Sophia King ‘won’t be bullied’ out of mayoral race by threats of divided Black vote

Ald. Sophia King (4th) is shown last year, celebrating the renaming of Lake Shore Drive to honor Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, the Black man who was the first permanent nonindigenous resident of Chicago. (Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times)

Ald. Sophia King (4th) said Thursday she will “not be bullied” out of the race for mayor of Chicago by fears that, with seven Black candidates and a divided, diminished African American vote, the Black community risks “losing it all.”

The chairman of the City Council’s Black Caucus, Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), gave Mayor Lori Lightfoot an early endorsement and has argued the African American community hasn’t “seen or felt this level of commitment from the mayor’s office since the days of Harold Washington.”