The ties that bind: The congressional career of William L. Dawson and the limits of black electoral power, 1942--1970 (Illinois)

Through an examination of the political career of William L. Dawson, an African-American congressman from the south-side of Chicago, this study seeks to broaden our understanding of the development of modern American politics in which African-Americans are strongly allied with the Democratic Party and to outline the limitations of black electoral leadership in the post-war period. It argues that while political leadership provided considerable opportunities for racial advancement, the unique task of black elected officials at mid-century, reconciling the racial demands of an insurgent minority with the political, sometimes racist, demands of the party system, placed significant limitations on black politicians' leadership abilities. Indeed this tension between his dual public personas, race man and politician, defined every aspect of William Dawson's political career.; Dawson looms large in the scholarship on Chicago politics, but historians and political scientists have not connected Dawson's development as a machine politician to his extensive civil rights efforts as a national representative. During his twenty-eight years on Capital Hill, Dawson gave unswerving loyalty to the Democratic Party and gained considerable authority within Democratic leadership circles as a liaison to the black community. Yet this authority did not come without significant constraints. While Dawson fought to improve the situation of African-Americans using the powers granted him as a congressional and party leader, his efforts had to be mediated through the concerns of a Democratic Party dominated by entrenched Southern interests and the demands of a Chicago Democratic machine totally opposed to addressing severe racial issues at home.