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Political History Of Chicago
Politics in Chicago through most of the 20th century was dominated by the Democratic Party. Organized crime and political corruption were persistent concerns in the city. Chicago was the political base for presidential nominees Stephen Douglas (1860), Adlai Stevenson II (1952 and 1956), and Barack Obama, who was nominated and elected in 2008. History 19th century Chicago's rapid growth necessitated the development of infrastructure such as streets, bridges, schools, sanitation, and water systems. The city's strategic location made it a hub for commerce and industry, attracting investments from both local and external sources. Its position on Lake Michigan gave it cheap water access to the East. The arrival of the railroad systems in the 1850s and 1860s made Chicago the crossroads of the entire Midwest, the richest farm region in the world. The assets attracted large numbers of Europeans immigrants, and a smaller number of upscale Yankee arrivals from the northeastern states. Ya ...
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Urban Politics In The United States
American urban politics refers to politics within cities of the United States of America. City governments, run by mayors or city councils, hold a restricted amount of governing power. State and federal governments have been granted a large portion of city governance as laid out in the U.S. Constitution. The small remaining power held by individual cities becomes a target of numerous outside influences such as large corporations and real-estate developers. American Urban Politics determine the socio-economic make-up of urban neighborhoods and contribute to the ever present disparity between Urban America and Suburban America. Local power distribution Three main systems of city government describe local power distribution in the United States: mayor-council systems, the commission plan and the council-manager plan. The mayor–council government has two variants, the weak-mayor system and the strong-mayor system. Under the weak-mayor system the mayor has extremely limited ...
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Political Machine
In the politics of representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership control over member activity. The machine's power is based on the ability of the boss or group to get out the vote for their candidates on election day. While these elements are common to most political parties and organizations, they are essential to political machines, which rely on hierarchy and rewards for political power, often enforced by a strong party whip structure. Machines sometimes have a political boss, typically rely on patronage, the spoils system, "behind-the-scenes" control, and longstanding political ties within the structure of a representative democracy. Machines typically are organized on a permanent basis instead of a single election or event. The term "machine" usually is used by its reform-minded enemies in a pej ...
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Harold Washington
Harold Lee Washington (April 15, 1922 – November 25, 1987) was an American lawyer and politician who was the 51st mayor of Chicago. In April 1983, Washington became the first African American to be elected as the city’s mayor at the age of 60. He served as mayor from April 29, 1983, until his untimely death in 1987. Born in Chicago and raised in the Bronzeville neighborhood, Washington became involved in local 3rd Ward politics under Chicago Alderman and future Congressman Ralph Metcalfe after graduating from Roosevelt University and Northwestern University School of Law. Washington was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 1983, representing Illinois's first district. Washington had previously served in the Illinois State Senate and the Illinois House of Representatives from 1965 until 1976. Biography Ancestry The earliest known ancestor of Harold Lee Washington, Isam/Isham Washington, was born a slave in 1832 in North Carolina. In 1864, he enlist ...
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Mike Royko
Michael Royko Jr. (September 19, 1932 – April 29, 1997) was an American newspaper columnist from Chicago, Illinois. Over his 42-year career, he wrote more than 7,500 daily columns for the '' Chicago Daily News'', the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', and the ''Chicago Tribune''. A humorist who focused on life in Chicago, he was the winner of the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Early life and education Royko was born and grew up in Chicago, where he lived in an apartment above a bar. His mother, Helen (née Zak), was Polish, and his father, Michael Royko, was Ukrainian (born in Dolyna). He briefly attended Wright Junior College and then enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1952. Career Journalism On becoming a columnist, Royko drew on experiences from his childhood. He began his newsman's career as a columnist in 1955 for ''The O'Hare News'', a U.S. Air Force newspaper, the City News Bureau of Chicago and Lerner Newspapers' '' Lincoln-Belmont Booster'' before working at the '' ...
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1955 Chicago Mayoral Election
The 1955 Chicago mayoral election saw Democrat Richard J. Daley win election to his first term as mayor by a ten-point margin over Republican Robert E. Merriam. This was the narrowest margin of victory of any of Daley's mayoral races. Daley had defeated incumbent mayor Martin H. Kennelly in the Democratic Party's primary election in order to win the Democratic nomination. As the newly seated Cook County Democratic Party chairman, Daley refused Kennelly the party' endorsement in the primary election, and instead challenged Kennelly in the primary, taking the party's endorsement for himself. Daley and others had believed that Kennelly would be a weak candidate against Merriam, who was perceived to be the likely Republican nominee. Daley and the Democratic Party establishment also feared that Kennelly might dismantle the city's patronage system. Also challenging Kennelly was State Representative Benjamin S. Adamowski, who ran as an anti-political machine candidate. Daley won 4 ...
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Richard J
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong in rule'. Nicknames include "Richie", "Dick (nickname), Dick", "Dickon", "Dickie (name), Dickie", "Rich (given name), Rich", "Rick (given name), Rick", "Rico (name), Rico", "Ricky (given name), Ricky", and more. Richard is a common English (the name was introduced into England by the Normans), German and French male name. It's also used in many more languages, particularly Germanic, such as Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and Dutch, as well as other languages including Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Finnish. Richard is cognate with variants of the name in other European languages, such as the Swedish "Rickard", the Portuguese and Spanish "Ricardo" and the Italian "Riccardo" (see comprehensive variant list belo ...
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Patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, art patronage refers to the support that princes, popes, and other wealthy and influential people have provided to artists such as musicians, painters, and sculptors. It can also refer to the right of bestowing offices or church benefices, the business given to a store by a regular customer, and the guardianship of saints. The word ''patron'' derives from the Latin ('patron'), one who gives benefits to his clients (see patronage in ancient Rome). In some countries, the term is used to describe political patronage or patronal politics, which is the use of state resources to reward individuals for their electoral support. Some patronage systems are legal, as in the Canadian tradition of the prime minister appointing senators and the heads of a number of commissions and agencies; in many cases, these appointments go to people who ha ...
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Slum Clearance In The United States
Slum clearance in the United States has been used as an urban renewal strategy to regenerate derelict or run-down districts, often to be replaced with alternative developments or new housing. Early calls were made during the 19th century, although mass slum clearance did not occur until after World War II with the introduction of the Housing Act of 1949 which offered federal subsidies towards redevelopments. The scheme ended in 1974 having driven over 2,000 projects with costs in excess of $50 billion. Background Contemporary slums have been dated back to population growth in industrial cities during the Industrial Revolution, where workers would crowd into subdivided or makeshift dwellings because no new housing was available. Congress authorized $20,000 for a survey of large city slum conditions in 1892, although did not take any action until the final year of the Hoover administration in 1932. The definition of a slum was classed by the Federal Housing Act of 1937 as "any a ...
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Great Society
The Great Society was a series of domestic programs enacted by President Lyndon B. Johnson in the United States between 1964 and 1968, aimed at eliminating poverty, reducing racial injustice, and expanding social welfare in the country. Johnson first used the phrase in a May 7, 1964, speech at Ohio University. The Great Society sought to build on the legacy of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal reforms of the 1930s, and planned to use the power of the federal government in order to address Income inequality in the United States, economic inequality, improve education and healthcare, and promote Civil rights movement, civil rights. The post–World War II economic expansion had raised living standards for many Americans, but significant disparities remained, particularly for racial minorities and those living in impoverished rural and urban areas. The civil rights movement was gaining momentum, highlighting Institutional racism, systemic racism and discrimination. ...
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New Deal
The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depression, which had started in 1929. Roosevelt introduced the phrase upon accepting the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 1932 before winning the election in a landslide over incumbent Herbert Hoover, whose administration was viewed by many as doing too little to help those affected. Roosevelt believed that the depression was caused by inherent market instability and too little demand per the Keynesian model of economics and that massive government intervention was necessary to stabilize and rationalize the economy. During First 100 days of the Franklin D. Roosevelt presidency, Roosevelt's first hundred days in office in 1933 until 1935, he introduced what historians refer to as the "First New Deal", ...
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1931 Chicago Mayoral Election
The 1931 Chicago mayoral election was held to elect the Mayor of Chicago. Former Cook County Board of Commissioners President Anton Cermak defeated incumbent mayor William Hale Thompson (who remains to date the last Republican mayor of Chicago) by a 17-point margin of victory. Primary elections were held by both major parties to select their nominees. Mayor Thompson won renomination in the Republican Party primary over challenges from Municipal Court of Chicago Judge John Homer Lyle and 43rd Ward Chicago Alderman Arthur F. Albert. In the Democratic Party primary, Cermak only faced a weak opponent in perennial candidate John B. DeVoney. Nominations Primaries were held on Feb 24, 1931.https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=283328 RaceID=283328 (Our Campaigns) Democratic primary Anton Cermak won the Democratic nomination. Cermak was the incumbent President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, having served in that position since 1923. Cermak defeated pe ...
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Anton Cermak
Anton Joseph Cermak (May 9, 1873 – March 6, 1933) was an American politician who served as the 44th Mayor of Chicago from April 7, 1931, until his death in 1933. He was killed by Giuseppe Zangara, whose likely target was President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but Cermak was shot instead after a bystander hit the perpetrator with a purse. Early life Anton Joseph Cermak was born to a mining family in Kladno, Austria-Hungary (now in the Czech Republic), the son of Antonín Čermák and Kateřina née Frank(ová). He immigrated with his parents to the United States in 1874, and grew up in the town of Braidwood, Illinois, where he was educated before beginning to work full time while still a teenager. He followed his father into coal mining, and labored at mines in Will and Grundy counties. After moving to Chicago at age 16, Cermak worked as a tow boy for the horse-drawn streetcar line, and then tended horses in the stables of Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. During the ...
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