorse Bill Daley for mayor, but it’s another thing to sugar coat the destructive and racist legacy from whence he came.