Gus Savage (Finding Aid)

Gus Savage

1925 -

Favorite Time of Year: Warm weather

Interview Length: 156 minutes

Interview Date(s): April 26, 2001

Interview Location(s): Washington, D.C.

Abstract

Gus Savage briefly describes his parents and his hardscrabble youth in Chicago. He details his change in life goals from being drafted into the army during World War II. His exposure to middle class black males in Tuskegee helped propel him on the road to seeking social justice and change. Gus Savage details his various journalism positions held with the Nation of Islam, the Citizen and many of his political endeavors. Savage discusses his various attempts to break the back of the Chicago Machine through upstart political movements, demonstrations and journalistic advocacy. Gus Savage gives a blow-by-blow account of the role race plays in politics, espcially in Chicago Democratic Machine politics. He details the rise of Harold Washington as a political independent after running for mayor in 1977. Gus Savage gives a blow-by-blow account of the political machinations which led to the breaking of the Daley-led Chicago Democratic Machine. RIchard J. Daley's unexpected death and vacated office opened a window of opportunity for black independents to make their move into city hall. But the independents were thwarted by black establishment politicians, whom Savage refers to frequently as "Uncle Toms." Savage delves into his relationship with Harold Washington and how he helped usher in new black congressmen, including himself, and eventually Chicago's first black mayor. Gus Savage shares several anecdotes from his U.S. Congressional tenure. Most noteable were his intervention in the slave burial ground in New York and the building and naming of a new federal courthouse in Chicago after Ralph Metcalfe. He gives great techinical detail in the inner workings of Congressional committees and how legislation is really passed. Gus Savage, as fiesty as ever, delivers his presription for what ails black America. The answer doesn't lie in electoral politics he says, it lies in creating a self-sustaining black economic model which isn't reliant on the white power structure. He wants his legacy to be,"Liberation for the oppressed, prosperity for the poor, and peace for the world-weary."

46 Stories (See Ordered Story Set)