On this day 40 years ago, Democrat Harold Washington defeated Republican Bernie Epton to become Chicago's first Black mayor. Here is a look back, with our full 6 p.m. newscast from that day.
-- On April 12, 1983 – 40 years ago Wednesday – Chicago voters went to the polls to elect a new mayor, and voter turnout set a record.
After a classic newscast open, we begin with Carol Krause at the Board of Election Commissioners. As of 6 p.m., almost 1.5 million people had already voted in Chicago, and total turnout was estimated at 88 percent. By contrast, the runoff election between Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas last week was only 35 percent.
Meanwhile, Epton's supporters spent Election Day knocking on doors on the Northwest Side. The residents of the ward were lifelong Democrats, but precinct captains did not expect Democratic nominee Washington would get much more than 6 percent of the vote. Finally, a brief piece of non-election news – Illinois state Sen. William Marovitz is pleading innocent to federal charges of influence peddling. He is accused of trying to extort a Skokie construction company. Marovitz was ultimately acquitted of those charges.John Coughlin has the weather forecast.
You'll notice a lot of names familiar to students of 2023 Chicago politics among these candidates. Recently-retired U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush was challenging Ald. William Barnett in the 2nd Ward – Rush won that race, and served as an alderman until he first ran for Congress in 1992. Meanwhile, Timothy Evans, who had been alderman of the 4th Ward since 1973, was facing a challenge from Toni Preckwinkle.
Epton's main line of attack against Washington revolved around past legal issues – most notably the fact that while serving as a state representative, Washington had pleaded no contest in 1971 to failing to file tax returns for four nonconsecutive years. As David Moberg explained in, Washington had had income taxes deducted for all the years in question, but had only failed to file a return. The amount Washington owed for all the four years in question amounted to $508.
The most infamous incident in the campaign came on Palm Sunday – only a couple of weeks before Election Day – when Washington was stumping with then-Presidential candidate Walter Mondale at St. Pascal Roman Catholic Church on West Irving Park Road. Epton supporters gathered in a hostile and vitriolic mob of what was reported to be more than 200 people, holding signs and screaming at the candidates. Racial slurs were hurled, and some accounts say stones were thrown.
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