After 23 Years, Mayor Emanuel Unveils Plaque for Harold Washington Library

After 23-years, Mayor Emanuel unveils plaque for Harold Washington Library Says, “I am standing on his shoulders today’

By Chinta Strausberg

After hearing complaints from activists like Josie Child, who heads the Harold Washington Legacy Committee, Mayor Rahm Emanuel Friday unveiled a plaque in memory of Mayor Harold Washington that will be prominently placed on the library that was built 23-years ago.

In dedicating a plaque in memory of Mayor Harold Washington, Mayor Rahm Emanuel Friday said it was long overdue to have av isible name placed on the Harold Washington Library named after the first African American mayor of Chicago.

Friday’s gathering was like taking a walk down memory lane where Mayor Rahm Emanuel unveiled a plaque of Mayor Washington at the Harold Washington Library. WVON’s Matt McGill was the MC.

Many of Mayor Washington’s most loyal soldiers present were Cook County Clerk David Orr, Josie Childs, who heads the Harold Washington Legacy Committee, Rev. B. Herbert Martin, Jane Ramsey, Senator Jacqueline Collins, Aldermen Walter Burnett, Michelle Harris, Jason Irving, Dr.Conrad W. Worrill, who heads the Jacob H. Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies, 700 East Oakwood, professor emeritus Robert Starks, Bennett Johnson, Father George Clements, George O’Hare, Rev. Stan Davis, Henry English, Jacky Grimshaw, Ed Hamb, several of Mayor Washington’s body guards including Wilbourne Woods, Dave M. Rozell; Clarence Jenkins, and many others.

In addressing the audience, Childs referred to Washington who was known as an avid reader “who used to send the press”scurrying to the dictionary after she spoke. Naming this library after him, she said, “was a perfect setting.”

Childs said in February of last year, her committee was planning a tribute to Washington but quickly realized young people did not know who the first black mayor was. Childs said she was told that Washington’s name was not on the library. After driving around the building twice, Childs confirmed the absence of the mayor’s name and began inquiring.

She thanked Mayor Emanuel for the plaque but quickly suggested that he put a “bust or a portrait in the lobby for Harold….”  Childs described the spirit of Mayor Washington as being, “Chicago is one city. We should work together as one people for our common goal and our common good.”

Dr. Worrill said in 1983 when he first met with Mayor Washington, he asked the new mayor for an indoor track in Chicago and requested that it be built next to his school. Washington told him,“Conrad, I just got in office. Would you give me a break”?

While Washington was working on that project, Worrill said, “Thirty-years later I end up in a meeting with Rahm Emanuel, and something magical happened. I guess it was the creative force of the universe that put me in the room with Elzie Higginbottom, who I ran track against in high school and who use to terribly whip me.”

When the meeting ended, Worrill recalled Mayor Emanuel saying, “I got it.” Thanking the leadership of Emanuel and Ald. Harris, Worrill said, “It appears that for the first time in the history of Chicago there are plans underfoot to build a state-of-the-art indoor track facility that will be world class and will be sanctioned by USA Track and Field so that we can have international track meets in Chicago.”

Revealing that his father was a “track man” who once ran with Jackie Robinson’s brother, Mack Robinson, who got second in the 200-meters to Jesse Owen in Berlin in 1936, Worrill said, “The spirit of track and field and the spirit of athletes and its relationship to academic achievement and development is very important.

“Everybody can’t play basketball and they are not going to the NBA and they are not signing a contract…. It’s not happening,” Worrill said.

When he was meeting with the mayor, Mayor Emanuel asked him what more did he want? Worrill told him that DuSable used to dominate swimming in the late 1930’s and 1940’s. The mayor asked him, “Where did you get that from”? Worrill quipped, “Hey, man, don’t challenge me on any research. What’s wrong with you”?

As proof, Worrill found an article proving that DuSable once dominated in swimming.  So, at the press conference held by the mayor to announce the $22 million needed to build that track, Worrill said, “I handed it (the article) to him and said, man don’t ever challenge me on any research on any subject related to history,” he said as both the mayor and the audience laughed.

Worrill reminded the audience that he had not “actually been in the mayor’s office since I met with Harold Washington…. I ain’t been fooling with the mayors of Chicago for a long time…. ‘This is a great day because any time we can use the resources of government to assist in a program to help young people in this city and broaden the scope…” around sports, athletes, arts and music that have gone away” that’s a good thing. Worrill added, “It’s time to bring them back.”

“I’ve been working on this for 30-years,”said Worrill. “Who would have ever thought I would be coalescing with the mayor of the city of Chicago to build a state-of-the-art indoor track facility that would be qualified to have international track meets….” He said this project will “spurn economic growth.”

Worrill then looked at Mayor Emanuel and said, “We got to have a hotel out here. We got to have some restaurants out there,” he said as the audience and the mayor laughed. “If you are going to have a track meet, the people need to have a place to stay…. It needs an infusion of economic development.” The mayor laughed and said, “Somebody get him off there….” Worrill agreed with Josie Childs and said there needs to be a statute of Washington then told the mayor, “Go get the money and build the statute.”

While Washington was working on getting a track,  Worrill said, “Thirty-years later I end up in a meeting with Rahm Emanuel, and something magical happened. I guess it was the creative force of the universe that put me in the room with Elzie Higginbottom, who I ran track against in high school and who use to terribly whip me.”

When the meeting ended, Worrill said Mayor Emanuel said, “I got it.” Thanking the leadership of Emanuel and Ald. Harris, Worrill said, “It appears that for the first time in the history of Chicago there are plans underfoot to build a state-of-the-art indoor track facility that will be world class and will be sanctioned by USA Track and Field so that we can have international track meets in Chicago.”

In looking at the audience, Mayor Emanuel said,“I would not be standing here today if I had not been standing on the shoulders of Harold Washington and Jane Byrne because they collectively broke the glass ceiling…,.” When Washington took office in 1983, Emanuel said, “He changed the way we saw what was possible become a reality.”

The mayor likened that to his maternal grandfather who came to Chicago in 1917 at the age of 13 at a time when Jews were fleeing the wrath of the Eastern European pogroms. “They put him on a boat to meet somebody, didn’t speak a word of English, never passed history, education, came to what we called the old country, North Lawndale, before he moved North to Albany Park but that his grandson would be the mayor of the city of Chicago within two generations. It was only possible because Harold Washington and Jane Byrne made us think about that office in a total different way of what was possible. I would not be here if it were not for Harold Washington’s legacy” he said is about one city. Emanuel is the first Jewish mayor of Chicago.

Referring to Josie Child’s blue T-shirt bearing a stripe, Mayor Emanuel said, “lt’s about the sun always rising and the sun will always rise on Harold’s legacy. It’s alive. It’s well. I guess we have to teach it to our kids, but it is about weaving that fabric of 77 neighborhoods, 140 different nationalities into one and that is what he showed all of us in his big personality, big smile and total thirst and love for life.”

Having just met with Michelle T. Boone, the city’s Cultural Affairs and Special Events Commissioner, Emanuel said she rewrote the city’s cultural plan. “The last cultural plan the city had was the one Harold wrote. When you look at that plan…, a theater district in downtown Chicago. It’s now a reality. The first idea and concept was in his cultural plan,” he said explaining that concept is being moved into the neighborhoods, parks and schools.

Rev. Martin, Mayor Washington’s pastor, led an inter-active tribute entitled “You Are Remembered.”

In ending the ceremony, Martin said, “Bless those who will use this library so they like Harold Washington will be prolific readers, gifted orators, to do justly, love, compassion, serve the common good and find joy in contributing to the progress of this city, the windy city, the city of broad shoulders, the city that works together as we build a new Chicago our kind of town.

“I now dedicate this building and all the equipment herein to the glory of God and to the benefit of all humanity may this unique architecture finds its place among the iconology of this great city. May the sovereign God who operates on the outer limits of human intelligence and who commands us to love and help one another as sisters and brothers bless us and all to be looked upon kindly as they enter this place….

After hearing complaints from activists like Josie Child, who heads the Harold Washington Legacy Committee, Mayor Rahm Emanuel Friday unveiled a plaque in memory of Mayor Washington that will be prominently displaced on the library that was built 23-years ago. Photo by Chinta Strausberg

Chinta Strausberg is a Journalist of more than 33-years, a former political reporter and a current PCC Network talk show host. You can e-mail Strausberg at: Chintabernie@aol.com.