EUGENE SAWYER 1934 ~ 2008

Helped to heal divided Chicago

Sawyer carried on Washington's agenda, 'calmed the waters' of a turbulent era

Mayor Eugene Sawyer at the Westin Hotel in 1988, where he announced he would run for a second term the following year. (Tribune file photo)

By Jon Yates and Tara Malone | Tribune staff reporter

12:16 AM CST, January 21, 2008

Article tools

E-mail

Share
- Digg
- Del.icio.us
- Facebook
- Fark
- Google
- Newsvine
- Reddit
- Yahoo

Eugene Sawyer, an accidental mayor who bridged the gap between the Council Wars of Harold Washington's tenure and Richard M. Daley's decades-long political reign, died late Saturday night. He was 73.

Known for his calm manner and ability to forge compromise, Sawyer rose to prominence in the days following Washington's death in November 1987. After a bitter, racially charged debate, a split council voted to name Sawyer as Washington's replacement. He served as mayor until 1989, when he lost in the Democratic primary to current Mayor Richard M. Daley.

"I don't think anybody else could have come in and done the job he did," said Ald. Richard Mell (33rd), who was on the council at the time. "It was a turbulent time in Chicago's history, but he calmed the waters down."

Video

John Sawyer, Sawyer's brother and family spokesman, said the former mayor had been in poor health since December, following surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital for a perforated esophagus. He suffered a series of strokes over the past month while receiving care at a hospice facility in Hinsdale and fell into cardiac arrest Friday morning, John Sawyer said. He was taken to Hinsdale Hospital, where he died.

"He was the most gentlemanly elected official I've ever known," said U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.). "Often, you don't get to be an elected official by being gentlemanly, but Gene did."

Until he was thrust into the mayor's job, Sawyer did not seem destined for the history books. After moving from Alabama in 1957, he landed a low-level city job, then worked his way up the local Democratic Party ranks in the 6th Ward, a predominantly black, middle-class part of the South Side. In 1971, he became alderman.

After the stunning death of Washington, Chicago's first black mayor, council members split on his replacement. Many black aldermen favored Timothy Evans, now Cook County's chief judge.

With thousands of protesters chanting outside City Hall—many accusing Sawyer, who was black, of "selling out" to white politicians—the council debate spilled over into the early-morning hours of Dec. 2. Sawyer eventually won the vote, based largely on the support of white aldermen.

"It was probably the most charged political night of my life, and I think anyone else who lived through it would probably agree," Mell said. "It was just wild."

Evans praised Sawyer for his work while mayor and for carrying on Washington's tradition of keeping an open and transparent office.

"I think he did the best he could," Evans said Sunday. "We, of course, were friends before our disagreements, and we were friends after that."

F. Richard Ciccone, a former Chicago Tribune editor and political author, said Washington's election as the city's first African-American mayor had challenged the political order in Chicago, but Sawyer's succession helped calm things.

"He was not a confrontational kind of guy," Ciccone said. "The major players on the stage up until that point . . . you had a whole bunch of people that reveled in confrontation. He was a pleasant interlude to a pretty volatile period in Chicago politics and government."

Sawyer was so soft-spoken he was sometimes difficult to understand. Dubbed "Mr. Mumbles" or "Mayor Mumbles" by the media, Sawyer acknowledged he was often misunderstood. During a radio interview at the time, he said people should not be misled by his public persona.

"I guess my quiet demeanor has sort of bothered you guys, and I hear you call me 'Mumbles,' " Sawyer said. "I do have a quiet demeanor, but that doesn't mean we don't move aggressively and get things done or that we don't have a handle on things. We do."

Friends and colleagues said Sawyer never wavered from two loves in politics—Chicago and the 6th Ward. Even after he became mayor, he often held breakfast meetings at a South Side restaurant called Ms. Biscuit.

During his brief tenure, Sawyer pushed through several initiatives that Washington had started or supported, including a human-rights ordinance that had languished in the council for years before it was approved in 1988.

Former Ald. William Beavers, a longtime friend who is now a Cook County Board member, said Sawyer nobly carried on Washington's legacy.

"Harold always wanted to get a gay rights ordinance passed, but he couldn't get it passed," Beavers said. "Gene got it passed."

Former Ald. Dick Simpson, head of the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that while some perceived Sawyer as the consummate machine politician as alderman, he bucked the system when he took office.