Harold Washington fought for voting rights. Here we are again, as Republicans push Save America Act

My grandmother met Harold Washington once. I was young when she told me the story, so I don't remember every detail. What I remember is what she kept: a mug he gave her, which she held onto until the day she died. I grew up on South Shore Drive, sold the Sun-Times for a quarter at a paper stand at 75th and Stony Island, right in front of the KFC, and graduated from Hyde Park Academy. I did not know then that I would spend my career studying the civil rights terrain Washington had walked. But I u...