Pinback Button, "Harold Washington"

This pinback button features a color photo of Harold Washington, who ran for mayor of Chicago in 1983. Hailing from the city’s predominantly African American South Side, Washington won the Democratic primary in October 1982 and made history when he was elected the first African American mayor of Chicago in April 1983. Made locally, the button belonged to journalist Ethel L. Payne (1911-1991), a Chicago native moved to Washington, DC in 1952 to cover national and international news for the preeminent African American newspaper, The Chicago Defender. She followed Washington’s mayoral campaign closely and collected pins that told the story: from grassroots campaign (1991.0076.0144) to victorious celebration (1991.0076.0172) to inauguration day (1991.0076.0170). The lifelong civil rights activist reported from thirty countries over the course of her own pioneering career, becoming known as the First Lady of the Black Press.