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Dead Rat Sent to Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago

July 24, 1964 - A dead rat was deposited in the office of an assistant of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley (pictured) today as 50 representatives of the Congress of Racial Equality picketed City Hall to protest slum housing conditions.

Miss Carol Redmond laid a rat encased in a plastic bag on the desk of Miss Arlene Kolass, receptionist in the office of Raymond Simon, administrative aide to Mayor Daley.

“Would you see that Mayor Daley gets this?” Miss Redmond asked.

The receptionist promptly vacated her desk.

Jack Reilly, the Mayor’s director of special events, said he would turn the rat over to the Health Department’s Rodent Control Section for disposal.

Earlier, Dr. Samuel Andelman, health commissioner, said that carrying dead rats would violate the city code and that he would confer with police about “appropriate action.”

The pickets said they sought action on previous demands that the city hire 250 persons to kill rats and that there be more frequent garbage collections, better building code enforcement, guaranteed right to conduct rent strikes job training for unemployed, and subsidy of small homeowners.

The pickets carried such signs as, “Mayor Daley, would you want a rat for a roommate?” Daley refused to meet with the pickets. He told a press conference that his administration has done much to correct evils of which the pickets complained.


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© 2024 by Joe Rubenstein

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