July 4, 1963 - Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley (pictured) was booed off the speakers’ stand today in an uproarious climax to a Freedom March of thousands of Negroes he had led through Chicago’s Loop. The mass rally was staged by the NAACP as the high point of its 54th annual convention. The Mayor had aroused the ire of the Negroes last Monday when he told the opening session of the convention that there were no Negro ghettoes in Chicago. Today’s disturbance roared out of control almost the instant Daley arose to speak from the bandshell of Grant Park. Daley, boss of the most powerful political machine in the nation, stood for 11 minutes as shouts of “Daley must go…we don’t need Daley, ghettos, Jim Crow schools,” swelled from the seats. Banners bobbed up, reading: “Who asked Daley to lead a freedom march?” … “Mayor Daley — no Negroes live in your ward — why?” Then, with a shrug, the Mayor wheeled and walked from the platform. A reporter asked Daley whom he blamed for the uproar. “It’s the Republican Party to blame,” the Democratic boss snapped as he stepped into a limousine.
