Top cop spat spoils Daley's record of racial tranquility.(Opinion)(police superintendent...

Byline: Joel Weisman

During the civil rights movement, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. labeled Chicago the most racist city in the North. And the city periodically provides evidence of that somewhat unfair title.

The label was bolstered during Harold Washington's mayoral campaign and ensuing Council Wars, but in recent years, Chicago in general and Mayor Richard M. Daley in particular have been lauded for avoiding open racial conflict . . . until the current search for a police superintendent.

Black activists, led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, are in