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* The House Black Caucus has endorsed House Speaker Michael Madigan for another term in office, but he wasn’t always such an ally. Here’s Derrick Blakley…
Following the 1980 census, then House Minority Leader Mike Madigan created a new map blatantly structured along racial lines. This map diluted Black voting strength and ensured that white neighborhoods on the South and Southwest sides were not represented by Blacks.
The map created a “Western Wall” that ran along the western edge of neighborhoods that were 80 per cent or more Black to “protect” white neighborhoods (like Marquette Park, Gage Park, Chicago Lawn, Bridgeport and Canaryville) from the threat of Black representation.
According to an in-depth account by journalist Steve Bogira in the Chicago Reader in March 1982, Madigan even admitted in sworn testimony that the map was a concession to the racism whites harbored on the city’s South and Southwest sides. “Well, I don’t see that drawing a line along the current black-white line is a tool to maintain segregation,” said Madigan. “I would say that if you took Robert Taylor Homes and put them into a district with Bridgeport and Canaryville, it would raise racial tensions. That’s just based on my knowledge of the people in Bridgeport and Canaryville.”
The map also shorted Black representation, granting the same number of Black Senate districts (five) as in 1971, despite an increase in black population and a decrease in white.
Charging that the Madigan Map was illegally racist, it was challenged in court by then-State Rep. Carol Moseley Braun and the late State Sen. Richard Newhouse. In a 2 to 1 decision, a federal court panel awarded the Black plaintiffs one additional Senate District and two more House districts. But Braun and Newhouse thought black voters deserved even more seats.
And so did U.S. District Judge John Grady who was critical of the “Western Wall” even though his two fellow judges ruled it was not drawn to deny Blacks representation. In his dissent, wrote Grady, “The real reason for the wall – and it was not concealed, it was just denied the top billing it deserved—was the desire of the Democrat Commission members to ensure that the white populations to the west of the wall would continue to be represented by white legislators.”
“I felt really good about the decision,” said Carol Moseley Braun this week. “The court had to find him primarily responsible for the discriminatory map.” Braun later became House floor leader for Chicago Mayor Harold Washington where she developed “a good relationship” with Madigan.
That Madigan has gone from being viewed as the enemy of black legislative power to its protector over the course of four decades amounts to a complete turnabout.
“The Black Caucus now sees themselves as having something to lose if Madigan’s gone,” said Moseley Braun on Tuesday. “And I think they’re probably right.”
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 9:29 am
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Yeah, Madigan’s changed. /s
Comment by Anon y mouse Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 9:49 am
Chicago Democrats in the 1960s were up to things that would make the Proud Boys blush.
Comment by Candy Dogood Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 9:52 am
In many ways Madigan has come full circle with groups and interests, and both (Madigan and the groups) have learned their mutual interests and a reconciling that trust between them and Madigan, Madigan takes it very serious and his word is his bond.
Labor too, you think how they felt with Madigan, and now how that relationship has solidified, and here with the black caucus, you have a man in Madigan, and his reputation, and looking at “the now”, you see Madigan, with his rules and his parameters, he has partners within his caucus and outside willing to be there for him, as Madigan proved to them… he can be trusted, his word is good.
You can’t be around got decades and have permanent enemies that marginalize you *and* be Speaker, but you can find allies that were less than friends and solidify a relationship with your word, with your actions to your word, and making sure both are in everyone’s interests in the relationship.
That’s a skill.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 9:55 am
As late as 1992, journalists were still refering to Chicago’s South and west sides as “ghettos.” A lot of prominent and not-so-prominent Democrats said and did a lot of things that were bad, although not nearly as bad as what Republicans were doing in the era of Reagan. This look at the 80’s through the eyes of the 90’s is a good one:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-05-10-9202110740-story.html
Comment by Thomas Paine Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 9:56 am
By the time of the 1990 redistricting cycle, computer capabilities enabled the drawing of very precise maps to maximize “majority minority” districts in compliance with the court cases that had fleshed-out a new set of legal standards. These new districts preserved sufficient black majorities in districts but reached fingers out to capture whites (often GOP). This also included select “packing” of racial or political populations in certain districts to maximize the number of black Democratic seats without reducing the number of white Democratic seats. With all of the software developments since then, it does not require a political genius to draw these maps today. The programs even account for legal standards compliance (especially on racial requirements). The 19 can continue to withhold their support of Madigan confident with the knowledge that nearly anyone can draw clever redistricting maps these days. The number of Democratic noses under a new speaker can draw, negotiate and pass a Democrat-maximizing map.
Comment by Chad Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 9:59 am
==Chicago Democrats in the 1960s were up to things that would make the Proud Boys blush.==
Care to explain more about the goings-on of 60 years-ago?
Comment by supplied_demand Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 10:01 am
@Chad - Old school vs new school. I feel this breaks down like that scene in Moneyball - Brad Pitt vs the room full of old scouts saying things they “think and feel”.
Comment by Cool Papa Bell Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 10:10 am
Mike Madigan has come full circle and evolved from his overtly racist past and blames Republicans for the decades of economic and societal devastation in these communities.
That is a skill
Comment by Lucky Pierre Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 10:15 am
=== Mike Madigan has come full circle and evolved from his overtly racist past===
Only you might think this is a bad thing.
:)
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 10:43 am
==The map created a “Western Wall”==
aka The Beverly Barricade, Bridgeport Palisade, Mount Greenwood Gulch
Comment by City Zen Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 10:47 am
==he can be trusted, his word is good==
Maybe in the past, but how can me make promises today with an uncertain political future and shrinking state budget?
Sounds more like a last ditch effort to me.
Comment by SumGai1986 Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 11:10 am
=== Maybe in the past, but how can me make promises today with an uncertain political future and shrinking state budget?===
… and yet both Labor AND the Black Caucus are standing firm.
So… there’s that. Keep up.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 11:11 am
===Maybe in the past===
Also, “how times have changed”… are you even looking at the context of both groups, how they’ve come around, and how the black caucus and Madigan got here “from there”, and why keeping his word got them both there?
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 11:14 am
==Mike Madigan has come full circle and evolved from his overtly racist past…
Whereas your support for a racist President remains unshaken. Way to go LP.
Comment by don the legend Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 11:40 am
The word “evolution” implies a positive change…that’s how it works.
Comment by Dotnonymous Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 11:49 am
==The 19 can continue to withhold their support of Madigan confident with the knowledge that nearly anyone can draw clever redistricting maps these days.==
And if the Democratic 19 hold out long enough, the Republicans will be the “clever” mapmakers utilizing state of the art technology to draw radically different suburban, downstate and urban districts if they gain control of Illinois winner take all system.
Comment by LDI Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 2:22 pm
This is about much more than mapping, for all interested parties.
Comment by walker Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 2:31 pm
=== And if the Democratic 19 hold out long enough, the Republicans will be the “clever” mapmakers utilizing state of the art technology to draw radically different suburban, downstate and urban districts if they gain control of Illinois winner take all system.===
Huh?
Pritzker going to sign this map?
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 2:32 pm
Its how to maintain each person’s power and how it is done by compromise, favors and reading the room for 50 years….newbies must first get their hands dirty and pay allegiance to success and their right to grow with the party.
Comment by bear 3 Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 3:28 pm
Can somebody please explain exactly how House Speaker voting works?
Do all 118 reps get a vote, or only Democrats? If Madigan doesn’t get to 60 (I am guessing the number is 60 as that is a simple majority of 118), then does it go to a run off of top 2 vote getters?
Stories keep referencing votes Madigan needs, but no real mention of how the vote works.
Comment by Louis Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 3:46 pm
==Pritzker going to sign this map?==
The Gov has no role in the redistricting commission that would be created if the map isn’t done by a Bill.
The Dems have supermajorities in both chambers so they can do a remap without the support of the Governor. The simple threat of an veto overide (and the bad publicity generated by a unilateral disarmament strategy in Dem, pro-choice, far left circles for the Gov) may be enough to get him to sign the remap Bill.
Patrick Henry once noted that “we must hang together or we will surely hang separately.” This same concept applies to the House and Senate Dem Caucus - especially in this remap year.
Comment by LDI Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 4:00 pm
=== The Gov has no role in the redistricting commission that would be created if the map isn’t done by a Bill.===
The Dems at 73 will draw and pass a map.
Supermajorities say that’s so.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 4:03 pm
Downstate is a tax eater.
We need to get Downstate to “dollar for dollar”
Close a prison.
Close DNR facilitIES… (plural)
Close dorms by cutting higher education… that’ll show those towns.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 4:10 pm
Oh.
Governors own. They always do.
Might as well make downstate feel that pain.
That’s the same downstate with “Pritzker $&@#” signs… now with a downstate prison closing… or two
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 4:20 pm
Sorry.
My phone recycled, from Zoom…
Ugh. Apologies.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 4:21 pm
==The Gov has no role in the redistricting commission that would be created==
In that case the GOP wouldn’t “gain control of Illinois winner take all system.”
==the bad publicity generated by a unilateral disarmament strategy in Dem, pro-choice, far left circles==
It isn’t primarily progressives who make the “unilateral disarmament” argument. It’s the folks who want “my guy” to protect “my seat” in a remap.
==Patrick Henry==
Ben Franklin actually.
Comment by Anonanonsir Tuesday, Dec 15, 20 @ 6:18 pm