Two Legendary Chicago Pols Die

Eugene Sawyer, (pictured bottom), Chicago’s second African American mayor, died Saturday night at the age of 73. Sawyer was a longtime Democratic machine Alderman in the Chicago City Council when we was elected mayor in 1987 following the sudden death of Harold Washington, Chicago’s first African American mayor. Following Chicago rules at the death of a mayor, the city council elects a successor until the next election. In a legendary, tumultuous, riveting all-night Chicago city council meeting that the ProConPundit watched on live TV, Sawyer narrowly won. He won building a coalition of old-school African Americans and white ethnic alderman. He beat Ald. Tim Evans who had the backing of Latino, progressive white and most African American aldermen. Sawyer's inauguration occurred in a restaurant parking at 4:01 AM on December 2, 1987.

He was an affable guy who did a decent job. He was much more low-key than Harold Washington. He was not as beloved by the black community and much more accepted by the white community than Washington. Although his tenure was largely uneventful and he was largely considered a chair warmer, he did manage to get more cooperation from the fractioned city council. When he sought election in his own right in 1989 he lost to then-States Attorney Richard M. Daley. Most of the white aldermen who got him elected in 1987 turned their backs on him for Daley, while the blacks who were against him in 1987 went with Evans who also ran in 1989. Sawyer was treated poorly by blacks who thought he was an Uncle Tom whites who turned their back on him.

John Stroger, (pictured top), a political ally of Sawyer’s, Daley's past and present and a REAL HEAVY WEIGHT in Chicago politics died Friday after a very long illness. Stroger was an ally of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley and rose through the ranks of Chicago politics. He was a longtime Chicago alderman, associated with the Daley machine and old school African Americans.

He was the first African American to serve as president of the Cook County Board, the second largest county government in the US. He was credited with bringing a lot of patronage jobs to the African American community and was a generally beloved figure among African Americans and well liked by all. He was the only person, to my knowledge, who ever named a hospital after himself.

He had a stroke in 2006 which prevent him from continuing or seeking re-election. The extent of his illness was kept secret for months until the Daley’s, the Stroger's and the other machine pols could engineer Stroger’s son, Todd, a dim bulb, to take over for him. Todd Stroger is the current President of the Cook County Board.

News you may really not care about...Two legendary black funeral homes in Chicago are handling these funerals. A.A. Raynor & Sons is handling the Stroger funeral while A.R. Leak & Sons is handling Sawyer’s. Both are south side funeral homes that do huge amounts of business. Raynor's historically has buried the elite in Chicago's African American community, as well as thousands of others each year. Leak was for decades the largest black funeral firm in Chicago. They may no longer hold that title, but they are the choice of plain folks Chicagoans thousands of times a year. Nice touch by Sawyer's family.