Subtopics:

Principles of Sociology/Radical Center Initiatives

This American Life presents... "Harold"... A parable of politics and race in America. Act One. Yesterday. A history of the brief mayoral career of Harold Washington, Chicago's first black mayor, and its lessons for black and white America, as told by people close to him. Many of them are activists and politicians, some are people from his administration, some are reporters who followed his story, a few are ordinary voters, and one was a political opponent of the late mayor. Act Two. The present and the future. Thoughts about why there are no black mayors in the nation's largest cities today--New York, Los Angeles, Chicago. Plus a visit to a white Chicago ward, to see if ordinary voters have learned any tolerance in the last ten years since Washington's death.