I was at the mayor’s office when Dr. King came in. What surprised me the most was – first, the room was filled with ministers, elected officials, his aides, and department heads, and people were talking – but when Dr. King came in, the silence he brought into that room and the command. And he was not a tall man. I was shocked, but I remember the quietness. As soon as he entered the room, it became quiet. And then he sat right across from my dad. They discussed the problems in the city that he came to address. And he said, “Dr. King, we’re willing to work with you, we will work this out.” And they came up with a plan, my dad and him. They announced it.

John Daley, son of Richard J. Daley, interview excerpt, May 9, 2007

It was a tough period in the ‘60s with the open housing marches in the middle 1960s. You had Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. marching on the southwest side, and the mayor was largely responsible for helping to develop the agreement that provided for open housing.

James O’Connor, Executive at Commonwealth Edison, interview excerpt, July 22, 2014

And so I think his inspiration initially on public housing might have been right, to get people into new, in those days, new dwellings, even high-rise public housing. But also it was to make sure that the black and white problem was going to be contained within certain areas. As that public housing disintegrated, you could tell this was not the answer.

Richard J. Durbin, United States Senator, interview excerpt, September 8, 2014

I think that he was against high-rise housing all of the time. He didn’t think that the high-rise housing was a good idea.

Newton Minow, Chair of Federal Communications Commission 1961-1963, interview excerpt, October 2, 2003

The ones that bothered him were the high-rise public housing. He said, “Father, we had this problem and we went to the experts to ask what to do. And they told us to build these high-rise things. It was the biggest mistake I ever made. We would just pile a slum on a slum. And they were just terrible.” But that bothered him tremendously. But he said, “We didn’t know any better.” And most of them are gone now.

Father Gilbert Graham, Daley Family Friend, interview excerpt, November 17, 2003

He ran the city. And many times, he ran the state. There are some people that think he elected a president, Kennedy.

Ben W. Heineman, businessman, public servant, and friend of Richard J. Daley, interview excerpt, October 22, 2003

I also remember traveling, going to Washington…. When they had the conference of mayors, we went there. The conference of mayors was always in the summer. … And those were great. We went to Hawaii one year. And that year was the year, the summer before Kennedy was assassinated, we saw him out there. He stopped and spoke to all of us. That was the last time we saw him. That was the last time my dad saw him. But going to Washington, he’d go out on urban issues for the city. He was fighting for city causes along with other big city mayors…. But anyway, the respect that they had for him, not just from the Illinois delegation, but all around.

John Daley, son of Richard J. Daley, interview excerpt, May 9, 2007

The presidents

Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy

Harry Truman came in one Saturday. And he came in by himself. And he was staying over at the Sherman, I guess. Vince Leddy was the policeman’s name at the desk, and he came back and he said to me, “You won’t believe who’s here.” And I said, “Who?” He said, “Truman.” I said, “Well, bring him in.” Vince Leddy was sitting at the desk reading something, and Truman came in, had a cane, hit him on the head and said, “Young man, is your mayor in?” So of course the mayor was. “Bring him in, you know, right away.”

Kay Quinlan, Richard J. Daley’s Personal Secretary, interview excerpt, August 7, 2014

[President Johnson] liked the mayor. He called the mayor for advice. The mayor would never ask for anything personal. He’d ask for things for the city. And I don’t think that if it was within his control and within his power to do it, I don’t think he’d ever say no to him. But the mayor was a wise and prudent person. He never wore out his welcome.

Ray Simon, Corporation Counsel City of Chicago 1965-1969, interview excerpt, June 30, 2010

He knew Johnson. He was closer in age to Johnson. And he had tremendous respect for Johnson in the sense of how he was able to pass legislation. And he had a concern with Kennedy that many times, people in Kennedy’s cabinet tried to take Congress on, rather than working with them. And then when Johnson became president, he said, “I will work with you. The delegation will work with you.” But he respected Johnson. He was able to accomplish things on his own, and passed many things Kennedy was unable to pass. It was because they had sort of an attitude against Congress, which we mentioned earlier about the university, towards my dad – I think some of the people around Kennedy, not himself, thought that they did not need the Congressional leadership. And they found out very quickly that their bills went down in defeat.

John Daley, son of Richard J. Daley, interview excerpt, May 9, 2007

Nixon, Ford, and Carter

We were walking one day from church and we were going up to meet President Nixon at O’Hare Field and he looked at me and he says, “What time do we have to be up there?” And I said, “Air Force One should be at O’Hare, at the hangar there at ten o’clock Mr. Mayor.” He said, “Fine.” Then he said, “You know Vince, people might not respect the man, but you have to always respect the office.” That says a lot. That’s when he had all the Watergate issues. That was probably one of the biggest scandals in those days of politics in Washington. So the mayor says, “He’s the President of the United States and I’m going to greet him.” Other things aside, he didn’t back off. He didn’t say he’s got problems. Everybody needs a friend when they have problems.

Vince Gavin, Security Chief for Richard J. Daley, interview excerpt, July 19, 2014

When he became the ward committeeman,…he’d distribute baskets with turkey and vegetables in them. Whoever needed help, he would get together with his help and arrange some baskets to send them for Christmas or whatever.

Jack Parker, friend of Richard J. Daley, interview excerpt, August 13, 2009

He was the chairman of the party. He had an important role in slating candidates. We would go to those different meetings and watch the candidates present themselves when he was the chairman. I remember him trying to balance the ticket numerous times, statewide ballots, geographically and racially, to make sure that all of the ethnic groups were represented.

John Daley, Son of Richard J. Daley, interview excerpt, May 9, 2007

Well, he was an organization genius. In order to be in politics in Chicago as he was growing up, you had to be part of the organization. That was the word he preferred, rather than machine.

Patricia Daley-Martino, daughter of Richard J. Daley, interview excerpt, June 12, 2002

Mayor Daley’s model of affirmative action—they didn’t call it that—but you had to have somebody Jewish, somebody Polish, somebody Irish, somebody black, somebody Hispanic. I mean, you had to have everybody on the ticket. And because everybody was on the ticket and Mayor Daley always won, people thought there was something bad about that. But it was really representative democracy.

Andrew Young, Mayor of Atlanta, interview excerpt, October 20, 2014

That’s also where I met Jane Byrne, when I went to work for the mayor. I can’t remember what year it was, but he started to realize that women could play a very important role in an election. He said, number one, they vote. And he said I think we should have more women precinct captains. And he decided to talk to some of the committeemen and suggested they should all appoint a committeewoman. Now, a committeeman is an elected position, so some of them weren’t too happy. The mayor told them they could choose anyone they wanted. Find somebody in your office that’s competent and delegate. It didn’t go over too big with some of them. A couple of them he had to twist arms. But anyway, he started off by appointing Jane Byrne.

Roseanne Bonoma, Richard J. Daley’s Secretary, interview excerpt, October 3, 2014

He was a union man. But he wasn’t a coward with the unions. I sat in meetings where he was talking with union leaders. He’d say, “No. This is not good for business.” I can remember when we’d have meetings sometimes. People would want to come in and either establish a company or build something. He would call some of the business community in. And he’d say, “Look, you tell me whether this is good for Chicago or not. I’m going to leave the room. My criteria is that if it makes jobs, I’m for it. If it doesn’t make jobs, I’m against it.” And he’d leave. We’d sit and talk. Then he’d come back.

A. Robert Abboud, First National Bank of Chicago, President, interview excerpt, December 3, 2009

My dad had a great relationship with the business community in Chicago, and most of the people were Republicans. But he knew that for the city to be sound, you needed a good sound business community and a strong relationship with them. And they respected him and were very supportive of him on issues. They disagreed at other times, but he knew that he needed that base for different causes, whether it was the university or whatever. The business community helped him tremendously. It wasn’t just politicians.

John Daley, son of Richard J. Daley, interview excerpt, May 9, 2007

The business community, I think, always felt that if they had a problem, they could go to the mayor. The mayor would give them a fair hearing. And if he could help them, he would.

Newton Minow, Chair of Federal Communications Commission, interview excerpt, October 2, 2003

Did the mayor raise property taxes? Yes he did. What he also did was that he had this great relationship with the business community and the unions that built this downtown. They kept putting more and more millions of dollars on the tax rolls.

Ed Bedore, City Budget Director, interview excerpt, May 18, 2009

Everybody wanted him at their political functions. Just to have the mayor there was a success story.

Ed Kelly, Chicago Park District Superintendent 1973-1986, interview excerpt, December 11, 2003

Most of the presidential candidates that were running at that time all stopped by to visit him. They’d be sitting there and you could see they were nervous. And these were very important people—senators, congressmen, and people who had been in Washington for a long time, and were very influential. I told my husband it reminded me of that scene in The Godfather where they were all waiting to go in and ask a favor of the godfather on the day of his daughter’s wedding.

Roseanne Bonoma, Richard J. Daley’s Secretary, interview excerpt, October 3, 2014

We were walked into the White House the day after the inauguration [of President John F. Kennedy]….The first thing he [Kennedy] said was, “I would not be here if it wasn’t for your dad. I would not be the president.”

John Daley, son of Richard J. Daley, interview excerpt, May 9, 2007

Where I think he tended to make mistakes, it was that I think he had a fairly narrow group of advisors who were sometimes afraid of him and sometimes would be ‘yes’ men. I mean, somebody should have gone to the mayor and said, “These Democratic rules are a big problem. You’d better get on this thing.” Nobody did. Somebody should have gone to him before the convention and said, “You’re going to have a big problem here.” I don’t know that he welcomed some strong contrary advisors. But they certainly weren’t there. There was nobody who would say, “Mayor, you’re making a huge mistake here. Just wait a minute.” I don’t think he had that. So I think that was an error.

Newton Minow, Chair of Federal Communications Commission 1961-1963, interview excerpt, October 2, 2003

My dad was thrown out of the convention. But that did not stop him from helping the McGovern candidacy. And I think if you look at it, Cook County was one of the few counties that had any activity for him after the convention for McGovern, and one of the few counties that carried him in the 1972 election. As I look back that changed the party and brought a number of new people and great diversity to the party.

John Daley, son of Richard J. Daley, interview excerpt, May 9, 2007