Synopsis

Richard J. Daley’s life began on the very street he would never depart, and he was baptized in the modest church where he would ultimately be laid to rest. His ascent to the mayorship was a gradual, deliberate process. In the position he so desired, he constructed a political apparatus that reshaped the landscape of city politics; yet, he proved unready to confront the defining issues of his era: racial division and the conflict in Vietnam.