The Irish and African American issue in Chicago is among the most contentious political dynamics in American politics.
It was evident in the relationship between Barack Obama and William Daley who was his Chief of Staff until he was ousted yesterday. The two never really got along.
Perhaps there were too many ghosts to vanquish.
A controversial new book by NY Times journalist Jodi Kantor titled “The Obamas” quotes First Lady Michelle Obama, a South Side of Chicago native as being very hostile to the Irish American power families who ran Chicago for generations.
The hostility ran both ways. Richard J Daley, his son Richard M and Bill Daley all had their roots in Bridgeport, the Irish working class South Side enclave where Mayor Richard J. Daley lived all his political life.
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After World War II and large immigration, Chicago was self segregated into ethnic neighborhoods and tension between Irish and Poles, Irish and Italians, Irish and blacks and all ethnic groups occasionally flared, especially in contested territory
The history of the Irish and blacks in and around Bridgeport is an especially troubled one. I lived in Chicago for a time in the 1970s and was amazed how raw the sense of injustice and fear still was among Irish residents. It was especially evident in Bridgeport I found.
There was a long history in Bridgeport. In 1961 a hotel in the neighboring Black district called “The Douglas” caught fire and eighty elderly residents were moved temporarily to Bridgeport to a Lutheran church there.
As Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor wrote in their book on Richard J. Daley called “American Pharoah” an angry Irish mob surrounded the church demanding that they be sent back to their own neighborhood.
But what was called racism was often also an economic issue. Irish neighborhood dwellers told me they believed if blacks moved in the neighborhood would decay and property values would crash. Their homes, usually their only source of accumulated wealth would lose their value.
Mayor Richard J Dailey did very little for black/white relationships during his time in office and will always be remembered for his outbursts at the 1968 Democratic convention when civil rights and Vietnam War protesters threatened to overwhelm his police force.
After Daley died ,Chicago elected its first black mayor Harold Washington who promised reform but he died of a heart attack soon after taking office.
It galled many blacks, who make up 36 per cent of the population, that Daley’s son took over and lasted longer than the old man, serving from 1989 to 2011.
During that time he encouraged the political rise of a community worker from the South Side named Barack Obama, hardly dreaming that he would someday end up in the Oval Office.
Richard’s Bill brother would become Obama’s Chief of Staff at the White House but the relationship never clicked.
Perhaps the old South Side ghosts were always present, or perhaps, best known as a conciliator, Bill Daley was stranded in a time of fierce political hostility when his gift for reconciliation of opposing views was useless.
Either way, it is the latest in a fascinating chapter on Irish and black relations in Chicago and on this occasion in the White House.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Pittsburghkid | Jan 14, 2012, 04:00 PM EST
This story is all about the 60's, which was 50 years ago. Obama are not about healing and bring the country together. Obama election meant that the past is going to be relived, and son are to be guilty for the sins of their grandfathers.
toonwalker | Jan 12, 2012, 11:06 AM EST
Hello Niall, Please don't post this. I just have a question or two for you. If you and others in the media made readers put their real names and cities and towns, you would remove most of the alley apple throwing haters. I've seen their act on other web sites and the haters are just cowards who hide in the shadows behind names like nitwit789. I didn't know Chicago has a history of tension between African Americans and Irish Americans. Many places in our country share that history of conflict between different racial and ethnic groups. Blacks and Irish should get along. Our pasts are so similar. Discrimination up the yin yang. Look at the six counties up to 1998 and tell me that Catholics weren't treated as the blacks were in our country in the 1930's. I was interested to read the article on the population breakdown in the north's schools. It about flipped, 60/40% Catholic now. When is the 2011 census due out? If the numbers are there now, I hope they call a vote now. That is in the G.F. Agreement. Another interesting article was about Ted's campaign against Mr. Romney and how it is being mimicked by gopers. In labor we worked hard for Ted. Romney pulled even and we kicked it into overdrive. Knock and drops, stand outs, phone banks etc. Ads help, but you need grass roots ground troops to help carry the day. Ted won by about 350,000 votes. If you have an answer on the six counties 2011 census release I'd like to know. Toonwalker@comcast.net I've enjoyed your paper for decades. Even Mr. Spain, when he writes about his family vacation to the Jersey shore. Best, Richard Walker Boston MA
maryosullivan | Jan 12, 2012, 10:50 AM EST
Irish mayors/Aldermen in City Hall absolutely do not mean pro-Irish. I worked on the MacBride Principles resolution for fair employment in Northern Ireland with many of the Irish named elected officials fighting it every step of the way, namely Burke, O'Connor Daley. Tom Murphy, being the exception, without whose efforts would never have passed. The African-Amer. were the earliest supporters,
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seanomelbourne | Jan 11, 2012, 06:37 PM EST
Four more years
BippyBellito | Jan 11, 2012, 04:57 PM EST
Obama has been a race baiter all of his life and his wife is worse. The Irish in Ireland have not seen that side of him yet. God forbid he gets a second term.He is one of the most incompetent presidents the U.S. has ever had! Google Fast and Furious. That enough should get him impeached. His sins are immense and against the good people of the u.S.
eiriamach | Jan 11, 2012, 10:16 AM EST
Cheap gossip presented as fact-- why is IC giving it the time of day? In hope of a GOP victory next November. Dream on!
IrelandNorth | Jan 11, 2012, 05:56 AM EST
The trouble with a downtrodden people is they do unto others what was done unto them, i.e discriminate. I remember reading reports of the Irish governorship of the island of Montserrat under the British Empire, and their track record for racism was disappointing. Hurt people hurt other people.
mfinucane | Jan 11, 2012, 01:08 AM EST
i live in chicago.i don't want where i live to be like where the blacks live on the far southside & the west side. several killing everyday.i want to beable to go shopping w/o being shot & i want the kids to be outside to play. its now a matter of survival,not just racisim.
PhlutiePhan | Jan 10, 2012, 06:00 PM EST
Do you really believe on "Hell's half acre" that if Michelle voiced her resentment that Barack (the horse that Mohammed rode)felt any different. There was never any intent to work for equality. This is pure and simple a "power play". (Black 12.57%. Irish 11.21% national US census. Ethnic groups were right to fear the influx of radical blacks. Take a look at what happened to the Irish neighborhoods in Boston. Blacks were bussed in and Boston deteriorated and has never recovered. The Catholic leadership in Chicago under radical feminist Bernardin knuckled under in the name of equality. How many Irish or German Catholics in the younger generation even go to Church? Cardinal George has no clue at all! Lisa and Mike Madigan split the spoils and nailed Blagojovicn for doing what they were thinking. Obama doesn't need Daley any more. The Catholic hierarchy itself is kneeling at the Obama throne like the Magi and Humpty Dumpty can't put morality back together again.
merefalow | Jan 10, 2012, 05:13 PM EST
enforced multi multiculturalism,does it work anywhere except WHEN its enforced,it doesn't even work between different white tribes,it certainly doesn't work in India with its rigid caste system,the ethnic Sikh, Hindi,muslim riots ,that break out from time to time,hacidic via secular jews,in the usa the whites have moved out of the cities,and racial tensions are never far from the surface,is there anywhere on earth where people of different religions customs languages live peaceably side by side[except when its enforced]to try and enforce it and try and make out its normal,it isnt, people are tribal and always will be.the so called melting pots dont work.
seanomelbourne | Jan 10, 2012, 05:08 PM EST
All you Obama haters be prepared for four more years.The misrepresentation of Jeremiah Wright by Fox and in particular Hannity(they left the truth on the cutting room floor) The likes of Joycean accepts titbits from Fox as fact. Wright said Goddam America for---- finish the next few sentences Joycean.
Murph46 | Jan 10, 2012, 04:56 PM EST
Right Johnymac60-they were draft riots.Ironic that Irish Central was ahead of the curve and telling it straight on this issue as the press still spins it so different!
joycean | Jan 10, 2012, 04:51 PM EST
I'm sure we all remember Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright's sermons. Remember the "Beer Summit"? As a former high school and college instructor of racially mixed classes, I learned to be very careful. Maybe things have gotten better in the past 5-10 years.Or not. I also have noticed that certain Irish posters on IC jump on the topic of American Indians completely out of context. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee must have been required reading in Ireland.
johnymac60 | Jan 10, 2012, 02:44 PM EST
@faberm1. There were riots by the Irish during the Civil War, notably in New York, but desire to keep blacks enslaved was not the reason. You are ill-informed. Go back and read a little more about the events.
cillowen | Jan 10, 2012, 01:10 PM EST
there is nothing new here - it has always been the same for all ethnics. Michelle and downtrodded always partake of the whine. Others have good reason to fear their burning of cities across the USA - the Right Wingnuts of NI, such Orange/Masonic Proddi's operate in like manner had friends like Thatcher and Reagan to draw from. This is how the system works, wingdingers.
cillowen | Jan 10, 2012, 01:04 PM EST
there is nothing new here - it has always been the same for all ethnics. Michelle and downtrodded always partake of the whine. Others have good reason to fear their burning of cities across the USA - the NI Proddi operates in like manner.
Nicomax | Jan 10, 2012, 12:58 PM EST
It's an old issue. The Brahmins in Boston were stunned and angry about the steady rise in Irish political power in the 19th century. Why even Honey Fitz became mayor and his grandson not only went to Choate and Harvard but became president. Yikes!
Murph46 | Jan 10, 2012, 12:47 PM EST
Funny how the liberal press spins it as wore down from constant fighting the Republicans when it is internal racism from Michelle!
joycean | Jan 10, 2012, 12:01 PM EST
faberm1, Reading some IC posts, the Irish still seem to be clueless about this country.
joycean | Jan 10, 2012, 11:59 AM EST
Joan1954, Actually desegregation was forced on Boston. A federal judge ruled that because some neighborhoods were predominately White and some Black, the neighborhood schools were. So the schools were forced to bus kids. The White schools were in Irish neighborhoods, and the ruling caused a lot of Irish to move out of the city.
KerryLKing | Jan 10, 2012, 11:32 AM EST
Agree with you kilgara....
pounder | Jan 10, 2012, 11:23 AM EST
The Irish,as well as Italians,Germans,Jews,Polish,came to this country and worked hard,strongly encouraged their offspring to educate themselves and to overcome the environment their parents had to exist in.They became citizens,fought and died in our wars,and despite some really notable exceptions,they were law abiding, and did not throw their garbage out the window.I realize that African Americans have had a ough row to hoe,and many are truly patriotic and are outstanding soldiers and upstanding citizens,but the great truth that many pundits and the pinky lifting,latte drinking, politically correct people,choose to ignore is that Black people are their own worst enemy.Crime,drugs,rap music,bastard babies,welfare queens,etc the list goes on.They have not budged one inch,moved off of square one assimlate into recognized society.
kilgara | Jan 10, 2012, 11:16 AM EST
How bitter is the sting of the ungrateful serpent. The Chicago , largely Irish, political machine was responsible for the political fortunes of Obama. With incredible luck, a completely lackluster opponent, and the total dumbing-down of the American electorate{MTV,etc} he landed in the White House. Now,that the tables have turned and Obama is the boss , he, with the full encouragement of his blatantly racist wife stabs the politicos who made him in the back.Just one more reason why politicians are at the very bottom of any thinking persons "Who do I respect list?"
faberm1 | Jan 10, 2012, 11:16 AM EST
When traveling in Ireland I am often asked if "southern people (like me) are still very prejudiced against blacks". The Irish people that ask this do so often in a condescending way suggesting that the Irish in Ireland are not people subject to or beyond such feelings. (I've even had some weep in my presence at how they feel we Americans were so bad to the Indians). The late historian Shelby Foote stated that northerners have always "loved blacks as a race but hated them as individuals". The South had an opposite truth. We "loved them as individuals but hated (better stated 'held them at arm's length') as a race" in the South. We live side by side and we get along. There are occasional fruitcakes that engage in hate, but they are extremely minimal. The Irish in the northern United States have a history of being prejudiced (they actually had riots against the north for supporting freedom of slaves during the civil war). I would imagine there is not much real love lost between the Obamas and the Daley families.
joan1954 | Jan 10, 2012, 11:04 AM EST
As a southerner who visited Chicago many years ago, I was surprised at their fear and it made me uncomfortable. Intergration was forced on the south and we learned to live with it and with African Americans but the feds didn't force it on other parts of the country the way they did in the south My grandparents generation had difficulty with it, my parents not so much so and mine, well, we're cool with it. We treat each other with respect.
19bajspwn | Jan 10, 2012, 10:39 AM EST
Oh,,,come on,,,,On what information is this report based? So someone quit a job,,,some one wrote a book,,,,just released this past month,,,and the media,,hoping to stir up controversy takes the manuscript for TRUTH....granted,,Daley and Chicago politics is true....but,,,what is the spew about Mrs. O....
SouthSideIrish | Jan 10, 2012, 10:37 AM EST
The Irish are the only white ethnic group left on the South Side and so they most not fear living around African-Americans as much as you might be led to believe. Because of the Richard J. Daley/Bridgeport dynamic the Irish get all the press but the most contentious "black-white" relationship on the South Side was actually with the German / Lithuanians in the Marquette Park neighborhood. After trying to lead a march through the park Dr.Martin Luther King said that "the people of Mississippi should come to Marquette Park to learn how to hate.". Ahh, the good old days...
joycean | Jan 10, 2012, 08:20 AM EST
unfortunately, Obama isn't the post-racial President some had hoped. Race (not Irish-Black, but White-Black) is a cause of conflict everywhere in this country.