Outside Chicago's massive city hall, 4,000 black demonstrators chanted in the chilly night for Alderman Timothy Evans to succeed the late Mayor Harold Washington, whom he had served as city council floor leader. Evans' backers also packed the galleries of the council chamber to oppose Alderman Eugene Sawyer, a black with ties to the white machine that Washington had fought. "Uncle Tom Sawyer!" some spectators shouted, waving dollar bills to dramatize their charge that Sawyer had sold out to Washington's enemies.
That was hardly an auspicious start for the man the 50-member council finally, at 4 a.m., elected Chicago's acting mayor....