Harold Washington’s heir apparent was not an individual but a movement–a movement for racial fairness, economic justice, human rights, and open, accessible government.
Evans’s record of consistently being tapped by Washington for key leadership roles is now one of his political assets. Ironically, it is also one of his liabilities. For years the public perceived Tim Evans as a spokesman for Harold Washington. Now that Washington is gone, many voters are unsure where Washington ended and Evans began.
In December 1981, columnist Vernon Jarrett, no fan of Evans when he first ran, praised him for “tak[ing] the leadership in trying to block” Jane Byrne’s ward remap in City Council. “Evans could have chosen to remain quiet,” Jarrett observed, “and be a good boy–like 10 other black aldermen–and stand in line for a few of the crumbs . . .” But instead, Jarrett contended, Evans fought the map “because it would only maintain the present level, if not reduce, the number of blacks in the City Council.”
Once Washington won, Evans became part of the bloc that supported the mayor’s progressive reform agenda and, as is mentioned above, also came to occupy important leadership posts. But largely because of his mixed record before 1983, legitimate questions have been asked. Was his evolution genuine? Was the progressive Tim Evans merely a mayoral mouthpiece, or had he crossed the river from the machine to the movement?
One of Despres’ successors, current Fifth Ward Alderman Larry Bloom, agrees that Evans “has internalized the progressive agenda. I don’t have any worries about his reverting to the machine if he is elected mayor.”
Coming from Washington’s campaign treasurer and from responsible reporters, these charges merit careful consideration. Each of them will be addressed in more detail below.
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“I viewed the machine as a vehicle for getting involved in the political decision-making process,” Evans explains. “I always thought it could be changed from within. I thought, somehow, as a young man, that someone was at the controls of that machine who had blinders on, who failed to realize that there was something going on in this country, in this city, that was being ignored by the machine. And all one had to do was get involved with it, work hard enough to reach the controls, and one could then importune those operating the machine and let them see the error of their ways. And reorient that machine so that it would work for good.
