Fire on the Prairie: Harold Washington, Chicago Politics, and the Roots of the Obama Presidency

Contents

Contents Foreword to the Revised Edition by Clarence Page vii  Introduction to the Revised Edition by Larry Bennett Forging Barack Obama: Harold Washington, Chicago, and the Politics of Race xiii Acknowledgments xxxi Prologue 1 BOOK I A Racial Thing, 1983 1 A Cry in the Wind 5 2 The Conspirators 16 3 The Chosen 26 4 The Catalyst 41 5 The Jesse Jackson Factor 52 6 The Family Business 64 7 The Liberal Apology 72 8 A Tower of Babble 82 9 A Racial Thing 94 vi Contents 10 Positively Antebellum 104 11 A City Divided 117 BOOK II  Council Wars, 1983–1986 12 The Biggest Bully in the Bar 133 13 Balancing Acts 146 14 Beirut on the Lake 162 15 Black Reform, White Reform 172 16 The Chicago Experiment 188 17 A Midterm Blunder 197 18 The Continuing Saga of Clarence McClain 210 BOOK III Something Less Than Hate, 1986–1987 19 The Reckoning 221 20 Any White Will Do 230 21 Thy Kingdom at Hand 243 22 The Empire Strikes Back 251 Note on Sources 263 Index 267 Photographs follow page 130 ...