Lu Palmer

John Kass writes,

Within hours of his death a few days ago, Chicago journalist and radio host Lu Palmer was credited as author of an extraordinary revolution: the overthrow of the 1st Ward-Bridgeport political clique and the election of the city's first black mayor.

It is unfortunate he didn't get more credit when he was alive. Crediting him then, years ago when it counted, offended the powerful man Palmer helped create, Mayor Harold Washington, who betrayed Palmer and broke his heart.

Without Palmer, there wouldn't have been a serious independent political movement, or a Mayor Washington. Harold Washington would have lived out his days happily as a congressman from the South Side. And Richard M. Daley would have been whittled down and may not have become mayor.

There wouldn't have been actual debate and loud argument about how taxpayers' money should be spent, with politicians coalescing around race and class and neighborhood, in what was called "Council Wars" before the Daley restoration. Chicago was frightened by so many raised voices then. It was something new and strange. It is called democracy.

Chicago owes Lu Palmer more than an honorary street sign. But he didn't suck up to power, to white power or black power or to white liberals who thought they knew what was best for black people, particularly the poor. Palmer annoyed politicians because he could organize.

Daley, in a kind and graceful statement issued after Palmer's death, acknowledged as much. He said Palmer was "a persuasive writer, a fine public speaker and an excellent political strategist." Daley doesn't give easy applause for political strategy.

Palmer was a revolutionary, the first casualty of his own dream of a black mayor for Chicago and another dream--wanting independent politics to succeed.