"The Principal of Evanston," Lorraine Morton, Looks Back

Lorraine Morton still draws a crowd. Actually, she draws an overflow crowd. The first Democratic mayor of Evanston may be four years out of office, and her 16-year reign may have had a few bumps, but few would deny Morton set a path for the city that placed it on a still-positive course.

On a cold February night, the city council chamber was a fire marshal’s nightmare. Elected officials, community leaders and average everyday Evanstonians looked for any empty space in the packed hall on the second floor of a converted girl’s high school not-so-coincidentally named Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center.  They had come to see the Richard Halstead painting the council had commissioned to honor the woman who served 16 years as mayor. Applause filled the room when the portrait of a cross-armed Morton was unveiled.

For the 94-year-old Morton, it was another sign of affection from the community that she helped transform.

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Lorraine Morton was born in 1918 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, very much a part of the still-segregated South. By 1953 she had moved to Evanston, where she became the first black teacher in a community that was integrated statistically, but not geographically or psychologically.  Her capable performance at Foster, Nichols and Chute middle schools led to her becoming principal of Haven Middle School, which straddles the unofficial frontier between predominantly black west Evanston and the white lakefront.  From that vantage she watched the town’s culture change during the ’60s and ’70s. In the early 1980s, she was approached by then-Mayor Jay Lytle to see if she would be interested in stepping onto the Council to fill an unexpired term as 5th Ward alderman.

“He talked me into it,” Morton joked. “I tell everybody, don’t blame me, blame Jay.”

After Morton completed a successful 9-year run on the council,  word came down in 1992 that incumbent Mayor Joan Barr was going to step down. Morton remembers many people - including former students - urging her to run. She hesitated at first, but around the Sunday night of Thanksgiving weekend she remembers, "I finally said yes.”

But the race was no cakewalk. Quite the opposite. In the February primary among five candidates, Morton narrowly grabbed second place, setting up a one-on-one runoff with Eighth Ward Alderman Ann Rainey, who had the most votes in the first round.  But in the general election, Morton came from behind by putting together a bi-racial coalition to become the first black chief executive of the city.

Both Rainey and Morton ran as Democrats, and Morton takes pride in her party accomplishment. “I look back on it and it was quite tremendous that this community did that,” Morton says today. “Because it had been a Republican town.”

Given the weak mayor/strong council government format in Evanston, plus the tradition of a strong city manager, Morton’s power did not come from votes, but her steady hand  in directing policy.

One of her first objectives as mayor was to lower the rhetorical volume on the council, which had recently been sliced in half by referendum from 18 to 9.

“I wanted to stop some of the bickering,” she recalled. “You can’t accomplish anything by arguing.”

Did that completely go away?  No.  There were disagreements, but observers believe a calmer tone emerged during Morton’s tenure.

Besides a change in tone, there was plenty of bricks and mortar. Under Morton, and especially during the go-go ‘90s, much of downtown Evanston received a multi-million dollar facelift. Controversial tax breaks, such as TIF financing, were offered to get developers to do their thing.

“I’m proud of downtown Evanston and you see a lot of new buildings,” Morton said.

After a planned Northwestern University research park stalled out at the north end of the business district,  Morton and a council majority switched gears by developing a mixed use zone  that now includes the multi-screen Century Theatre and other badly-needed after-hours activities such as restaurants and  bistros.

 “If we had not had the Research Park agreement (with Northwestern), we would never have had the growth that we had in downtown Evanston,” Morton said.

That relationship between Northwestern and the city has always been tricky and issues such as land use and development continually pop up. That Northwestern is grandfathered in from paying property taxes doesn’t help matters. But Morton sought to ease tensions by getting Northwestern to pay in other ways – a donated fire truck, student-to-student tutoring, etc. -- and her successor has continued in that vein..

“Her theory was that Northwestern wasn’t going away and it was better to work with them rather than being in a constant fight,” said current Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl.

Not everyone was overcome by comity. Many complained in January 1996 when Morton accepted a free trip, worth nearly $1,500, to the Rose Bowl to watch Northwestern. The trip was paid for by the University Alumni Association. The matter went before the city’s Ethics Board, which cleared Morton of misconduct.

Even when things weren’t going right for Morton, her daughter says, there is a personal philosophy that eases the situation. “You can’t wallow in what is going wrong. You have to forward,” said Elizabeth Brasher. “She’s not a person to get down.”

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Morton lost her husband in 1974 and Brasher is her only biological child, but her daughter said that the entire community was like family to Morton. “I’ve always shared her,” she said. “As someone who is an only child, I have so many siblings. I learned to share her early in her life.”

Continuing on that theme, Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin calls Morton ‘the principal of Evanston.’  “She gave order to a community that was disorganized,” he said. “She brought dignity to locations that needed it.”

One local urban affairs expert notes that Morton had the job at the right time, but her style brought the city benefits as well. “She had the job during the go-go 90s but she also contributed because she brought a sense of calm and she helped bring the city together racially,” said John McCarron, a longtime Evanston resident. 

Building on the always-thorny issue of racial and community harmony, Morton talks happily about all the organizations in the community that work together help others. One local rabbi came out to her portrait unveiling because of the Menorah she helped put in downtown’s Fountain Square to commemorate the Jewish holiday of Chanukah.

“You can look at the diversity in the city of Evanston and (say), because of Lorraine Morton this marvelously diverse - but therefore challenging - community works,” echoes Mayor Tisdahl.

Morton says she is pleased with the progress her community and her country have made. “No one would say that racial issues have been put aside,” she said. “Let’s hope there is a progression.”

Not that old problems don’t persist. Parts of Evanston have major economic challenges and crime continues to be an issue, spotlighted by a 2005 murder at the Keg Tavern’s restaurant, which has led to issues with liquor license violations to this day.

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Back at the Morton Civic Center, Morton proudly tells the crowd gathered to see her portrait about what it’s like reaching 94.

“I try and do whatever I can do,” she said. “If people ask, I try to do what I can do.”

She remains active, representing the mayor on an economic development board. She gets out socially and does her best to help people.

So how are people looking back on her now?

Former State Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, who has known Morton for over 20 years, puts it like this:

“Lorraine has been a pioneering figure not just in Evanston’s political landscape but through the educational and social landscape as well," Schoenberg says. "Through the force of personality and reason, she brought disparate people together as a unifying force.”

Judging by the crowd that gathered at Morton's portrait unveiling in February, it's clear she continues to do just that.