Editing Harold Washington (section)

==Biography==
===Ancestry===
The earliest known ancestor of Harold Lee Washington, Isam/Isham Washington, was born a slave in 1832 in North Carolina.<ref name=ancestry>{{cite book |last1=Brasfield |first1=Curtis |title=The Ancestry of Mayor Harold Washington |date=1993 |publisher=Heritage Books, Inc. |location=Bowie, Maryland |isbn=1556137508 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ancestryofmayorh00bras/page/7 7], 14–22 |edition=First |url=https://archive.org/details/ancestryofmayorh00bras/page/7 }}</ref> In 1864, he enlisted in the 8th United States Colored Heavy Artillery, Company L, in Paducah, Kentucky. Following his discharge in 1866, he began farming with his wife, Rebecca Neal, in Ballard County, Kentucky. Among their six children was Isam/Isom McDaniel (Mack) Washington, who was born in 1875. In 1896, Mack Washington married Arbella Weeks of Massac County, who had been born in Mississippi in 1878. In 1897, their first son, Roy L. Washington, father of Harold Washington, was born in Ballard County, Kentucky. In 1903, shortly after both families moved to [[Massac County, Illinois]], the elder Washington died. After farming for a time, Mack Washington became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church, serving numerous churches in Illinois until the death of his wife in 1952. Reverend I.M.D. Washington died in 1953.<ref name=ancestry />

===Early life and education===
Harold Lee Washington was born on April 15, 1922, at [[Cook County Hospital]] in Chicago,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aBqmMkHK8BIC&pg=PA1|title=Harold Washington: Political Pioneer|first=Carole|last=Marsh|date= 2002|publisher=Gallopade International|isbn=978-0635015044|access-date=May 26, 2018|via=Google Books}}</ref> to Roy and Bertha Washington. While still in high school in [[Lawrenceville, Illinois]], Roy met Bertha from nearby [[Carrier Mills, Illinois|Carrier Mills]] and the two married in 1916 in [[Harrisburg, Illinois]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brasfield |first1=Curtis |title=The Ancestry of Mayor Harold Washington |date=1993 |publisher=Heritage Books, Inc. |location=Bowie, Maryland |isbn=1556137508 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ancestryofmayorh00bras/page/22 22–28] |url=https://archive.org/details/ancestryofmayorh00bras/page/22 }}</ref> At a time when most African Americans and Chicago residents supported the Republican Party, Roy Washington was one of the first black [[precinct captain]]s for the Chicago Democratic Party; he also worked as a lawyer and [[Methodist]] minister.<ref>''Hamlish Levinsohn, p. 246'', relates that Washington identified himself with his grandfather and father Roy's Methodist background. {{harvnb|Rivlin|1992|p=42}} notes that at age 4, Harold and his brother, 6, were sent to a private [[Benedictine]] school in Wisconsin. The arrangement lasted one week before they ran away from the school and hitchhiked home. After three more years and thirteen escapes, Roy placed Harold in Chicago city public schools.</ref> 

Bertha left the family, possibly to seek her fortune as a singer, when Harold was four.{{sfn|Rivlin|1992|p=42}} Harold Washington grew up in [[Douglas, Chicago#Bronzeville|Bronzeville]], a Chicago neighborhood that was the center of black culture for the entire Midwest in the early and middle 20th century. Edward and Harold stayed with their father, while Roy Jr. and Geneva were cared for by their grandparents. After attending St. Benedict the Moor Boarding School in Milwaukee from 1928 to 1932, Washington attended [[DuSable High School]], a new [[Racial segregation in the United States|racially segregated]] public school, from 1936 to 1939.<ref name="Illinois Library">{{cite web|url=https://omeka-s.library.illinois.edu/s/idhh/page/chicago-mayor-washington-early-life|title=Chicago Mayor Washington: Early Life|publisher=University of Illinois Library|access-date=May 10, 2025}}</ref> In a citywide track meet in 1939, Washington claimed first place in the 110-meter high hurdles and second place in the 220-meter low hurdles, playing a key role in the school's victory in the Chicago Public League Championship that year.{{sfn|Rivlin|1992|p=44}} 

Believing the coursework to lack rigor, Washington dropped out of high school before his senior year and joined the [[Civilian Conservation Corps]] in 1939.<ref name="Illinois Library"/>{{sfn|Rivlin|1992|p=44}} He later worked at a meatpacking plant before his father helped him get a job at the [[U.S. Treasury]] branch in the city. There he met Nancy Dorothy Finch, whom he married soon after; Washington was 19 and Dorothy was 17.{{sfn|Rivlin|1992|p=44}}<ref name="Chicago Public Library"/>
===Military service===
In 1942, Washington was drafted into the [[United States Army]] for the war effort and, after basic training, sent overseas as part of the 1887th Engineer Aviation Battalion, a [[African-American discrimination in the U.S. Military|racially segregated unit]] of the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers|Air Force Engineers]].{{sfn|Rivlin|1992|pp=44-45}}<ref name=Congress>{{cite web|url=https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/W000180|title=Washington, Harold|publisher=U.S. Congress|work=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress|access-date=May 10, 2025}}</ref><ref name="Chicago Public Library">{{cite web|url=https://www.chipublib.org/mayor-harold-washington-biography/|title=Mayor Harold Washington Biography|publisher=Chicago Public Library|access-date=May 10, 2025}}</ref> Washington was part of a unit that built a bomber landing strip on [[Angaur]] island in [[Palau]] just 20 days, an action that earned the unit a [[Meritorious Unit Commendation|Meritorious Service Unit Award]]. Eventually, Washington rose to the rank of [[First Sergeant]] in the [[United States Army Air Forces|Army Air Forces]]; he was honorably discharged in 1946 and completed a high school equivalency diploma during his service.<ref name="Chicago Public Library"/>{{sfn|Rivlin|1992|p=44}}

===Roosevelt College===
In the summer of 1946, Washington, aged 24 and a war veteran, enrolled at [[Roosevelt University|Roosevelt College]] (now Roosevelt University).<ref name="levinsohn_42-43">Hamlish Levinsohn (1983), pp. 42–43.</ref> Washington joined other groups of students not permitted to enroll in other local colleges. Local estimates place the student population of Roosevelt College at about 1/8&nbsp;black and 1/2&nbsp;Jewish. A full 75% of the students had enrolled because of the "nondiscriminatory progressive principles".<ref name="levinsohn_42-43" /> Washington chaired a student fundraising drive, and then was named to a committee that supported citywide efforts to outlaw "[[restrictive covenants]]" in housing, the legal means by which members of ethnic minority groups (especially blacks and, to a lesser extent, Jews) were prohibited from purchasing real estate in predominantly white neighborhoods of the city.<ref name="levinsohn_44">Hamlish Levinsohn (1983), p. 44.</ref>

In 1946, Washington was elected the third president of Roosevelt's student council; he was also the first black student to win that office.{{sfn|Rivlin|1992|p=45}}<ref name="levinsohn_51-53"/> Washington saw [[Henry A. Wallace]] as an influence.{{sfn|Rivlin|1992|p=45}} Under his leadership, the student council successfully petitioned the college to have student representation on Roosevelt's faculty committees. At the first regional meeting of the newly founded [[National Student Association]] in the spring of 1948, Washington and nine other delegates proposed student representation on college faculties, and a "Bill of Rights" for students; both measures were roundly defeated.<ref name="levinsohn_51-53">Hamlish Levinsohn (1983), pp. 51–53.</ref> The next year, Washington went to the state capital at [[Springfield, Illinois|Springfield]] to protest [[Illinois State Legislature|Illinois legislators']] coming probe of "subversives". The probe would outlaw the [[Communist Party USA|Communist Party]] and require "[[loyalty oath]]s" for teachers. Washington led students' opposition to the bills, which would pass later in 1949.<ref name="levinsohn_51-53"/>

During his college years, Washington came to be known for his stability. His friends said that he had a "remarkable ability to keep cool", reason carefully and walk a middle line. Washington intentionally avoided activities considered extremist, including street actions and [[sit-in]]s against racially segregated restaurants and businesses. Overall, Washington and other radical activists ended up sharing a mutual respect for each other, acknowledging both Washington's pragmatism and the activists' idealism. With the opportunities found only at Roosevelt College in the late 1940s, Washington's time at the Roosevelt College proved to be pivotal.<ref name="levinsohn_54-55,59,62">Hamlish Levinsohn (1983), pp. 54–55, 59, 62.</ref> Washington graduated in August 1949, with a [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree. In addition to his activities at Roosevelt, he was a member of [[Phi Beta Sigma]] fraternity.<ref name="congbio" /><ref name="levinsohn_63">Hamlish Levinsohn (1983), p. 63.</ref>

===Northwestern University School of Law===
In 1949, Washington began studies at the [[Northwestern University School of Law]].<ref name="Chicago Public Library"/> where he was the only black student in his class (there were six women in the class, one of them being [[Dawn Clark Netsch]]). In 1951, his last year, he was elected treasurer of the [[Student Bar Association|Junior Bar Association]] (JBA). The election was largely symbolic, however, and Washington's attempts to give the JBA more authority at Northwestern were largely unsuccessful.<ref name="levinsohn_66">Hamlish Levinsohn (1983), p. 66.</ref> On campus, Washington joined the [[Nu Beta Epsilon]] fraternity, largely because he and the other people who were members of ethnic minority groups which constituted the fraternity were blatantly excluded from the other fraternities on campus. Overall, Washington stayed away from the activism that defined his years at Roosevelt. During the evenings and weekends, he worked to supplement his [[GI Bill]] income. He received his [[Juris Doctor|JD]] in 1952.<ref name="levinsohn_68-70">Hamlish Levinsohn (1983), pp. 68–70.</ref>

While attending law school, Washington divorced from his wife Dorothy in 1950; they had no children and had often lived separately during their marriage.{{sfn|Rivlin|1992|p=53}}