(crowd cheering)
- You want Harold?
(crowd cheering)
Well here's Harold.
(crowd cheering)
- Mayor Harold Washington was the first candidate
who I was engaged with on a very grassroots level.
I knocked on doors for him.
I believed in his vision for Chicago.
He was a unifier.
- My first encounter with Harold
began when a good friend of mine
that I grew up with, asked me to come
and help run his senatorial campaign.
Then from there, I ran all of his campaigns after that,
but then the next really major race,
was the Congressional Race.
He could have remained Congressman,
The first Congressional District for life.
He was that popular
and he was that skilled
as a politician and a legislator.
- I proudly and humbly accept,
on behalf of the people of Chicago,
the nomination as a democratic candidate for mayor
(crowd cheering)
- When Harold Washington first announced
he was running for mayor,
most people in Chicago didn't think he could win.
The discrimination that had been the history
of the city of Chicago,
didn't seem as though
it would be ready for a black man
to be elected mayor of such a city.
- The democratic party is not polarized
black and white, period.
There are people who would like to
polarize it black and white.
That's not going to happen.
- The media saw Harold as an officer ran, that the fight
for mayor was between
the son of the former mayor
and the current mayor,
Richard Daley, Jane burn.
- A question in that campaign,
"Could he put together
enough of a turnout,
in the African American community
to run down the middle between these two white
candidates in a deeply divided city?"
And he did because there was absolute,
not just support but,
enthusiasm bordering on adoration.
(crowd chanting)
- His message was one
that would bring the city together,
and he wouldn't be the black mayor of Chicago.
He would be the mayor of Chicago
who happened to be black
but a trail blazer,
doing what no person had done before him.
- We want to win so bad?
We can taste it.
We're prepared for it.
We're qualified for it.
We've been working for it all our life.
This job was made for me.
I want it badly.
I want it.
(crowd cheering)
I want it.
- He was this guy
who was fearless.
Who was taking on the machine,
and who was articulating
the aspirations of the community
in a way that voters here hadn't heard before.
- Our concern is to make the Chicago base
which is a powerful economic base,
a much more proof for Loasis,
that has open doors for all of its citizens,
regardless of race, color, dream, or sex, or handicap.
(crowd cheering)
- He made me feel a part of something bigger
than just myself, a part of the movement.
They gave me an appreciation for what
his leadership could do for our city,
that at the time,
was pretty divided.
(crowd chanting)
Was a very grassroots effort
going door to door.
I remember going to LeClaire courts,
one of the public housing developments
at the time in Chicago,
and people were hesitant,
but he just kept at it.
And in so doing,
he built some momentum.
When a politician is trying earnestly to earn your vote
you can tell.
- I'm just going to tell you what the facts are.
- Harold Washington was
utterly authentic and reveled in being authentic.
He was who he was,
said what he pleased,
and people loved that.
He was a brawler in a town that appreciates strength.
- If this was street brawl,
I know what I would do.
(crowd laughing)
- He was unafraid of any fight
and people thought, "Yeah, that's us, that's Chicago".
- According to the best of my ability.
- Congratulations, man.
(crowd cheering)
- What he did for the spirit of Chicago
and our belief in these infinite possibilities,
you can't take away.
- Harold's election was a declaration of independence
on the part of the African American community that had been
under the yolk of the democratic machine for generations.
- And that was another attitude.
You can't beat city hall,
you can't beat the political machine.
And so our experience in our local Lexi
big machine several times.
So, yes you can.
(crowd chanting)
- Yes, we can.
- Had there not been a mayor of Washington,
there might not have been a president Obama.
in a sense what began in Chicago,
the sense of breaking barriers,
of doing what nobody had ever done before.
Really, for a black man to be elected mayor of Chicago
at the time that he was elected,
seemed as far fetched at the time
as president Obama when he first ran for president.
- It is time for a check,
and that's why I'm running
for president of United States of America.
(crowd cheering)
- There is a linkage between
Harold Washington and Barack Obama.
Even though they only met once,
Barack Obama is the legatier
in many ways of Harold Washington.
So, it's all together fitting
that he be represented at the Obama Center
- Getting over that thought process,
that this really can't happen,
was a similarity with both of the campaigns.
- Some of you may know
that I originally moved to Chicago in part,
because of the inspiration
of Mayor Washington's campaign.
I'll never forget how he reached out
to everyone;
black, brown and white,
to build a coalition for change.
But, he understood that,
ultimately power comes from people,
then people trust that you are fighting for them.
Then there's nothing you can't accomplish.
(soft music)
- He made you feel as
though you were part of something bigger than yourself.
He reminded everybody
that we have more in common
than we have differences.
He motivated people to want to get involved.
And whether you were knocking on doors,
or volunteering at a block club,
that everyone could do something
to make Chicago better.
And I think that,
that inspiration that I felt from him
was shared by countless people across,
not just our city, but the country.
- I look out there at 3000 people,
you know what I see?
I see 3 million people in Chicago
coming together in unison,
around a common purpose to make this a better city.
Thank you very much.