Great column - I learned a lot. I think Cecil pulled his punches, though, as to the overt racism that many of Washington’s opponents displayed (the “International ‘No watermelon’ sign” buttons were notorious at the time). Not a minor issue given the politics of the day.
Also, at the end of the paragraph beginning, “By all accounts Washington opened up…,” this sentence appears: “Some of his appointments were academics and civic do-gooders, people who had never place at City Hall before.” I presume Cecil meant to write something like, “Some of his appointments were academics and civic do-gooders, people who had never found a place at City Hall before.”
As for Cecil pulling his punches, the purpose of the column wasn’t to point out the racism and racial animosity of the Council Wars era - this is well known. Rather, it was to say that Washington succeeded in rising above it. He remained a fair-minded man. Some of the people on his side - Lu Palmer is the best-known example - openly wished he were a little less fair and favored black people more. Washington took a lot of heat on that score, and that’s why it’s so rankling to hear him described as a ruthless boss now. If he’d been a ruthless boss, in some ways he’d have had an easier time of it.