Richard J. Daley

For more information on Richard Joseph Daley, visit Britannica.com.

(b. Chicago, 15 May 1902; d. 20 Dec. 1976) US; member of the Illinois House of Representatives 1936 – 8, Illinois state Senator 1939 – 46, mayor of Chicago 1955 – 76 The son of an Irish immigrant sheet-metal worker, Daley was brought up in a working-class area of Chicago, where he lived until his death. Educated in the local school, he worked part-time to help support himself. He attended a commercial high school 1916 – 19 to acquire the office skills that enabled him to gain clerical work in the Chicago stockyard. Whilst holding down a day job he doggedly continued with his studies until, in 1933, aged 31, he graduated LLB from De Paul University.

By the time he was 21, Daley had already set out on what was to be a lifetime in politics. That year he became a precinct captain in the local Democratic Party. Although the lowest rung on the ladder of city politics, the job of precinct captain involved close liaison with individual voters and provided early lessons in the arts of brokerage and patronage. He also became the beneficiary of party patronage himself, gaining appointment to a job on the city council.

Daley gained his first elective office in 1936 as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives. Two years later, on the death of an incumbent, he was appointed to the state Senate. He retained the seat for the next eight years. Senatorial office was followed by a two-year period as state director of revenue, 1948 – 50, and five years as clerk of Cook Country, 1950 – 5.

Whilst holding elective office and appointments in the city administration, Daley continued to climb the ladder of advancement within the Democratic Party. He gained election to the Cook County Democratic central committee, the controlling organ of the party in the district in 1948, and became chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party in 1953.

In 1955 Daley was elected major of Chicago and was re-elected to office very fourth year until his death. Often described as "the last of the big-city bosses" he used his skills in brokerage and patronage acquired during his apprenticeship at precinct level, to wield enormous power within Democratic politics at city, state, and national level. In 1960 he played a crucial role in delivering the Illinois votes that secured Kennedy's nomination. Throughout the 1960s he was regarded as one of the most influential figures in the party and his endorsement was almost a prerequisite for candidates seeking nomination for state or national office.

During his mayoralty Daley was credited with sponsoring large-scale projects of urban renewal, road building, and police reform. But he was criticized for failing to check racial segregation in housing and schools and for encouraging the construction of too many tall buildings in the city. Daley is also remembered, and criticized, for unleashing a brutal police response to the student demonstrations outside the Democratic Party convention in Chicago in 1968.

Rumours of corruption frequently stirred around Daley but none was substantiated. He was a master of political brokerage, a wheeler-dealer from the smoke-filled rooms. He delivered material benefits to his constituents, they loyally delivered their votes to his party.

Richard J. Daley (1902-1976) was the Democratic mayor of Chicago from 1955 to 1976 and the last of the nation's big city bosses.

The most powerful mayor in Chicago's history, Richard J. Daley, was born in a working class neighborhood on May 15, 1902, the only son of Michael Daley, a sheet metal worker, and Lillian (Dunne) Daley. His parents were Irish Catholics and sent young Richard to a Catholic elementary school, enlisted him as an altar boy, and then enrolled him at the Christian Brothers De LaSalle High School. Later, after several long years of night school, Daley earned a degree common to upwardly mobile Chicago politicians - a law diploma from De Paul Law School - in 1933. While a student Daley worked as a stock-yards cowboy and clerked in the Cook County controller's office.

Richard J. Daley worked his way up through the precinct and ward organization and made his first successful run for public office as a state representative in 1936. Two years later he was elected to the Illinois senate, where he remained until 1946 when he suffered his only election loss - as a candidate for Cook County sheriff. Defeated but not without friends, Daley was selected by Governor Adlai Stevenson in 1949 to become director of the Illinois Department of Finance. While there Daley expanded his grasp of budgets and public finance, which later served him well as mayor. Daley then returned to Chicago and was elected Clerk of Cook County. Meanwhile, he had married Eleanor Guilfoyle on June 23, 1936, and was the father of four sons and three daughters. A devout Roman Catholic, Daley reportedly attended mass every morning.

Begins Six Winning Elections

The key that opened his way to the mayor's office was Daley's election as chairman of the Cook County Democratic Central Committee in 1953. In 1955 Daley entered a Democratic primary election and defeated incumbent mayor Martin H. Kennelly. In the general election which followed, Daley beat Republican challenger Robert E. Merriam by a comfortable majority of the vote. During the next two decades Daley was reelected mayor over a series of nominally nonpartisan but generally Republican contenders in 1959, 1963, 1967, 1971, and 1975. The source of Daley's power derived from his dual role as mayor and party chairman. He ran a tightly organized party structure and made maximum use of about 35,000 city workers and patronage employees to bring out the vote. Daley also won public support because he paid attention to the delivery of municipal services and gave substance to the slogan "the city that works." His important role in helping John F. Kennedy win the Democratic nomination and the presidential election in 1960 brought Daley his first national recognition as a political strategist.

Dedicated to building and redeveloping Chicago's center, Daley encouraged the construction of downtown skyscrapers, stimulated expressway expansion, improved mass transit facilities, and enlarged the world's busiest airport, O'Hare. His administrations also set a rapid pace for urban renewal, the demolition of blighted areas, and the building of additional public housing. As with all of his enterprises he mixed politics and business, and for the scoffers, Daley repeated over and again: "Good politics makes for good government." When taunted about the evils of the "machine," Daley generally snapped back to reporters: "Organization, not machine. Get that, organization not machine." Although evidence of venality occasionally tainted Daley's cronies, the mayor himself appeared to remain free of corruption. One notable exception was when a lucrative insurance contract was given over to a firm employing a Daley son. When chided, Daley exploded with rage over the issue, insisting that it was the duty of any good father to help out a son. Beyond that misdeed numerous clandestine investigations by public and private agencies and local newspapers failed to produce a single solid charge of peculation against the mayor personally.

Some Setbacks in a Long Career

The year 1968 was a disaster for the Daley legend. In the wake of Martin Luther King's death in April 1968 a firestorm of arson, looting, and rioting swept through Chicago's Black West Side, and an enraged mayor issued an order which was broadcast across the newspaper headlines and television screens of the nation: "shoot to kill any arsonist … with a Molotov cocktail in his hand." Daley's command provoked the wrath of the liberal news media.

But that was only a foretaste of the bitter draught yet to come. Daley's attempt to host the 1968 Democratic presidential nominating convention in Chicago in August turned into a week of anti-war turmoil, street-violence by demonstrators, "a police riot," and a shambles that left Daley's reputation in low esteem. In newscaster hyperbole, Eric Savareid on national television compared that week in Chicago to the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia with tanks. Daley's standing with the public plunged to its nadir.

For a few years thereafter some professional societies refused to schedule their annual meetings in Chicago. Media liberals predicted that Daley was finished, and the lockout of the Daley delegation from the 1972 Democratic National Convention by the George McGovern wing of the party seemed to support that view. Yet when New York and other cities teetered on the brink of bankruptcy in the mid-1970s, Daley's hard nosed business management kept his city solvent and its bond rating high, bringing about a recovery for his reputation. He went on to win his largest political victory ever in 1975, gaining an unprecedented sixth four-year term. Early in his new term, on December 20, 1976, Daley died and was buried at suburban Worth, Illinois. Daley's public esteem had ridden a roller coaster of highs and lows but had recovered in time for a glorious obituary by the city.

An Evaluation of Mayor Daley

Daley's accomplishments during his 21-year tenure in office were numerous. The mayor had professionalized the police force and upgraded the fire department's services; he had continued the advantageous arrangement whereby suburban taxpayers paid for the support of Cook County Hospital, which served primarily city residents; he had solved a Chicago Transit cash shortage by the creation of a Regional Transit Authority which broadened the tax base; he had pushed through legislative action that transferred the cost and administrative responsibility for public assistance and welfare from Cook County and Chicago to the state; Daley had helped form a Public Building Commission to finance public construction by means of revenue bonds and at the same time protect the city's bond rating; he had prodded the Illinois legislature to create a Metropolitan Fair and Exposition Authority to operate Chicago's convention center, McCormick Place, without charge to the city; and, finally, he had persuaded the state to build a University of Illinois campus at the state taxpayers' expense in the heart of his city to serve primarily Chicago students. In short, Daley had expanded city services and shifted a large measure of the costs to the state, the county, and the Chicago area suburbs.

A year after the mayor's death a symposium was convened which included scholars, journalists, and practicing politicians who examined the Daley era and concluded: that Mayor Daley had won membership in a class of the best and most-effective big-city mayors of his time; that he had used the mayor's office in an instrumental way to rescue Chicago's downtown Loop from impending blight; that Daley's superior ability as a budget manager and an expert on public finances had helped steer Chicago away from the rocky shoals that nearly bankrupted New York City; and that as a political broker and organizer Daley was with few peers in the nation.

The mayor earned lower grades from the experts for his reluctance to reach out to the growing suburbs; the Democratic Party's slowness in accommodating newcomer Blacks and Hispanics; and his often stormy and abrasive relationships with the media. On the other hand, the city's bankers and real estate interests were pleased with Chicago's solid financial footing and its high bond rating. On balance, the Daley mayoralty was judged a success. The key to Daley's success, as an expert put it, was that "he was more observant of detail, more canny in his analysis of the political possibilities, and when compromise failed, more powerful than his opponents."

Further Reading

For the two best works on how the "machine" worked under Daley see Milton Rakove, Don't Make No Waves: Don't Back No Losers; An Insider's Analysis of the Daley Machine (1975) and We Don't Want Nobody Nobody Sent (1975). A knowledgeable and veteran city watcher and newsman who put together a most perspicacious life and death of the mayor is Len O'Connor in his Clout: Mayor Daley and His City (1975) and Requiem: The Decline and Demise of Mayor Daley and His Era (1977). For an appreciation of the mythic and Irish dimension of Daley see Eugene Kennedy's Himself: The Life and Times of Mayor Richard J. Daley (1978). A wickedly clever and entertaining hatchet job on Daley "da mare" can be read in Mike Royko's Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago (1971). For a larger perspective on the Daley era, the best single source remains a conference symposium, Melvin G. Holli and Peter d'A. Jones, "Richard J. Daley's Chicago: A Conference," October 11-14, 1977, Chicago.

Additional Sources

Kennedy, Eugene C, Himself!: The life and times of Mayor Richard J. Daley, New York: Viking Press, 1978.

O'Connor, Len, Requiem: the decline and demise of Mayor Daley and his era, Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1977.

Royko, Mike, Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago, New York, N.Y.: New American Library, 1988, 1976.

Sullivan, Frank, Legend, the only inside story about Mayor Richard J. Daley, Chicago: Bonus Books, 1989.

(1902-1976), Chicago political leader. The grandson of Irish immigrants, Daley was the nation's dominant big-city mayor in the second half of the twentieth century and a major force in the national Democratic party. Launching his political career in 1936, Daley was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives and then advanced to the state senate in 1938, where he served as Democratic minority leader from 1941 through 1946. He was also the deputy controller of Cook County from 1936 through 1949 and was named Illinois state revenue director in 1949. In these positions, Daley gained a keen understanding of government and a mastery of budgets and revenue sources.

Daley moved into the Chicago Democratic machine's hierarchy in 1947 with his election as ward committeeman of the Southwest Side's Eleventh Ward. Working behind the scenes, he engineered the ouster of Col. Jacob M. Arvey as Democratic chairman following Republican victories in the 1950 elections. In 1953, Daley took over the chairmanship of the Cook County Democratic Central Committee, which he forged into the strongest political organization in the country. As party chairman, Daley challenged and defeated Mayor Martin Kennelly in the 1955 Democratic primary and then won the first of six mayoral terms in the general election.

For twenty-one years, Daley presided over city government and the Democratic organization in his dual role as mayor and party chairman. He cultivated alliances with organized labor and industry that contributed to Chicago's renaissance at a time when other northern industrial cities were declining. He helped build the world's largest airport and tallest office building, a lakefront convention center, a governmental complex that would later bear his name, a Chicago campus for the state university, expressways, and mass transit lines.

Daley was among John F. Kennedy's key supporters in the 1960 presidential election, providing him with the delegates who helped him win a first-ballot nomination and a massive Chicago vote that delivered Illinois for Kennedy in his narrow victory over Richard M. Nixon. Daley hosted the 1968 Democratic National Convention at President Lyndon B. Johnson's request. Daley's national reputation was seriously tarnished as the result of violence between anti-Vietnam War demonstrators and Chicago police. Ironically, Daley had been a private critic of the Vietnam War and had urged Johnson to withdraw U.S. forces. In 1972, Daley was dealt another blow when the Democratic National Convention refused to seat his Illinois delegation because of noncompliance with new selection rules. In 1976, Jimmy Carter said that Daley's endorsement clinched his first-ballot nomination for the presidency, but Daley failed to deliver Illinois for Carter in the election.

Blacks were a major component of the Daley coalition, providing him with his winning margin in his two closest mayoral elections. But his relationship with them deteriorated in the turbulent hours after Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination when Daley issued a shoot-to-kill order in the wake of riots and looting on the city's West Side. He later resented the challenge to his authority as party chairman by black Democratic politicians.

A series of court rulings against political patronage diminished Daley's clout in his final term, and his political organization declined further in the decade after his death. Richard M. Daley, his eldest son, was elected mayor of Chicago in April 1989.

Bibliography:

Bill Gleason, Daley of Chicago (1970); Mike Royko, Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago (1971).

Author:

Steve Neal

See also Chicago Seven; Urban Bosses and Machine Politics.

A mayor of Chicago in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. One of the last and toughest of the big-city political “bosses,” he ran a powerful political machine, repeatedly and easily gaining reelection. He was also given much of the credit for the victory of John F. Kennedy in the close presidential election of 1960; Kennedy won by only a few thousand votes in Illinois. In 1968, when demonstrators against involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War threatened to disrupt the Democratic national convention, meeting in Chicago, the Chicago police, with Daley's approval, responded with violence. An official investigation later described the response as a “police riot.” Daley died in 1976.

Quotes:

"A newspaper is the lowest thing there is."

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Richard Joseph Daley
48th Mayor of Chicago
In office April 20, 1955 – December 20, 1976
Preceded by	Martin H. Kennelly
Succeeded by	Michael A. Bilandic
Born	May 15, 1902(1902-05-15) Chicago, Illinois, United States
Died	December 20, 1976 (aged 74) Chicago, Illinois, United States
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Eleanor "Sis" Daley
Children	Richard M. Daley, John P. Daley, Michael Daley, Patricia Martino, Mary Carol Vanecko, William M. Daley, Eleanor Daley
Residence	Chicago, Illinois
Religion	Roman Catholic
Signature

Richard Joseph Daley (May 15, 1902 – December 20, 1976) served for 21 years as the undisputed Democratic boss of Chicago and is considered by historians to be the "last of the big city bosses." He played a major role in the history of the Democratic Party, especially with his support of John F. Kennedy in 1960 and of Hubert Humphrey in 1968.

Daley was Chicago's third mayor in a row from the working-class, heavily Irish American Bridgeport neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, and he lived there his entire life.

Daley had two bases of power, serving as a Committeeman and Chairman of the Cook County Democratic Central Committee from 1953, and as mayor of Chicago from 1955. He used both positions until his death in 1976 to dominate party and civic affairs. Daley's well-organized Democratic political machine was often accused of corruption and though many of Daley's subordinates were jailed, Daley was never personally formally accused of corruption.

He is remembered for doing much to avoid the declines that some other "rust belt" cities like Cleveland and Detroit experienced during the same period. He had a strong base of support in Chicago's Irish Catholic community, and he was treated by national politicians such as Lyndon B. Johnson as a preeminent Irish American, with special connections to the Kennedy family.

Richard M. Daley, the current and second longest-serving mayor of Chicago, is his son.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Political career 2.1 Early career 2.2 1968 and later career 3 Controversy 4 Speaking style 5 Democratic Party machine politics 6 Legacy 7 Biographies 8 Academic studies 9 References 10 External links

Early life

Born on Chicago's South Side near the stockyards in 1902, Daley was the only child of blue-collar, immigrant Irish Catholic parents. Daley attended Catholic elementary and high schools (where he learned clerical skills) and took night classes at DePaul University College of Law to earn a Juris Doctor in 1933. Daley, though he practiced law with partner William J. Lynch, spent the majority of his time dedicated to his career in politics.

Political career

Early career

Although Daley was a lifelong Democrat, he was first elected to the Illinois House of Representatives as a Republican in 1936. This was a matter of political opportunism and the peculiar setup for legislative elections in Illinois at the time, which allowed Daley to take the place on the ballot of the recently deceased Republican candidate David Shanahan. After his election, Daley quickly moved back to the Democratic side of the aisle in 1938, when he was elected to the Illinois State Senate.^[1] Daley suffered his only political defeat in 1946, when he lost a bid to become Cook County sheriff. In the late 1940s Daley became Democratic Ward Committeeman of the 11th Ward, a post he retained until his death.

First elected mayor in 1955 with a modest victory margin of 125,179 votes, Daley was re-elected to that office six times and had been mayor for 21 years at the time of his death. During his administration, Daley ruled the city with an iron hand and dominated the political arena of the city and, to a lesser extent, that of the entire state.

Daley married Eleanor "Sis" Guilfoyle on June 17, 1936, and they lived in a modest brick bungalow at 3536 South Lowe Avenue in the heavily Irish-American Bridgeport neighborhood, just blocks from his birthplace. They had three daughters and four sons, in that order. Their eldest son, Richard M. Daley, was elected mayor of Chicago in 1989, and has served in that position ever since. The youngest son, William M. Daley, served as US Secretary of Commerce from 1997-2000. Another son, John P. Daley, is a member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. The other siblings have stayed out of public life. Michael Daley is a partner in the law firm Daley & George, and Patricia (Daley) Martino and Mary Carol (Daley) Vanecko are teachers, as was Eleanor, who died in 1998.^[2]

Major construction during his terms in office resulted in O'Hare International Airport, the Sears Tower, McCormick Place, the University of Illinois at Chicago campus, numerous expressways and subway construction projects, and other major Chicago landmarks. O'Hare was a particular point of pride for Daley, with him and his staff regularly devising occasions to celebrate it.

In 1966, Martin Luther King, Jr. confronted the Daley machine when King attempted to take the Civil Rights Movement north and encourage racial integration of Chicago's neighborhoods, such as Marquette Park. Daley called for a "summit conference" and signed an agreement with King and other community leaders to foster open housing. The agreement was without legal standing and ignored^[3]. King's efforts in Chicago were largely unsuccessful, and his failure in Chicago was a serious setback for the Civil Rights Movement.

1968 and later career

The year 1968 was a momentous year for Daley. In April, Daley was castigated by many for his sharp rhetoric in the aftermath of rioting that took place after Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination. Displeased with what he saw as an overly cautious police response to the rioting, Daley chastised police superintendent James B. Conlisk and subsequently related that conversation at a City Hall press conference as follows^[4]:

"I said to him very emphatically and very definitely that an order be issued by him immediately to shoot to kill any arsonist or anyone with a Molotov cocktail in his hand, because they're potential murderers, and to shoot to maim or cripple anyone looting."

This statement generated significant controversy. Daley's supporters deluged his office with grateful letters and telegrams (nearly 4,500 according to Time Magazine), and it has been credited for Chicago's being one of the cities least affected by the riots. But others were appalled. Rev. Jesse Jackson, for example, called it "a fascist's response." The Mayor later backed away from his words in an address to the City Council, saying:

"It is the established policy of the police department – fully supported by this administration – that only the minimum force necessary be used by policemen in carrying out their duties."

Later that month, Daley asserted "There wasn't any shoot-to-kill order. That was a fabrication."

In August, the 1968 Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago. Intended to showcase Daley's achievements to national Democrats and the news media, the proceedings during the convention instead garnered notoriety for the mayor and city.

With the nation divided by the Vietnam War and with the assassinations of King and Robert F. Kennedy earlier that year serving as backdrop, the city became a battleground for anti-war protesters who vowed to shut down the convention. In some cases, confrontations between protesters and police turned violent, with images of this violence broadcast on national television. Later, radical activists Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and three other members of the "Chicago Seven" were convicted of crossing state lines with the intent of inciting a riot as a result of these confrontations, though the convictions were overturned on appeal.

At the convention itself, Sen. Abraham A. Ribicoff, D-Conn., went off-script during his speech nominating George McGovern, saying, "If George McGovern were president, we wouldn’t have these Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago." Ribicoff also tried to introduce a motion to shut down the convention and move it to another city. Many conventioneers applauded Ribicoff's remarks but an indignant Mayor Daley tried to shout down the speaker. Daley is said to have uttered antisemitic slurs against Ribicoff^[5][6], a charge denied by Daley and refuted by Mike Royko's reporting.^[7] A federal commission, led by local attorney and party activist Daniel Walker, later investigated the events surrounding the convention and described them as a "police riot." Daley's supporters challenged Walker's credibility because of his well-known opposition to Daley and Chicago machine politics. Despite a decline in popularity following 1968, Daley was historically re-elected for the fifth time in 1971. However, many have argued this was due to a lack of formidable opposition rather than Daley's own popularity.^[8]

In 1972, Democratic nominee George McGovern threw Daley out of the Democratic National Convention (replacing his delegation with one led by Jesse Jackson). This event arguably marked a downturn in Daley's power and influence within the Democratic Party but, given his public standing, McGovern later made amends by putting Daley loyalist (and Kennedy in-law) Sargent Shriver on his ticket.

On December 20, 1976, Daley suffered a massive heart attack while visiting his doctor's office and died at the age of 74. He is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Worth Township, southwest of Chicago.

Daley was known by many Chicagoans as "Da Mare" ("The Mayor"), "Hizzoner" ("His Honor"), and "The Man on Five" (his office was on the fifth floor of City Hall). Since Daley's death and the subsequent election of son Richard as mayor in 1989, the first Mayor Daley has become known as "Boss Daley," "Old Man Daley," or "Daley Senior" to residents of Chicago.

Controversy

In 1939, Illinois State Senator William "Botchy" Connors remarked

"you couldn't give that guy a nickel, that's how honest he is."

However, in January 1973, former Illinois Racing Board Chairman William S. Miller testified that Daley had "induced" him to bribe Illinois Governor Otto Kerner.

This scandal marked the start of two years of controversy where the integrity of the Mayor and his office was strongly questioned.

Speaking style

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Richard J. Daley

Daley, who never lost his blue-collar Chicago accent (better known as a southside Chicago accent), was known for often mangling his syntax and other verbal gaffes. Daley made one of his most memorable verbal missteps in 1968, while defending what the news media reported as police misconduct during that year's violent Democratic Convention. "Gentlemen, get the thing straight once and for all– the policeman isn't there to create disorder, the policeman is there to preserve disorder."

Democratic Party machine politics

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Known for shrewd party politics, Daley was the prototypical machine politician, and his Chicago Democratic Machine, based on control of thousands of patronage positions, was instrumental in bringing a narrow 8,000 vote victory in Illinois for John F. Kennedy in 1960. A PBS documentary entitled "Daley" explained that Mayor Daley, JFK, and LBJ potentially stole the 1960 election by stuffing ballot boxes in Texas and rigging the vote in Chicago. In addition, it reveals, Daley withheld many votes from certain wards when the race seemed close.

Daley was usually open with the news media, meeting with them for frequent news conferences, and taking all questions — if not answering all of them. According to columnist and biographer Mike Royko, Daley got along better with editors and publishers than with reporters.

Daley had limited opposition among the 50 aldermen of the Chicago City Council. For the most part, the aldermen supported Daley and the official party position consistently, except for a small number of Republicans from the German wards on the northwest side of the city and a small number of independents (a group that grew during Daley's mayoralty to represent groups that felt disenfranchised by Daley's policies).

Daley's chief means of attaining electoral success was his reliance on local precinct captains, who marshaled and delivered votes on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis. Many of these precinct captains held patronage jobs with the city, mostly minor posts at low pay. Each ward had a ward leader in charge of the precinct captains, some of whom were corrupt. The notorious First Ward (encompassing downtown, which had many businesses but few residents) was tied to the local mafia or crime syndicate, but Daley's own ward was supposedly clean and his personal honesty was never questioned successfully, primarily because he controlled all levels of the government and media that could have questioned him.

Legacy

At his death in 1976, much of the general public's perception of Daley was the image painted by Mike Royko in his 1971 biography, Boss—corrupt, racist, cruel, mean, brutal. In light of the later events, such as New York City's fiscal crisis, Daley's reputation has been rehabilitated, as shown by a poll of 160 historians, political scientists and urban experts. They ranked Daley as the sixth best mayor in American history. (Holli 1999) Daley's ways may not have been democratic, but his defenders have argued that he got positive things done for Chicago which a non-boss would have been unable to do. While detractors point out that he did nothing to integrate what had then become known as the most segregated city in the nation, others argue that he was acting on behalf of his constituency, who did not want an integrated Chicago.

On the 50th anniversary of Daley's first 1955 swearing-in, several dozen Daley biographers and associates met at the Chicago Historical Society. Historian Michael Beschloss called Daley "the pre-eminent mayor of the 20th century." Chicago journalist Elizabeth Taylor said, "Because of Mayor Daley, Chicago did not become a Detroit or a Cleveland." Many feel that by revitalizing the downtown area and firmly fixing the middle-class in place in the city limits, Daley probably did save Chicago from declining to the extent of the average Rust Belt city. Robert Remini pointed out that while other cities were in fiscal crisis in the 1960s and 1970s, "Chicago always had a double-A bond rating."

According to Chicago folksinger Steve Goodman, "no man could inspire more love, more hate."

Aside from the obvious legacy of having an effect on the city of Chicago for twenty-one years as its mayor, Daley is memorialized specifically in the following:

• A week after his death, one of the City Colleges of Chicago was renamed as the Richard J. Daley College in his honor.
• The Richard J. Daley Center is a 32-floor office building completed in 1965 and renamed for the mayor after his death.
• The Richard J. Daley Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago [1]
• Richard J. Daley Park immediately east of Millennium Park and north of Grant Park
• There is a critically acclaimed play about Daley, "Hizzoner:Daley the First" now playing at the Beverly Arts Center. [2]
• The Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song "Chicago" (written by Graham Nash) was about the 1968 Democratic convention. In their Four Way Street live album, Nash ironically dedicates the song to "Mayor Daley."
• In a scene set at the Chez Paul restaurant in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, the Maître d' (Alan Rubin) is seen talking on the phone: "No, sir, Mayor Daley no longer dines here, sir. He's dead, sir." Later in the film, when the brothers are driving rapidly through Chicago, Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) comments that they're entering Daley Plaza. "That's where they got that Picasso!" Jake enthuses. The classic "use of excessive force in the apprehension of the Blues Brothers has been approved" line delivered by a police dispatcher is an obvious homage to Daley's 1968 order during the riots following Martin Luther King's assassination.

Biographies

• Cohen, Adam; and Elizabeth Taylor (2000). American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley: His Battle for Chicago and the Nation. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-83403-3.  Detailed scholarly biography.
• Goodman, Barak (director). (1995). Daley: The Last Boss. [documentary].  Originally shown on the PBS program American Experience.
• Kennedy, Eugene (1978). Himself!: The Life and Times of Mayor Richard J. Daley. New York: Viking Press. ISBN 0-670-37258-7. 
• O'Connor, Len (1975). Clout: Mayor Daley and His City. Chicago: H. Regnery. ISBN 0-8092-8291-7. 
• Royko, Mike (1971). Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago. New York: Dutton. ISBN 0-525-07000-1. 

Academic studies

• Biles, Roger (1995). Richard J. Daley: Politics, Race, and the Government of Chicago. DeKalb, Ill.: Northern Illinois University Press. ISBN 0-87580-199-4. 
• Green, Paul M. (1995). "Mayor Richard J. Daley and the politics of good government". in in Paul M. Green and Melvin G. Holli (eds.). The Mayors: The Chicago Political Tradition (rev. ed. ed.). Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press. pp. 144–159. ISBN 0-8093-1963-2. 
• Holli, Melvin G. (1999). The American Mayor: The Best and the Worst Big-city Leaders. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 0-271-01876-3. ^[9]
• Peterson, Paul E. (1976). School Politics, Chicago Style. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-66288-8. 
• Rakove, Milton L. (1975). Don't Make No Waves—Don't Back No Losers: An Insider's Analysis of the Daley Machine. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-11725-9. 
• Simpson, Dick (2001). Rogues, Rebels, and Rubber Stamps: The Politics of the Chicago City Council from 1863 to the Present. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-9763-4. 

References

1. ^ http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/dales-dalto.html
2. ^ http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?article_id=24671
3. ^ Royko, Mike Boss, Penguin Books (1971) p. 158.
4. ^ Perlstein, Rick, Nixonland Simon & Schuster (2008)
5. ^ Marc, Schogol. "Views differ on impact of religious bias in race", Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, August 9, 2000. Accessed May 21, 2007. "Chicago Mayor Richard Daley cursed Ribicoff with an anti-Semitic slur at the raucous 1968 Democratic National Convention."
6. ^ Singh, Robert. "American Government and Politics: A Concise Introduction", Sage Publications (2003), p. 106. "Chicago police assaulted anti-war protesters, while inside turmoil engulfed proceedings and Chicago boss Richard Daley hurled anti-Semitic abuse at Senator Abraham Ribicoff (Democratic, Connecticut)."
7. ^ Royko, p. 189.
8. ^ Biles, Roger. Richard J. Daley: Politics, Race, and the Government of Chicago. Northern Illinois University Press (1995). p.183
9. ^ Charles Kolb, Review of "The American Mayor"

Political offices
Preceded by Martin H. Kennelly	Mayor of Chicago April 20, 1955 – December 20, 1976	Succeeded by Michael A. Bilandic

v • d • e Mayors of Chicago Ogden · Morris · Raymond · Lloyd · F. C. Sherman · Raymond · Garrett · A. Sherman · Garrett · Chapin · Curtiss · Woodworth · Curtiss · Gurnee · Gray · Milliken · Boone · Dyer · Wentworth · Haines · Wentworth · Rumsey · F. C. Sherman · Rice · Mason · Medill · Bond 1 · Colvin · Hoyne 2 · Heath · Harrison, Sr. · Roche · Cregier · Washburne · Harrison, Sr. · Swift · Hopkins · Swift · Harrison, Jr. · Dunne · Busse · Harrison, Jr. · Thompson · Dever · Thompson · Cermak · Corr · Kelly · Kennelly · R. J. Daley · Bilandic · Byrne · Washington · Orr · Sawyer · R. M. Daley 1 Acting officeholder.    2 Election declared null and void.

v • d • e Presidents of the United States Conference of Mayors Murphy  · Curley  · Walmsley  · Hoan  · La Guardia  · Kelly  · Welsh  · Green  · Lawrence  · Kennelly  · Burke  · Robinson  · Hynes  · Wagner  · Poulson  · Daley, R. J.  · Dilworth  · Burns  · Celebrezze  · Lee  · Selland  · Tucker  · Blaisdell  · Cavanagh  · Barr  · Schrunk  · Maltester  · Tate  · Maier  · Welch  · Martin  · Alioto  · Landrieu  · Gibson  · Alexander  · McNichols  · Carver  · Hatcher  · Boosalis  · Young  · Fulton  · Padilla  · E. Morial  · Riley  · Berkley  · Holland  · Whitmire  · Isaac  · Flynn  · Althaus  · Abramson  · Ashe  · Rice  · R. M. Daley  · Helmke  · Corradini  · Webb  · Coles  · Morial, M.  · Menino  · Garner  · Plusquellic  · O'Neill  · Guido  · Palmer  · Diaz  · Greg Nickels

External links

Chicago portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Richard J. Daley

• Mayor Richard J. Daley
• Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago
• Richard Daley's Gravesite
• Daley Family Tree (interactive graphic)

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