CHICAGO GANGSTER Al Capone and hoops maestro, Michael Jordan, made the city a household name. Now, United States President-elect Barack Obama is the Windy City's most famous son.
Obama, a Democrat, was elected the US's first black president on November 4, convincingly defeating Republican Senator John McCain in the country's national election. Denise E. Campbell, associate publisher of the book Who's Who in Black Chicago, says the city took weeks to recover from the celebrations that took place in Grant Park that night.
"It's like a special sprinkle came across this city," Campbell told The Gleaner recently from her Chicago office. "It's awesome that he's from Chicago. It's very, very special."
Obama's growth
Obama was born in Hawaii to a Kenyan father and white American mother. He also spent some of his formative years in Indonesia, where his mother lived with her second husband.
After high school, he lived in California and New York City before settling in Chicago in the late 1980s. He first worked as a community activist, then served in the Illinois State Senate.
Two years ago, Obama was elected junior senator from Illinois.
Campbell is a Chicago native who has worked with BET and ABC Disney. She sees massive benefits for her hometown in the wake of Obama's historic victory.
"I think the city will take on a lighter spirit. We need to step up and represent what he represents which is, 'if you have ability, let's get out there and create'. It's all about that," she said.
As Obama's star grew throughout the Democratic primaries and presidential campaign, his ties to controversial figures like firebrand preacher Jeremiah Wright and former radical William Ayers came to light.
International take-off
This highlighted underlying racial tensions in Chicago but, even before Obama's inauguration today, Campbell said Mayor Richard Daley was already preparing his city for an international take-off.
"He is trying to position us as a global city to attract the Olympics for 2016. But my theme for Who's Who in Black Chicago is, 'Chicago is not only global, it's also presidential'," Campbell said.
Blacks are the second-largest racial group behind whites in Chicago, which is home to nearly three million people. Most blacks are descendants of African Americans who immigrated from southern states to major northern cities at the turn of the 20th century.
Chicago was a flashpoint during the civil rights struggle of the 1960s.
Racial hostilities reached their peak in 1969 with the murder by police of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton, which further soured relations between African Americans and City Hall.
Good times for blacks
Obama moved to Chicago when the city was evolving. Civil rights icon Jesse Jackson Sr started his Rainbow Coalition there and has called it home for many years, while Jordan and a Mississippi-born talk-show host named Oprah Winfrey helped shape its profile as a city on the move.
Campbell, whose grandparents came to Chicago from Georgia, believes these are good times for blacks in what is arguably the United States' most famous city.
"There's been a lot of growth with our current mayor. He's got a lot of African Americans in his administration and they play an effective role in demanding that African Americans be given a platform and a voice," she said. "African Americans are definitely more at the forefront of Chicago than they were 35 years ago."
'(The mayor) is trying to position us as a global city to attract the Olympics for 2016. But my theme for 'Who's Who in Black Chicago' is, 'Chicago is not only global, it's also presidential'.'
- Denise E. Campbell