Unraveling the Enigma

Abstract

The study uses a historical analysis to examine the thesis that since the Chicago Democratic machine's inception during the Great Depression, black voters have been torn between supporting the machine out of socioeconomic necessity and opposing it because of cultural values rooted in the church, producing a paradoxical political tradition. Four configurations of the paradox are identified, resulting in four distinctive stages of black political behavior. The paradox is resolved during the fourth stage, at which point black voters overcome the socioeconomic constraint and give Harold Washington strong, uniform support against the machine. Washington's own paradoxical political orientation is tracked through the four configurations of the paradox.