Editing Richard J. Daley (section)

===Early mayoralty===
Daley was first elected [[Mayor of Chicago|mayor]], Chicago's 48th,<ref name="48th">{{cite web |title=Chicago Mayors |url=https://www.chipublib.org/chicago-mayors/ |website=Chicago Public Library |access-date=March 24, 2019}}</ref> [[1955 Chicago mayoral election|in 1955]]. He was reelected to that office five times and had been mayor for 21 years at the time of his death.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wbez.org/blogs/john-r-schmidt/2013-03/daley-first-106342|title=Daley wins first election|website=Wbez.org|access-date=April 17, 2018|archive-date=February 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160224070230/http://www.wbez.org/blogs/john-r-schmidt/2013-03/daley-first-106342|url-status=dead}}</ref> During his administration, Daley dominated the political arena of the city and, to a lesser extent, that of the entire state. Officially, Chicago has a "weak-mayor" system, in which most of the power is vested in the city council. However, Daley's post as de facto leader of the Chicago Democratic Party allowed him to rule the city with an iron hand and gave him great influence over the city's ward organizations, which in turn allowed him a considerable voice in Democratic [[Partisan primary|primary contests]]—in most cases, the real contest in the Democratic stronghold of Chicago.

In 1959 and 1960, Daley served as president of the [[United States Conference of Mayors]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.usmayors.org/the-conference/leadership/ |title=Leadership |date=November 23, 2016 |access-date=July 24, 2020 |publisher=The United States Conference of Mayors}}</ref>

Daley contributed to [[John F. Kennedy]]'s narrow, 8,000 vote victory in Illinois in [[U.S. presidential election, 1960|1960]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history_lesson/2000/10/was_nixon_robbed.html|title=Was Nixon Robbed?|first=David|last=Greenberg|date=October 16, 2000|access-date=April 17, 2018|website=Slate.com}}</ref>

[[File:Richard J. Daley and John F. Kennedy - 1962 - JFKWHP-KN-C22712.jpg|thumb|Daley with President Kennedy in 1962]]

Major construction during Daley's terms in office resulted in [[O'Hare International Airport]], the [[Sears Tower]], [[McCormick Place]], the [[University of Illinois at Chicago]], numerous expressways and subway construction projects, and other major Chicago landmarks.<ref>{{cite news|last=Cillizza|first=Chris|title=The Fix - Hall of Fame - The Case for Richard J. Daley|url=http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/hall-of-fame/hall-of-fame-the-case-for-rich.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130201063930/http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/hall-of-fame/hall-of-fame-the-case-for-rich.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 1, 2013|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=September 23, 2009}}</ref> O'Hare was a particular point of pride for Daley, with he and his staff regularly devising occasions to celebrate it. It occasioned one of Daley's numerous clashes with [[community organizing|community organizer]] [[Saul Alinsky]]. His black-neighborhood Woodlawn Organization threatened a mass "piss in" at the airport (a crowding of its toilets) to press demands for open employment.<ref>Playboy (1972), [https://www.newenglishreview.org/Daniel_Mallock/Playboy_Interview_with_Saul_Alinsky/ "Playboy Interview with Saul Alinsky. A Candid Conversation with the Feisty Radical Organizer,"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200731072604/https://www.newenglishreview.org/Daniel_Mallock/Playboy_Interview_with_Saul_Alinsky/ |date=July 31, 2020 }} ''Playboy''. March. pp. 59-78, 150, 169-179. p.169</ref>

Daley's construction of a modern Chicago rested on the commitment to [[Racial segregation in the United States|racial segregation]]. Housing, highways, and schools were built to serve as barriers between white and black neighborhoods. To revitalize downtown Chicago Daley worked together with business leaders to push out poor black residents and replace them with middle class whites. To prevent black people from moving into white neighborhoods, Daley oversaw the building of [[public housing]] in the form of high-rise towers like the [[Robert Taylor Homes]] that he placed within Chicago's [[American ghettos|black ghettos]]. Many were located along a single street in the ghetto of [[South Side, Chicago|Chicago's South Side]], which became known as the "State Street Corridor" and had the densest concentration of public housing in the nation. Daley was also responsible for routing the [[Dan Ryan Expressway]] along the neighborhood's traditional racial divide, so that it separated the State Street Corridor from the white neighborhoods of the South Side.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=Adam |authorlink=Adam Cohen (journalist) |last2=Taylor |first2=Elizabeth |title=American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley. His Battle for Chicago and the Nation |location=New York |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |date=2000 |pages=10–11 }}</ref> Until the late 1960s, in municipal elections Daley nevertheless enjoyed 70 percent support within the black community. Like other ethnic groups in Chicago, black voters offered party loyalty and votes for political patronage.<ref>{{cite book |last1=White |first1=Brian |title=The Chicago Freedom Movement. Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Rights Activism in the North |chapter=The Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities |editor-last=Finley |editor-first=Mary Lou |editor2-last=Lafayette |editor2-first=Bernard Jr. |editor3-last=Ralph |editor3-first=James R. |location=Lexington, Kentucky |publisher=The University Press of Kentucky |year=2016 |pages=133–134 }}</ref>

From late 1965 to early 1967 Mayor Daley was confronted by the [[Chicago Freedom Movement]] to improve conditions in the black ghettos. On the one hand, the Chicago civil rights movement formed to fight for better schools. On the other hand, it advocated [[open housing]] in Chicago. The campaign, that became known as the Chicago Freedom Movement, was led by [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], who tried to employ the tactics of peaceful marches like he had in the [[Southern United States|South]]. Daley, with the help of black political leaders who did not want to break with Daley's political machine and the local press, avoided violent confrontations. In mid-August 1966 the "Summit Agreement" was achieved through a series of meetings. Among other things it brought about the creation of the ''Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=White |first1=Brian |title=The Chicago Freedom Movement. Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Rights Activism in the North |chapter=The Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities |editor-last=Finley |editor-first=Mary Lou |editor2-last=Lafayette |editor2-first=Bernard Jr. |editor3-last=Ralph |editor3-first=James R. |location=Lexington, Kentucky |publisher=The University Press of Kentucky |year=2016 |pages=135–136 }}</ref> While this is a contentious issue, the Chicago Freedom Movement is widely considered a failure or at best a draw.<ref>{{cite book |last1=White |first1=Brian |title=The Chicago Freedom Movement. Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Rights Activism in the North |chapter=The Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities |editor-last=Finley |editor-first=Mary Lou |editor2-last=Lafayette |editor2-first=Bernard Jr. |editor3-last=Ralph |editor3-first=James R. |location=Lexington, Kentucky |publisher=The University Press of Kentucky |year=2016 |pages=136 }}</ref>

Daley discouraged motion picture and television filming on location in Chicago, after an episode of ''[[M Squad]]'' (aired on January 30, 1959) depicted an officer of [[Chicago Police Department|CPD]] taking bribes. This policy lasted until the end of his term and would be reversed under later mayor [[Jane Byrne]], when ''[[The Blues Brothers (film)|The Blues Brothers]]'' was filmed in Chicago. However during his time in office, movies including ''[[Cooley High]]'', and others were filmed in Chicago.