William Levi Dawson

Background

William Levi Dawson was born on April 26, 1886 in Albany, Georgia, United States. He was the son of Levi Dawson, a barber whose parents were slaves, and Rebecca Kendrick.

Education

Dawson attended the Albany Normal School and in 1905 went to Fisk University, where he was a star athlete.  He received his Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude in 1909. He also attended Chicago-Kent School of Law.

In 1919 he enrolled at Northwestern University to complete his legal studies.  The following year he graduated and was admitted to the Illinois bar.

Career

In 1912 Dawson left Georgia for Chicago, where he worked as a bellhop while attending Chicago-Kent School of Law.  

When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Dawson enlisted in the army as a first lieutenant.  He was gassed and wounded in France while fighting with the 366th Infantry in the Vosges Mountains and in the Meuse-Argonne offensive.  

Dawson entered politics as a precinct worker in the machine of Republican mayor William Thompson and served on the Republican state central committee from 1928 to 1930.  He was elected alderman of the Second Ward in 1933.  After serving on the city council for six years as a Republican, he switched parties and became a Democratic national committeeman in 1939.  

When Arthur W. Mitchell, the first black Democrat to be elected to Congress, decided not to seek a fifth term in 1942, Dawson won the Democratic primary and the general election in the state's First Congressional District.  In Congress, Dawson represented the overwhelmingly black South Side slum wards of Chicago from January 3, 1943, until his death.  

The only black in Congress during his first term, Dawson actively opposed the poll tax, fought for the integration of the armed forces, and introduced legislation for the establishment of a fair employment practices committee.  In 1944 he became the first black to be elected vice-chairman of the Democratic National Committee.  The soft-spoken Dawson soon gained a reputation as a diligent party loyalist.  He worked harmoniously with the southern Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives, and in 1949 he was elected chairman of the House Committee on Government Operations, becoming the first black to head a standing committee in Congress.  

Unlike the flamboyant black fighter for civil rights, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. , who was elected a congressman from New York City in 1944, Dawson eschewed speaking out on the major postwar racial issues and chose to operate on the personal and committee levels in Congress, claiming that his mission was to win friends for his race and to create an understanding of black grievances.  While moderate blacks endorsed him as an effective politician who opened job opportunities and who gained recognition for blacks within the Democratic party, more militant blacks denounced him as an "Uncle Tom" who neither championed civil rights nor improved the lot of his constituents.  

Dawson increasingly retreated into silence as the civil rights movement gathered momentum. Nevertheless, he increased his tight hold on his district by careful organization, patronage, vote-buying, and accessibility to his supporters; he maintained his black political machine as a dominant element in Chicago Democratic affairs. Popularly called "The Man, " the only politician on the South Side from whom to seek favors and jobs, Dawson in 1955 helped engineer the dumping of an incumbent reform mayor in Chicago in favor of his friend and ally on the Cook County Democratic Central Committee, Richard Daley.

In 1960 his aid in delivering Chicago's black votes in the presidential contest led John F. Kennedy to offer him the post of postmaster general.  Dawson turned down the chance to be the first black cabinet member because he believed that he could be more effective in Congress.  Throughout his final decade, however, Dawson remained aloof from the racial crusades and turmoil of the 1960s, offering neither eloquence nor legislation to the cause of civil rights.  To the end, Dawson continued to exemplify his faith in political power, rather than in protest, as the path to progress for his people.  Because of ill health he chose not to seek a fifteenth term in 1970; he died in Chicago shortly after the election of his handpicked successor, Ralph Metcalfe.  

Achievements

• Dawson went down in history as the first African American to chair a committee in the United States Congress. He was also well known as the leader of the African-American "submachine" within the Cook County Democratic Organization. In the predominantly African-American wards, Dawson was able to act as his own political boss, handing out patronage and punishing rivals just as leaders of the larger machine did, such as Richard J. Daley.

Politics

Dawson originally was a Republican, but in 1939 he joined the Democratic Party and was affiliated with it until his death.

During his 27 years in the House, he strongly opposed the poll tax, which in effect disenfranchised most black voters, and helped defeat an amendment that would have allowed members of the military to opt out of racially integrated units.

Dawson was also instrumental in helping John F. Kennedy get elected in 1960.

Views

Quotations: "I am a politician first, and a Negro second. "

Personality

Dawson was a conservative man who did not seek publicity, preferring instead to use political channels to achieve his aims.

Interests

• Politicians

  John F. Kennedy

Connections

Dawson married Nellie M. Brown in December 1922; they had two children.

Father:

Levi Dawson

Mother:

Rebecca (Kendrick) Dawson

Spouse:

Nellie M. (Brown) Dawson

References

• Black Political Power in America
• Negro Politicians: The RIse of Negro Politics in Chicago
• Negro Politics: The Search for Leadership by James Q. Wilson (1960-06-01)