Edward Joseph Kelly

Edward Joseph Kelly (1937)

Edward Joseph Kelly (* 1. May 1876 in Chicago , Illinois ; †  20th October 1950 ) was an American politician of the Democratic Party and longtime influential mayor of Chicago .

Life

The son of a policeman began in 1900 his appointment as an assistant in the Office of Hygiene ( Sanitary Department ) of Chicago and grew during his 30-year career to the chief engineer on. He then became an employee in the office for the city parks and supervised the beautification of the parks in Chicago.

After the death of Mayor Anton Cermak on March 6, 1933, who was the victim of an assassination attempt instead of the recently elected US President Franklin D. Roosevelt , Councilor Frank J. Corr was first appointed by the other members of the city ​​council on March 15, 1933 named Chicago's new mayor. However, after the Democratic council members decided that Kelly would be the better choice, Corr accepted this vote and resigned on April 17, 1933 after only 32 days in office.

Kelly was elected mayor on April 17 by the city council to succeed Corr and was first elected to this office in 1935. During his almost 14-year tenure until April 15, 1947, politicians and police officers were widely viewed as corrupt and, in fact, the city council rarely opposed the orders issued by Kelly. After the so-called massacre on Memorial Day in May 1937, in which the Chicago police to participants of a trade union -organized demonstration shot and killed ten people, he called for "restraint". On the other hand, he secured his power by building the urban subway and by appointing a large number of Afro-Americans to the city council, thereby securing the votes of the Afro-American voters who had previously supported the candidates for the Republican Party . Together with his companion, the millionaire Patrick Nash , Kelly gathered numerous party officials of the Democrats around him, who ultimately shaped the political leadership of Chicago for decades.

Kelly resigned as Mayor on April 15, 1947 and was replaced by Martin H. Kennelly . In 1947 he was also for some time a member of the Democratic National Committee , the national organization of the Democratic Party, which runs fundraising and represents the political positions of the party as a whole.

Web links

• Edward Joseph Kelly in nndb (English)