- [Narrator] Coming up.

- I hope I'll please you and be a very good mayor.

- [Narrator] She was a daughter of Chicago's democratic political machine.

- Jane was tough in essentially an all-male domain.

You had to be tough.

- [Narrator] She bucked the system and won.

- So help me, God.

- [Pastor] Congratulations, Mayor Byrne.

(audience applauding) - [Carol] It was horror.

That this woman was going to assume the desk of Mayor Daley?

Not possible.

- The first woman to lead a major American city.

That's a remarkable accomplishment.

- [Narrator] She promised to fight for one Chicago, to fight anyone who stood in her way.

- I think your questions are both insulting and stupid.

Excuse me.

- She did have something to prove.

- [Narrator] Until those who brought her to power found a new hero.

(all shouting) - Black folks felt that they had elected this woman and she was totally turning her back on them.

- We want Washington!

- [Narrator] And as quickly as she took power, (playing upbeat piano) she was gone.

- That's it.

(audience clapping) - [Narrator] Jane Byrne, next on "Chicago Stories."

- I don't waa insult you, Jane, but the women who make it in politics are more masculine than feminine.

- [Oprah] Are you saying that Jane Byrne is more masculine than feminine?

A wife, a mother?

- I think Jane Byrne is a very aggressive woman.

- [Oprah] You didn't answer the question.

- Well, I wouldn't want to be married to Jane.

Woo!

- [Oprah] Why?

Why?

- Because she's pushy!

Women who succeed in politics are pushy, they're aggressive.

- So are men.

So are men.

- Well, it's a man's game!

- No, politics was defined by the Greeks as the highest calling.

And politics, and good politicians, serve humanity.

And it's for both sexes and who can do the best job for humanity.

(audience applauding) - She was mayor, what, 40 years ago?

Think about that.

- They say I'm abrasive.

I'm tough.

I fight with people.

Well, they're right.

- Think what that meant at that day and age to have a woman doing any of these things and accomplishing all these things.

- So many people didn't believe it could be done.

- [Carol] She was not afraid of anybody or anything.

And she made sure that they knew she wasn't.

- I believed in the Kennedy philosophy, which said in government, you must compromise.

You don't compromise your integrity.

You don't compromise your morality and you don't compromise anything that would affect the city of Chicago, ever.

- We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier; the frontier of the 1960s.

- [Narrator] In 1960, a charming young senator from Massachusetts lit up the country with his presidential campaign.

(crowd cheering) - [Carol] You could believe in something.

This whole dynamism of John Kennedy and how he inspired the young people of the country.

It was amazing.

I was working for the campaign and I had to go back to college.

I said to mother, "I wanna keep the job open."

And she said, "Tell them Janie's gonna take your place."

- [Narrator] Janie was Carol's older sister Jane.

Her life had just been turned upside down.

Jane's husband, Bill, a pilot in the Marines had been killed.

- [Kathy] It's not that it turned her life upside down.

It's that it pulled the floor out.

She would've just, you know, been a lawyer's wife, probably on the North Shore.

She was devastated.

- [Narrator] It would take tough love to lift Jane Byrne from her grief and restore her sense of purpose.

- Mother turned to her and said, "Go down there, blow the stink off yourself.

You need to get out of this house."

- [Narrator] Jane reluctantly took her sister's place as secretary treasurer of the Chicago office for Kennedy's campaign.

- [Carol] And it was like a fish to water.

She loved it.

And that's how that all started.

(upbeat parade music) - [Reporter] In the center of Chicago, where we have been watching America's greatest political parade.

- Kennedy was coming to visit the headquarters.

My mom wanted me to meet him.

So she put me in a little white dress and she pinned my dad's Navy wings to my dress.

He saw my wings and came straight over.

With that he said, "Why, why don't we get a picture?"

(camera flashing) I don't think I realized until fairly recently that if you look at the picture showing, you know, the scene with everyone standing in this group of admiring men, standing in the background is Richard J. Daley.

- [Narrator] Richard J. Daley was the mayor of Chicago, the powerful boss of its Democratic political machine.

- I would be at events where I would see him.

You know, I knew he was the mayor and I was this person, that's all.

And then John Kennedy invited Kathy and me to sit in the president's box for the Army-Air Force game.

- [Kathy] Daley was one box over and again, he sees this woman with the kid sitting in the presidential box.

Six months later, there was something at Queen of All Saints.

Daley comes by, so he comes over, says to my mother, "What do you do when you do?"

(laughing) And that's Daley-ese.

Right?

- [Narrator] Mayor Daley was intrigued by the young Jane Byrne.

She seemed to be in all the right places with a who's who of powerful people.

Later that week, Daley's secretary gave her a call.

- So I went there and I sat in his office and I, I felt very flattered.

You know, here I am sitting in Mayor Daley's office.

And he said, "Are you interested in government politics"?

And I said, "I might be, yes."

- [David] Daley built an extraordinary political organization that was cobbled together by patronage and spoils.

Each ward had an allotment of jobs.

Those city workers were faithful foot soldiers for the Democratic organization.

- [Jane] And then the next thing he said is, "People call it a machine, you know?

And it's no more a machine than General Motors is a machine."

"Why they have a structure in an organization.

And that's what we have."

- [David] People on the ground administered to your problems.

- Somebody told me you need garbage cans.

Is that right?

- Yeah, - [Precinct Worker] I'll get 'em for you.

- And in exchange once a year or twice a year, you'd give them your vote.

- I'll be looking for 'em.

- I'll be there.

- Okay.

- If a community didn't vote for a mayor or his people, the alderman in that community wouldn't get really good city services.

It wasn't built on fairness.

It was built on loyalty.

- [Jane] He said, "I just wondered.

And if you wanted me to, to sort of look after you or something, I, I would be very happy to."

- [Narrator] Daley would help this promising young woman in need of a job.

But first, he tested her allegiance.

- [Jane] He said, "Are you against the machine?"

Now you have to understand, I was not prepared for this conversation.

And I said, "No, I, I don't have any grudges against this organization."

And he said, "Be a volunteer."

So I went, became a volunteer.

- [Narrator] Despite their shared Irish-Catholic heritage, Daley and Byrne were hardly cut from the same cloth.

Like the two mayors before him, Daley hailed from the South Side, blue-collar neighborhood of Bridgeport.

He was a man of few words, no frills and old fashion.

- Above all, I've been blessed by all you men giving me an opportunity, and women, to serve in this great city of Chicago.

(crowd clapping) - [Narrator] Jane Byrne, however, was young, stylish, and filled with the promise of Kennedy's America.

She grew up in Sauganash on the North Side.

Her father was the vice president of Inland Steel.

- The strongest things in our family were faith, our country and each other.

That there was only one person who could stop us from being whatever we wanted to be, and that was ourselves.

- [Narrator] On Daley's suggestion, Jane Byrne traveled throughout the wards as a Democratic Party volunteer.

- He didn't have to worry that she was gonna undermine him.

He knew he could trust her.

- [Narrator] She proved herself a reliable cog in Daley's machine, and he rewarded her with a job in the city's anti-poverty program, The Committee on Urban Opportunity.

- [Carol] She really liked the idea that she was helping people.

- [Narrator] The work was exposing Jane Byrne to a different side of Chicago.

By the mid-60s, the second Great Migration had brought more than half a million African Americans from the Jim Crow South to Chicago, looking for work and equality.

This demographic shift triggered a mass exodus of white residents from the city.

Mayor Daley knew to stay in power, he needed to preserve his base.

- [Daley] While we are clearing the slums, we must prevent the spread of blight into the other neighborhoods.

- [Narrator] Up went a slew of public housing to contain the black population.

- It started off as, Hey, this is pretty nice to be in this new development that, you know, it was cheap construction.

And so it was, you know, it was due to fall apart.

- [Narrator] Between the overcrowding of neighborhood schools and the scarcity of good jobs, the black community was fed up.

Demanding more from City Hall.

- [Jacky] The lack of access to education, to jobs, that was starting to fester.

We had already had the season of riots starting with Dr. King, which raised a lot of consciousness.

- The African American community went from being the most reliable part of the Daley machine to the most disaffected.

- [Narrator] As Jane Byrne listened to the frustrations of the black community, she stopped short of blaming her mentor, Mayor Daley.

- [Carol] She believed in government.

It's not a bad thing.

Politics is the art of compromise.

It's truly an honorable position.

- [Narrator] Mayor Daley rewarded Jane Byrne again in 1968.

This time making her the first ever woman in his cabinet.

- [Carol] He needed to diversify his government.

And Janie Byrnes, as he called her, was the one who did.

- [Daley] Great women too, like Janie Byrnes, leader of women.

- [Carol] She wasn't content to be a token and she didn't plan to be a failure.

- [Narrator] She held an obscure office, Commissioner of Sales, Weights, and Measures.

But Jane Byrne took the job seriously, calling out corruption, wherever she saw it.

- And I would like them to look into it and see how much crops are still coming out of Brazil.

They tell us nothing.

- [Narrator] Her diligence wasn't appreciated.

- Before you enforce an ordinance against a business, let's say, better find out who's clout that business has.

- [Carol] In Chicago, it's almost been an unabashed kind of graft.

Somebody gets a job.

I get power.

I get to hand off the job.

I get money.

I have a law firm, oh, by the way, I get a little business.

- [Kathy] Those are the unwritten rules.

And if you go in without knowing any of that, you're gonna get a lot of backlash.

The cloak has been removed and she is seeing what is going on here.

And it's not pretty.

Daley was getting all kinds of complaints about her.

She's not playing ball.

And he backed her up a hundred-percent.

- He protected her and he loved her, and she loved him.

It was devastating when he died.

- [Narrator] On December 20th, 1976, Mayor Richard J. Daley suffered a massive heart attack and died in office.

At the age of 74.

- [Reporter] He had been the mayor for nearly 22 years, as much of a fixture and seemingly almost as enduring as the old Water Tower.

- He controlled everything.

He controlled the city.

He controlled the party.

So, you know, it was, oh my gosh, who's on first?

And there was chaos.

- [Narrator] According to the line of succession, Daley's replacement was supposed to be president Pro Tem of the City Council.

And that was Wilson Frost, a black alderman from the Far South Side.

- When news broke that Mayor Daley had died, the Mayor's aides and the police chief seized the Mayor's office and would not even allow Wilson Frost to come on the fifth floor.

- [Jacky] And that really enraged the black community.

You know, what is it?

You know, this guy, because he's black, he can't be acting mayor?

- [Narrator] After a week of closed-door negotiations, the Council named their pick for acting mayor; Daley's Chief of Finance.

11th ward alderman, Michael Bilandic.

- Michael Bilandic was the most unlikely politician ever.

He really was like the bookkeeper in a Dickens novel or something.

And quiet, sort of shy.

- In the cold days of January and February, I took a hard look at our administration.

- [David] Would have been impossible, even for someone of prodigious political skills to follow Richard J. Daley, who was such a Colossus.

Bilandic was hardly that.

- [Narrator] Despite the upheaval at City Hall, Commissioner Jane Byrne kept advocating for consumers.

Fighting corruption wherever it lived.

Even at the highest level.

- [Reporter] Last Tuesday, the bombshell hit.

- We have evidence tonight that Mayor Bilandic may have been involved personally in some deceitful, perhaps even fraudulent, shenanigans at City Hall.

- [Narrator] Byrne accused some aldermen of greasing a 12% cab fare increase.

- What I mean by greased is that it wasn't gonna make any difference what anybody said.

It was going through.

And it was coming from the top, and that was it.

- And it was the two Eddies: Ed Vrdolyak and Eddie Burke.

10th ward, 14th ward.

- Byrne called them "The Evil Cabal."

A group of City Council members who she claimed had rigged the system in their favor.

- [Carol] They were the parliamentarians in a kind of political patronage world.

And Jane Byrne focused on them - [Reporter] The controversy became known as Chicago's Taxigate.

Bilandic retaliated - I have also this morning terminated Jane Byrne as an employee of the city of Chicago, effective at once.

- [Reporter] At her City Hall office, she found her belongings packed.

She called the dismissal cheap and uncouth.

- Film crews are in her office as she's packing up.

- I had to go through a box to find a picture of my own daughter.

- [Kathy] People paid attention to her.

And I think that if she had been John Byrne, Commissioner of Weights and Measures, it wouldn't have been that big a story.

- I'd like to ask you if you have any intentions of going back to work for City Hall?

- I would hope one day to go back to work for City Hall.

- [Narrator] Some people shared that sentiment.

- There seemed to be a movement.

People are saying, you know, go for it.

I didn't even know what it meant.

And all of a sudden, the only plausible thing to go for was mayor.

- When Jane Byrne announced she was running for mayor, it wasn't heavily heralded.

You know, she was somebody with no chance.

- [Narrator] David Axelrod was a young reporter for the Chicago Tribune.

- Was paying my dues and every election, they would take me off of nights for a few weeks to cover a candidate.

And it was almost always the candidate that they thought would lose.

Jane Byrne was running for mayor.

She was considered a hopeless underdog.

And therefore I was assigned to her.

- [Don] Toward Christmas, my friends invited me to a holiday party.

To my surprise, they locked me in the kitchen with Jane Byrne.

She sort of led me in, "What do you think?

You sure know a lot."

And flattered the hell out of me, and I'm subject to flattery.

She finally said, "Uh, uh, would you help me"?

And I said, "Yeah, okay."

- [Narrator] A well-regarded political strategist, Don Rose had guided many candidates to success.

- [David] Don, who was an old lefty, had a very close relationship with the black community.

Understood the black community, was Dr. King's press secretary during his march in Chicago in 1966.

This was like Don Rose's greatest dream; to topple the Democratic machine.

- The city still does not work for any kid in public school.

It doesn't work for black people by and large.

It doesn't work for Latino people.

It doesn't work for poor people.

- [Narrator] Byrne and Rose honed a message that spoke to communities who were hungry for change.

- You know, you're just looking for a little bit of service, a little bit of improvement.

- Everywhere I go, I hear about new problems.

Nothing seems to be working the way it used to.

I think it's time to get Chicago working again for you.

- Absolutely.

I was for Jane Byrne.

She was speaking truth to power.

She had the right rhetoric, man.

She was putting it out there.

And I think that excited people.

- The drumbeat of her campaign was, "We're gonna fight these bastards.

We are going to turn this government around.

We're gonna reform Chicago."

She was a woman.

She was different.

Finally, we are going to get some change.

- [Narrator] With Don Rose at the helm, the Byrne campaign pointed to its shiniest asset, the candidate herself.

- [Don] We made it a battle of personalities.

- I really need the help.

And if you'll tell all your friends.

- Jane Byrne was an outgoing personality with an Irish affability.

Bilandic was a very smart guy.

He had some good ideas, but he was a very bland character.

- [Narrator] Byrne's new husband, Jay McMullen served as their defacto press secretary.

- [Kathy] He was a good sounding board.

He had tons and tons of media contacts, because he had been a reporter for City Hall for so long.

He knew everybody.

Jay was actually the voiceover in all of the commercials.

- [Jay] If you wonder, what kind of mayor Jane Byrne would make, hear the words of the late mayor, Richard J. Daley.

"We appointed Jane Byrne.

She was one of the most capable women I met.

Co-chairman of the Democratic Party of the city of Chicago."

- Never used the word "reformer."

Never used the word "woman."

- [Jay] As a member of Mayor Daley's cabinet, she learned how to make Chicago work.

Jane Byrne can get this city working again.

- [Carol] Don Rose tried to focus her message.

And as that focus was being achieved, the snow began to fall.

And it snowed and it snowed.

And it snowed.

- [Narrator] With cars un-drivable and buses unreliable in the snow, "L" trains were packed.

To keep things moving, Bilandic decided to run the trains express, leaving commuters, primarily in black neighborhoods, out in the cold.

- Standing on the platform and the trains are just going by like this, right?

So what does that do?

That makes you feel real good!

(laughing) - [David] People were angry.

They felt neglected.

And she became the messenger for them.

- Got my vote.

I guarantee you.

- The idea that, you know, this Joan of Arc character could overcome the machine, or Jane of Arc in this case seemed implausible.

But they wanted to make their voices heard, and they did.

- Primary Election Day turned out to be sunny and, and very clear.

- And I watched people charging into that polling place, excited to vote because they were gonna vote for Jane Byrne.

Not because they might have liked her, but because they couldn't stand Bilandic, they were mad about the snow and they wanted something different.

- I did not think she was going to win.

- [Reporter] Is she gonna do it?

- Of course.

- [Reporter] You excited?

- Yes.

The whole family's been behind her a hundred percent.

- I thought she might get more votes, but then I thought they would find the other votes.

I mean, this is Chicago.

They can find them.

- We're gonna do it.

We gotta wait.

It's 7,000 votes, but they're holding back.

You know what they can do at the last minute.

- Somewhere around three o'clock, I got a call from Walter Jacobson who said, "We've got an exit poll and you're winning."

And I said, "Come on."

- Understandably, a lot of folks probably in a near state of shock, over at Bilandic headquarters at the Bismarck Hotel.

And standing by with a live report, here's Carol Marin.

Carol?

- Chuck and Jim, I'm with 42nd ward alderman Burt Natarus.

Has the machine failed to deliver?

- As a reporter, it was exciting to see what would happen.

Was it an amazing thing to see in Chicago?

It was.

- [Bill] Looks as though we'll have most of the vote total.

- After the polls closed, I was pretty sure it was definitive.

At least three quarters of the precincts were in, and they were from all over!

We weren't just getting the black vote or the lakefront vote.

And I told her, "We got it!"

(laughing) - I went, "She won!"

(laughs) My poor father nearly had a heart attack.

(crowd cheering) - It was really surreal to me because honestly, when I started out, I didn't think I'd be covering the next mayor of Chicago.

And I didn't think I'd be covering the first woman mayor of Chicago.

- I hope I'll please you and be a very good mayor.

(crowd cheering) - [Narrator] Jane Byrne had clinched the Democratic nomination by less than 20,000 votes with more than two-thirds of the black wards going in her favor.

- [Reporter] It was all joy at Operation Push, a celebration of Jane Byrne's primary victory.

Reverend Jesse Jackson introduced the white lady who had caused so much happiness in the black community - Miss Jane Byrne!

(audience clapping) - [Narrator] In Chicago, the Democratic nominee is usually a shoe-in to win the general election.

- As your mayor, I promise an end to the days of clout and the people will have their city back.

- [Narrator] But doubts remained whether the City Council would support the anti-machine Democratic candidate.

- [Reporter] Can you close ranks now with Jane Byrne?

- In politics, we select the candidate that we feel is the best stable to serve in the office and we support 'em.

- That means you'll close ranks?

- I didn't say that.

- It was horror, that this woman was going to assume the desk of Mayor Daley?

Not possible.

- Do you think Mrs. Byrne is qualified to run the city?

- I'd rather not make any comment on that.

- [Walter] In this room, there are funny feelings.

Some of Kelly's workers have shown their dislike for Byrne.

But they come through for her nonetheless, in the traditional way of the machine.

- Politicians adjust because they are survivors.

Ed Vrdolyak and Ed Burke didn't mind being called evil as long as they had access to the fifth floor office.

- On April 3rd, 1979, Chicagoans turned out for election day in record numbers, and more than 82% of them voted for Jane Byrne making her the city's first female mayor.

- So help me, God.

- [Pastor] Congratulations, Mayor Byrne.

(audience applauding) - She lost only two out of some 3,000 precincts.

That's overwhelming.

Nobody had ever won that much, not even Mayor Daley.

- From Chicago, where there was a stunning election upset yesterday.

- She became a national story.

She was the first woman mayor of a major city, who beat the machine.

Oh my God.

The New York Times was suddenly really interested in Jane Byrne in Chicago.

("Jane" by Jefferson Starship) ♪ Jane beat the machine game ♪ ♪ Called politics by its real name ♪ - She was elected mayor of Chicago by an amazing 82% of the voters.

Please welcome from Chicago, Mayor Jane Byrne.

(audience clapping) When people think of Chicago politics, of course it's Mayor Daley.

And now, um, and I don't know how to say this, but, a woman running a big city like Chicago.

- Well, I think that you're going to see more and more women getting involved in politics at every level than you're used to.

- Women were still very much like unicorns.

And the fact that she was the leader of what was then the second largest city in the country is a remarkable accomplishment.

- [Carol] During the campaign, Don Rose strictly kind of controlled her image and her look: the wig, the coat.

When she became mayor, she didn't dress like that.

She didn't wear a wig anymore.

- They were kissing me up there.

I've got lipstick all over my face.

- [Carol] There was a part of Jane Byrne that very much liked being a woman who had great legs, good shoes, and some pretty fine taste in clothing.

- A lovely lady such as yourself, would be happier at home, making eggs and bacon for Jay in the morning, around the house doing the things that a good housewife does.

- Well, let me tell you this, Warren.

That I think, um, there isn't a woman ever born that can't get up in the morning, put the heat on the stove, fry some bacon, do some eggs, and then go to work.

- [Narrator] Byrne made it clear that she would not be content with the status quo.

- And you can put signs up all over the place.

"Keep it strong, this is the city that works."

Well, in fact, it hasn't been.

It's been clanking along!

- [Reporter] The mayor has been repeating that message for many months.

She wants to bring in the best people to run the city.

- You had a lot of housecleaning to do, didn't you?

- Yes, I did.

Some of the media, as well as the people, got so used to one mayor for 25 years that they never saw a cabinet change.

- [Narrator] Any holdovers from the previous administration who didn't cooperate with Mayor Byrne were fired.

- [Len] You want him out, though?

- Yes, I do.

I want him out.

- [Len] You want him out-- - I want him out, and I'll tell you why I want him out, Len!

I want him out because he's not with me!

And I'm not going to be trying to run an administration with people working against me.

- [Narrator] The media called it, "Byrne's Revolving Door Administration."

And named her Calamity Jane.

- It created an enormous amount of enemies.

And so, I would go in day after day and I said, "Love your enemies, hold them close to your bosom, but don't fire them.

Okay?

This, this is just a disaster."

"Fire 'em!"

- She's tough as nails.

She's as tough as anybody at City Hall!

And tougher than most of 'em.

Some of the toughest committeemen I know are afraid of her!

- [Carol] As the first woman to lead a major city as a mayor, she did have something to prove.

- [Narrator] But even as city government got an infusion of fresh blood, Byrne relied on a small inner circle for advice.

- [ Reporter] Mayor Byrne confirmed that she wanted to retain husband, press secretary, Jay McMullen as part of her City Hall family.

- [Carol] And that is mind-boggling, to a lot of us.

Jay McMullen cast himself as the cool cat guy who could roll over and talk to the mayor.

- Do you get a chance when you have your pillow talk to do more than talk politics?

- What else is there to talk about, Kup?

- [Carol] She is a capable executive who is a woman.

You don't need your husband advising you.

- Look, he was a scoundrel, you know, he was a rogue.

He was very much a link between Byrne and the people who she vilified.

- Jane Byrne attacked Vrdolyak and Burke, and then walked into City Hall and realized she needed people who knew how to get things done.

What was in it for her was getting something done, not being obstructed at every turn.

- [Anchor] We begin tonight with the bright, fresh promise of her inaugural address and her subsequent troubles with a government in crisis.

- We had 80 inches of snow that requires tens of millions of dollars in expenditures and overtime.

And these were liabilities that the city had to pay.

But in the meantime, the city had an internal deficit of another hundred million dollars that Jane Byrne had inherited.

- There's some things you're just not going to know until you're sitting in the seat.

- Good morning, everybody!

- [Team] Morning!

- [Don] No one wanted to bring in the bad news.

I guess that was my job.

You know, I'm the budget director.

- As a mayor, I would much rather know the problems are there than to have them covered up.

Band-aid government has got to go.

- [Don] She had press conferences every day as she was leaving our office.

And then she of course blamed it on the patronage chief and the budget director, the evil cabal that was running the city.

And then she said, "Don't worry, we'll solve it.

We'll have a casino!"

- [Narrator] Jane Byrne knew she needed to clean up the city's finances, and to do that, she needed allies.

- [Don] The power in the council were definitely lodged with Vrdolyak as the floor leader and Ed Burke as the finance committee chairman.

- They ran the engine room.

You can be the captain of the ship, but not if the engine room isn't running.

- Now, I want to get along.

I keep saying, "I want to get along.

And I want to work with that council," and we will work together.

- It was almost overnight!

You know, she was no longer talking about the evil cabal, but she was talking about this wonderful working relationship she has with Eddie Vrdolyak and Ed Burke.

It's like, wait, wait a minute.

What happened?

- The statement you made during your campaign was that, you would do away with the Evil Cabal.

I would like to know how come they're still here?

- How was she going to reconcile the reform Jane Byrne with the machine control of the city?

- [Narrator] The first big test came in the winter of 1979 when city transit workers went on strike, demanding a raise.

- We wouldn't be in this situation today if Mayor Daley was alive, I wanna say that!

- [Narrator] Just like during the Bilandic snow fiasco, many commuters were stranded.

- I've been out of work two days already because I haven't had a way!

- [Narrator] The transit strike ended after a few days, but an even bigger crisis was waiting in the wings.

At the height of the holiday season, the city couldn't pay its public school teachers, and they, too, went on strike.

- We want every dime owed us.

- [Don] The mayor's response was largely just, she had the heat, "This isn't, I didn't do it.

I, it's not mine!"

- I don't know what Never Neverland they all lived in, because to me, $600 million in shortfall money over the course of the past couple of years is certainly no way to run a school system.

- [ Reporter] Only 3% of the city's 28,000 public school teachers were in their classrooms today.

They haven't been paid in 3 weeks because the Board of Education is broke.

- [Reporter] Mayor Jane Byrne, a Democrat, had to turn to a Republican for help, Governor James Thompson.

He did agree to an $875 million aid package, with budget cuts.

Parents almost broke up the meeting.

- [Narrator] After 10 days, teachers returned to school.

With that crisis averted, yet another ignited.

- I refuse to play Russian roulette with the safety of Chicago citizens by granting firemen the right to strike.

- [Narrator] Contract negotiations with Chicago firefighters stalled, and they walked off the job.

- So we had to bring in scab laborers and promise them jobs if they came in.

I mean, this was a labor war going on!

- She's playing Russian roulette with the people of this city!

- [Anchor] The Chicago firefighters strike is over.

It lasted 23 days and it tested the strength of Mayor Jane Byrne.

- The job of a mayor is to resolve conflict and to deliver services.

That sounds simple, but to resolve conflict, takes a particular skill, a particular way of thinking about alliances and bargaining and compromise on every issue that comes across your desk.

- [Narrator] Throughout the labor unrest, Byrne's new allies in City Council stood by her side.

- And if you want to look to blame somebody, let's all look at each other, 'cause we're all to blame.

- I found that more and more that I was not being brought in on discussions of things.

So I finally said, "Well, that's it.

I quit."

I sent a letter of resignation.

15 minutes later, it was on the newscasts that she had fired me.

- [Reporter] The city has come under the control of a woman who defies analysis.

- I think your questions are both insulting and stupid.

Excuse me.

- [Reporter] She is compulsive, she is decisive.

She is stubborn, she is a mind-changer.

In short, she is undefinable.

- You have courted the press, and the media far more than your mentor, the late mayor did.

People are beginning to say, "Jane Byrne just talks too much."

- Well, I'm sure that they say that.

- I'm going to be honest.

Women, people of color, are held to a different standard, a different set of rules.

- She said, "Oh my God.

They're talking about the budget, they're talking about strikes, and they're worried about whether I'm wearing stockings or not"?

- [Carol] She was looked over from top to bottom.

That didn't happen to Mayor Daley.

That didn't happen to Michael Bilandic.

- [Narrator] By the end of her first year in office, Mayor Byrne's relationship with the media had gone from bad to worse.

- The things that are being printed by the Chicago Tribune are slandered, they are twisted, they are by innuendo, and in my judgment, they are yellow journalism, period!

- There were times when she said things that completely flatly contradicted what she said before and I would play for her the tape of what she said, and she would just shrug!

- [David] Would you now be willing to say that you don't support him?

- Excuse me, David.

If I respected you, I'd answer you.

I don't respect you.

(upbeat country music) - [Narrator] One of Jane Byrne's campaign promises had been to breathe much-needed life into Chicago's neighborhoods.

In the previous decade, the city had lost 360,000 residents.

- Her policy statement that the city will now begin to do something for neighborhoods is a great big shot in the arm for us.

- Are you having fun?

- [Crowd] Yeah!

- She asked me if I would head up Special Events.

And I said yes because, what a dream job.

- [Narrator] In the summer of 1979, the city held street fairs and festivals in more than a dozen neighborhoods.

- Us working with the community organization, saying to them, "What is it that you have in your community that you're proud of, that really brings out that identity, and how can we help"?

(upbeat music) - [Karen] Previous events, we noticed that none of the advertising went to the south or the west side of Chicago.

That changed immediately.

Free tickets went to the south side and the west side.

If you couldn't afford it, bingo, there's tickets.

- A true friend of the arts in Chicago, the honorable Jane M. Byrne!

(upscale orchestra music) - [Narrator] Under the Byrne administration, film production in Chicago soared, bringing revenue and attention to the newly enlivened city.

- We're on a mission from God.

- [Narrator] It all started with "The Blues Brothers."

- [Eldwood] We should be very close to the Honorable Richard J. Daley Plaza!

- [Jake] That's where they got that Picasso.

- [Eldwood] Yep.

- [Anchor] Chicago is becoming Hollywood East as more and more major films are being shot here.

- [Lucy] Sixty million dollars in economic activity.

And we've only been able to do it because of the fabulous cooperation from Mayor Byrne's office - [Narrator] Byrne also had a plan to rebuild Chicago's infrastructure.

In 1980, she gained an unlikely ally.

- Rejuvenation of the American economy is the number one priority of my administration.

- [Narrator] Byrne got federal funding for a new rapid transit route from downtown to Midway Airport.

And she secured 1.6 billion dollars for expansion at O'Hare.

Jane Byrne also began improvements to the downtown area.

Like the revitalization of the old, dilapidated Navy Pier.

- [Carol] She wanted to bring people into the city.

So you had Taste of Chicago and you had Chicago Fest.

- [Narrator] Mayor Byrne's vision for a unified city included communities that had long been ignored.

She designated June 28th Gay Pride Parade Day in Chicago.

Byrne later issued an executive order banning anti-gay discrimination in city employment, housing, and services.

- [Lori] What it means to be a diverse and welcoming city, in recognizing what we call then the gay community, um, she was really a leader.

- [Narrator] But Jane Byrne's aspirations to make Chicago a world-class city met up against a cold hard reality: its finances were in shambles.

And it was only getting worse.

- [Callaway] When you go home at night, are you able to shed all this stuff?

Are you still able to smell the flowers?

- Well, I'm allergic to flowers, so I never went around and smelled the flowers.

I did, I do.

But I think that's what the game is all about.

I don't think that I thought it was going to be easy to be mayor of Chicago.

- [Narrator] One of the most visible signs of Chicago's struggles was its high-rise public housing.

In the two short decades since they had gone up, the buildings had already fallen into disrepair.

- It's not the people's fault that the elevators don't run.

Labor unions are getting rich off of public housing.

Politicians are receiving contributions from the contractors and the labor unions.

So everybody is shaking everybody else's hands, and the people who come out on the bottom end are the residents themselves.

- [Narrator] A federal audit showed that housing authority chairman Charles Swibel, had been operating the agency as "a vehicle for patronage" for nearly 20 years.

Swibel was a real estate developer, and also Jane Byrne's top campaign fundraiser.

- They always just put up these hacks, these people who are not really interested in service, but are interested in power.

- [Narrator] Perhaps the most notorious of the housing authority's so-called "vertical ghettos" was Cabrini-Green.

In just the first three months of 1981, Cabrini saw nearly 50 shootings.

- My children have to go to school and I will say, I am afraid over here.

- [Jacky] The cops, of course, they didn't really care.

"These are black kids killing black kids.

Y'know?

One less black kid."

- [Narrator] Just a stone's throw away, was the posh, Gold Coast apartment of Mayor Jane Byrne.

She had a clear view of Cabrini from her 43rd floor window.

- She was coming home one Saturday and she said to the driver, "Take me through Cabrini."

So as they were driving through, there was a paddy wagon and they were putting a girl into it.

She said, "Pull over and find out what that's all about."

So they came back to the car and they said, um, the girl had been gang raped.

She was 12.

So Janie said, "Well, I'm moving in."

- A rundown apartment building in Chicago will soon be home to that city's mayor, Jane Byrne.

- The Cabrini complex is looking better than it has in years.

The city, working hard to clean it up before the mayor moves in.

- Hey, there's paint!

All of a sudden you've discovered paint.

Rodent control!

Where's all that been all this time?

- [Narrator] In March of 1981, Jane Byrne and her husband Jay McMullen moved into a fourth floor unit at Cabrini-Green.

- [ Reporter] Some residents are cynical about the Mayor's motives.

- She's not really a resident.

She's just someone that just moved in with her security, that's all.

(laughing) - But the thing is that, in moving in, it just pointed up the inequalities of what was going on in Cabrini.

- [Carol] The second-grade teacher of the local public school had the children write letters to her.

"Dear Mayor Jane Byrne, you should not move in the project.

It's too bad.

You will get killed."

- [Reporter] The neighbors know at some point, the mayor plans to move out of here, security and all.

She was asked when that will be.

- [Jane] When I think people can look out a window and not get shot.

(singing upbeat gospel) - [Narrator] Many of Byrne's new neighbors did not welcome her presence.

When the mayor held an Easter celebration for the community, people came out to vent their frustrations.

- Jane Byrne is full of shit!

Jane Byrne is full of shit!

- [Reporter] The question now is whether the presence of a mayor can overcome the presence of poverty and the presence of random violence.

- [Narrator] During the mayor's time at Cabrini, elevators were fixed, trash pickup resumed, and violent crime subsided, even if just for a few weeks.

- What it did was to say things could be different, you know, if somebody cared and they only cared when the mayor moves in.

- I think what she did was bold.

Give her credit for bringing attention to a place that most people would rather look away from.

- [Narrator] But the move to Cabrini had strained her relationship with the black community.

- Blacks gave you quite an overwhelming vote of confidence in the last election.

And what have you done for them in return?

- For some reason when we make black appointments, they don't get the kind of publicity that a white appointment gets.

And I'm sure that you people don't know, all of the blacks that we have brought into government - [Narrator] And yet, when black leaders recommended candidates for key departments, Byrne went with her own picks.

- [Jacky] The appointments to education, appointments to Chicago Housing Authority, again, these are institutions that directly affect the black community.

- [Woman] What are you gonna do?

- About what?

- [Woman] You promised.

You made all your promise about what you gonna do for the blacks, and you never kept none of your promise you promised us.

- You can't just have words, right?

You gotta do some actions.

- Give us!

Give us, an intelligent, efficient, non-racist person!

- [Crowd] Yes!

- This is a big complicated city, and running it is a tough job.

I've made some mistakes, some big ones.

But I've learned.

- [Narrator] Only halfway through her first term, Mayor Byrne announced her bid for re-election.

- [Jacky] Jane Byrne turned her back on us.

Yeah, we have to have a black candidate.

So then the question was, who is this person?

- [Narrator] As black community leaders considered where to throw their support, a familiar name entered the race.

- After much deliberation, I have decided to be a candidate for Mayor of Chicago.

- [Narrator] It was the son of Jane Byrne's political mentor.

- [ Reporter] Daley is popular in the white, working class neighborhoods.

But Byrne is popular with a more influential group, the men of the machine.

- [Vrdolyak] The city of Chicago needs Jane Byrne.

We will go out there, and we will go out and campaign for the candidates that we endorse in every neighborhood of this city.

- People are worried about the future of Chicago because they have experienced the results of mismanagement!

- Rich Daley carried a sense of entitlement with him.

"This fifth floor is ours."

And Jane Byrne knew that.

- Byrne decided that Daley would destroy her and she was going to destroy him first.

- [Voice Over] In just the last two years, Richie Daley himself has raised a campaign fund of nearly five million dollars.

Some of it from city contractors.

C'mon, Richie.

- [Narrator] As Byrne focused on Daley, the chorus of criticism from the black community grew louder.

When Mayor Byrne appointed three whites to the housing authority board, Reverend Jesse Jackson led a boycott of her beloved Chicagofest.

- Apparently the mayor has caught a case of amnesia!

She has forgotten who put her in office.

The spirit of the use of the boycott as a weapon for liberation has been revived.

- [Reporter] There is still no word on a replacement on the main stage for Stevie Wonder.

His cancellation gave Jackson's boycott its big start.

- When she was elected, she talked a great deal about "One Chicago."

Now the woman had inadvertently or advertently polarized the city.

- [Narrator] U.S. congressman Harold Washington voiced the community's frustrations with the two choices on the ballot.

- [Harold] If his name were anything other than Daley, his campaign would be a joke!

Everything I ever got in the world, I worked for!

Nobody gave me anything!

- So one of the people that kept coming up was this congressman from the first congressional district, one Harold Washington!

So it took a lot of convincing to get him to do it.

- [Harold] How many of you are here today to register?

Let me see your hands.

- [Narrator] An army of Washington supporters registered more than 150,000 voters in just a few short months.

- And so, okay Harold.

What are you gonna do now?!

- I hereby declare my candidacy for mayor of Chicago!

(crowd cheering) - [Narrator] Harold Washington set his sights on Mayor Byrne.

- She's abrasive, injudicious, unthinking, intemperate.

- [Kathy] When Harold took off, there was no stopping that.

And she said, "I get it.

I am not going to get the black vote."

- You're gonna get defeated.

- [Jane] Huh?

That was hard for her.

- [Narrator] Jane Byrne hired a New York-based media consultant who had worked with some of the biggest names in politics.

- [Reporter] When Sawyer arrives at Chicago City Hall, his polls show that Mayor Byrne is 20 points behind any of her likely opponents, and he gets to work fast.

He brings a videotape camera into her office.

She rehearses her speeches, her press conferences, and commercials.

- Let's remember that November 2nd.

- [Narrator] Sawyer and his team muzzled Byrne's impulsive husband, Jay McMullen.

- [Reporter] McMullen has been exiled from City Hall, where his statements were often embarrassing to the mayor.

- [Narrator] And Byrne began projecting a new image: a serious, calm leader who grabbed Chicago's finances by the reins and got it working again.

- [Reporter] Sawyer tells her to wear more subdued colors because they look better on television.

He coaches the mayor on how to handle reporters.

Don't snap back, he says.

Give shorter answers.

Don't get involved in fights.

- [Narrator] But as Byrne prepared for the first debate, both major papers endorsed Richard M. Daley.

In this three-way race, Jane Byrne and her team still saw Daley as the one to beat.

- What has happened is this administration has failed to professionize the police department.

- You listen to Stumbling Richie.

(laughing) And you listened to Jane Byrne who was feisty, but not substantive.

- Because it was the Chicago Police Department who proved those cases, made those arrests, and brought them to the State's Attorney's Office!

(crowd applauding) - I submit to you very clearly, very clearly, and I want no doubt about it!

The day I walk into that office, Mr. Brzeczek will go!

(crowd applauding) - [Narrator] It was becoming clear that Byrne's biggest rival was not Richard M. Daley.

- My press secretary made an announcement that I was going strictly to the Black community to shore up my vote.

Hey, I need your help on Tuesday!

- [Narrator] Days before the primary, Mayor Byrne campaigned in the housing projects, including Cabrini-Green.

Her visit seemed to only fan the flames of discontent.

- White folks ought to support white folks, Puerto Rican folks ought to support Puerto Rican folks.

Black folks ought to support Harold Washington!

- [Jane] It was violent, what happened!

To go to Cabrini-Green, I mean, everything from human excrement was thrown out the window at me.

- With Harold Washington in the race, it became a race about race.

- And in some awful way, anyone who was inclined to be a sexist, misogynist would say "Oh, a woman just couldn't do it."

There is no way anyone could've fixed what was wrong in four years.

- I feel very confident that we'll win.

- [Reporter] For Jay, there is a sense of relief.

After being kept silent for three months, he's finally able to say what he thinks.

And it's a good thing he couldn't say it before.

- I don't think you would've had a black ex-convict, who devoted most of his adult life to avoiding income tax and cheating his clients and being disbarred twice, would've ever thought of being a candidate.

- [Reporter] It is election day in the city of Chicago.

And 81% of the voters will turn out, and that would be a record for municipal elections here in the city.

- Let's bring him up, folks!

Let's bring him up!

(crowd cheering) - [Narrator] 37% of Chicagoans cast their ballots for Harold Washington.

- The results are very clear.

I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Congressman Harold Washington.

He is the Democratic nominee.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye!

- [Narrator] Just four years after Jane Byrne challenged the machine and shattered the glass ceiling, Harold Washington made history, becoming Chicago's first black mayor.

- [Jacky] A new day for real!

You know, uh, Jane Byrne, we thought we were getting a new day, but we didn't.

But with Harold Washington, it was a new day.

You got it.

- She said, "He won, and let's move on.

And if I can help, I will."

- [Don] She showed extraordinary durability to come back from that defeat.

- [Narrator] But Jane Byrne wasn't ready to leave public life behind.

In the summer of 1985, she attempted to reclaim the office of mayor.

- And now I think the campaign I've waited for will begin.

Now.

- I thought it began 8 years ago, when she made all those phony promises!

- With all the separatism, I always loved all of you.

Thank you very much.

- [Narrator] Jane Byrne's message of love and unity only went so far with black voters.

(crowd cheering) And again, Harold Washington secured the Democratic ticket.

This time by merely 80,000 votes.

- She felt that she had more work to do.

She was committed to this city like no other.

- [Narrator] Byrne continued to run, first for Circuit Court Clerk in 1988.

And later, she again took on Richard M. Daley for mayor.

- I am announcing my candidacy for the office of mayor of the city of Chicago.

- [Narrator] Three decades after his father gave her a job in city politics.

- [Reporter] Byrne's campaign office on the North Side is not the beehive of activity it was when she was mayor.

- [Narrator] Daley won by a landslide.

And Jane Byrne soon began to fade from public view.

- [David] She kind of vanished from the scene.

And for the rest of her life, she was kind of an apparition.

- [Kathy] The city made an announcement that they were dedicating rocks to notable woman Chicagoans.

Jane Byrne did not get a rock!

I told my mom how upset I was.

And she said, "I don't want a rock.

Those look like tombstones!"

- All politicians in Chicago have something named after them.

It's part of the Chicago tradition.

- [Reporter] The public park surrounding the Chicago Water Tower will be renamed Jane M. Byrne Plaza.

- The Water Tower is a survivor.

And my mother is a survivor.

- [Carol] I thought it was proper.

More than one something should be named for her.

- [Reporter] Tomorrow the point in the city where the Kennedy, Eisenhower, and Dan Ryan come together will be renamed the Mayor Jane Byrne Interchange.

Fitting for the woman who campaigned for One Chicago.

- I didn't know the signs above the highways were going to be saying like, "Eight minutes to Jane Byrne," but I love it.

- Well, I thought it was kind of ironic that they would name the interchange that everybody hates after her.

But so it goes, you know.

History is written by the winners.

- [Reporter] Today Chicago remembers Jane Byrne.

The city's first and only woman to become mayor died today at the age of 81.

- [Narrator] On November 14th, 2014, Jane Byrne died of health complications from a stroke.

- [Kathy] She loved every minute as mayor.

She loved and knew this city and knew its people as no one ever has.

- [David] You have to acknowledge that she was a historic figure.

She was part of a period of rapid and significant change in the city.

First woman mayor, who gave way to the first black mayor, and that's part of history that nobody can take from her.

- [Reporter] But we said what would you do differently?

- Probably, I didn't talk to the people enough.

You got so bogged down in the bureaucracy and the governing that you sort of take it for granted.

They will understand.

- I want her to be recognized, as this extraordinary woman who was strong, who was dedicated, who loved the city and everybody in it.

- Her imagination gave people in Chicago an idea of, "I'm from here and this is a good place and I'm going to make it better."

- I worry that she'll be remembered as a feisty gal, as opposed to a woman who took on the machine and brought it, at least for a moment, to its knees.

Threw some cold water in its face, and gave it a scare.

Maybe that's not enough to make radical history, but it's pretty good.

(soft upbeat music)