Pinback Button, "We '8" Um Up"

1983

This pinback button celebrates the election of Harold Washington, the first African American mayor of Chicago, in 1983. A diverse coalition of voters “punched eight” for Washington, the eighth candidate on the ballot in the primary. “We ‘8’ Um Up” playfully exults in victory. The white-and-blue button belonged to journalist Ethel L. Payne (1911-1991), a Chicago native who moved to Washington, DC in 1952 to cover national and international news for the preeminent African American newspaper, The Chicago Defender. She followed Washington’s mayoral campaign closely and collected pins that told the story: from grassroots campaign (1991.0076.0144) to victorious celebration (1991.0076.0172) to inauguration day (1991.0076.0170). Payne, a lifelong civil rights activist, reported from thirty countries over the course of her own pioneering career, becoming known as the First Lady of the Black Press.