Harold Washington - Death

Death

On November 25, 1987, at 11:00 a.m., Chicago Fire Department paramedics were called to City Hall. Washington's press secretary, Alton Miller, had been discussing school board issues with the mayor when Washington suddenly slumped over on his desk, falling unconscious. After failing to revive Washington in his office, paramedics rushed him to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Further resuscitation attempts failed, and Washington was pronounced dead at 1:36 p.m. At Daley Plaza, Richard Keen, project director for the Westside Habitat for Humanity, announced Washington's official time of death to a separate gathering of Chicagoans. Initial reactions to the pronouncement of his death were of shock and sadness, as many blacks believed that Washington was the only top Chicago official who would address their concerns.

Thousands of Chicagoans attended his wake in the lobby of City Hall between November 27 and November 29, 1987. On November 30, Rev. B. Herbert Martin officiated Washington's "upbeat, hard-clapping funeral service" in Christ Universal Temple at 119th Street and Ashland Avenue in Chicago. After the service, Washington was buried in Oak Woods Cemetery on the South Side of Chicago.

Immediately after Washington's death, rumors about how Washington died began to surface. On January 6, 1988, Dr. Antonio Senat, Washington's personal physician, denied "unfounded speculations" that Washington had cocaine in his system at the time of his death, or that foul play was involved. Cook County Medical Examiner Robert J. Stein performed an autopsy on Washington and concluded that Washington had died of a heart attack. Washington had weighed 284 pounds (129 kg), and suffered from hypertension, high cholesterol levels, and an enlarged heart. On June 20, 1988, Alton Miller again indicated that drug reports on Washington had come back negative, and that Washington had not been poisoned prior to his death. Dr. Stein stated that the only drug in Washington's system had been lidocaine, which is used to stabilize the heart after a heart attack takes place. The drug was given to Washington either by paramedics, or by doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

School of the Art Institute of Chicago student David Nelson painted Mirth & Girth, a caricature that depicted Washington wearing women's lingerie and holding a pencil, which was briefy displayed in a hallway at the school on May 11, 1988. The painting kicked off a First Amendment and civil rights controversy between Art Institute students and black aldermen. Nelson and the ACLU eventually split a US$95,000 (1994, US$138,000 in 2008) settlement from the city.

Coincidentally, Bernie Epton, Washington's opponent in the racially charged 1983 general election, would follow him in death 18 days later, on December 13, 1987.