February is Black History Month, but I've never understood why it's been relegated to

only one month.

Today, I've got a Black History story.

We talked about it a bit with Jeff Carlin and our guest today, Professor Charles Lipson,

as we were sitting down to make this podcast, and in my weekend column, I promised to tell

it here.

So I don't know if I'd put myself in a box, but here it goes.

You've got to get in the way back machine to 1987, when the late Mayor Harold Washington

died, leaving a great power vacuum in Chicago.

I was a young reporter, mostly stuck on crime and the political crime beat, faridding out

crony contracts who got what deal.

At the paper then, they thought I could handle that, because while they thought of me as

something of a warfare, I wasn't smooth.

I didn't go to the right college, I didn't have a pedigree.

Two men emerged as contenders for Washington's mantle.

The late Eugene Sawyer, Alderman of the then-powerful Sixth Ward, and then Fort Ward Alderman

Tim Evans, who is now the chief judge of the Cook County Circuit Court.

And Anna's so-called memorial service for Washington that was held at the UIC Pavilion

jammed with thousands and thousands of people.

Even Laurie Lightfoot told me once that she was there.

It was really a campaign rally for Evans, and there allegedly or supposedly morning

Washington, the hard left unleashed a weapon that we really hadn't seen before.

...