Chicago’s second black mayor
Eugene Sawyer, 73, Chicago’s second African American mayor, who served briefly during a deeply divisive period in city politics in the late 1980s, died Saturday in the city’s Adventist Hinsdale Hospital after several recent strokes, his family said.
A native of Greensboro, Ala., Sawyer served as mayor for 16 months after the sudden death of the city’s first black mayor, Harold Washington.
Elected an alderman for Chicago’s 6th Ward in 1971, Sawyer was chosen by the City Council to replace Washington in 1987.
Many blacks opposed him, accusing him of being a figurehead for white power brokers who had bitterly opposed Washington during his four years in office.
Mayor Richard M. Daley defeated Sawyer in the Democratic primary in 1989 and went on to win the mayoral election. After his defeat, Sawyer left public life and became involved in several business ventures.
In October 2006, he filed for personal bankruptcy, citing a $1.1-million judgment from a failed business deal.
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