A reader pointed me towards a great tribute to Harold Washington from This American Life. Take a listen. Especially interesting are comments by Eugene Sawyer (IIRC) about Harold’s electability if he had been white. Since he had significant tax problems in the late 1960 and early 1970s it points to a difference in how black and white politicians were judged at the time. I would argue this has changed over times, but it is an interesting point.
An Illinois political operative who was white, but had worked for statewide black candidates once told me that white America doesn’t understand what it takes to make it as a black candidate with the African-American community. It was constant skirting of the law to appease different interests and inevitably this led to problems with the general electorate.
But this isn’t really different than other ethnic minorities, it just happens during a time when corruption isn’t as tolerated handicapping some politicians rising as fast as other ethnicities did back when corruption was all a part of the process. Men like Washington got stuck between two generations, but came out okay. And now we see a new generation of those like Barack Obama who are clean as a whistle.