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Traditionally the Second was a solidly black ward. Running south from the Loop along the lake to about 35th Street, it was represented by significant figures in local political history, including Oscar DePriest, the city’s first black alderman. But after two decades of gentrification, more and more whites have moved south of the Loop, changing the ward’s demographics.
Last year Haithcock tried to woo these new constituents with a proposal to rename a stretch of Monroe Street “Fred Hampton Way” in tribute to the former Black Panther leader slain in his sleep by police in 1969. In the face of fierce opposition from the Fraternal Order of Police, however, Haithcock abandoned that proposal, acknowledging she didn’t have enough support to overcome opposition from white aldermen. In the end she wound up alienating some residents of both races, looking needlessly provocative to one group and cowardly to the other.
