FOX Chicago Sunday Reporter's Notebook: Harold Washington - Chicago News and Weather | FOX 32 News

Sunday would have been Harold Washington's 90th birthday. FOX Chicago Sunday took a look back at the man whose political struggles inspired Barack Obama to move to Chicago.

Harold Washington died of a heart attack at his desk in the mayor's office in 1987. Only a few months earlier, he'd consolidated his power at City Hall by winning re-election.

Little-noticed last week was the anniversary of Washington winning the 1983 mayoral election, after what still ranks as Chicago's most racially divisive election ever - and we've had more than a few of them. 

In fact, Barack Obama has written that the epic 1983 contest is what first drew his attention to Chicago as a potential place to live and work.

What he found once he got here was a place where hugely important national and international issues were being fought over, but at a neighborhood level where the way they affected real people was plain to see. 

Without Harold Washington, without the years-long bitter battles of council wars, would the future President have moved to Chicago? Would he even be President? Probably not.

Those Harold Washington years were also formative for David Axelrod, the future President's key advisor.

After Axelrod helped Washington navigate through the wild racial storms here, he advised mayoral candidates in big cities across the country, including a number of African Americans who won tough campaigns. 

Axelrod is from New York. Obama is from Hawaii. But they're now indelibly linked to Chicago, thanks in a very real sense to Mr. Harold Washington.