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HR0802 |
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LRB095 14188 KXB 40056 r |
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| HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, State Representative Monique D. Davis and the |
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| members of the Illinois House of Representatives are pleased to |
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| congratulate Margaret Taylor-Burroughs of Chicago on the |
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| occasion of her 90th birthday; and
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| WHEREAS, Margaret Taylor-Burroughs was born on November 1, |
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| 1917, in St. Rose,
Louisiana; her parents, Alexander and |
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| Octavia Taylor, moved their family to Chicago in search of a |
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| better life; Margaret Taylor graduated from Englewood High |
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| School in 1933, and from Chicago Teacher's College (renamed |
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| Chicago State University) in 1937; she received a Bachelor's |
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| (1944) and a Master's (1948) of Fine Arts from the Art |
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| Institute of Chicago; and
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| WHEREAS, Margaret Taylor married artist Bernard Goss in |
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| 1939, and later had a daughter, Gayle; in the 1940s, while |
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| teaching art at an elementary school, she constructed the egg |
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| tempera painting, " I've Been in Some Big Towns "; Margaret |
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| Taylor Goss and her husband later divorced; she then went to |
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| teach at Dusable High School for twenty-three years; in 1947, |
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| her first children's book, Jasper, the Drummin' Boy , was |
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| published; Margaret Taylor-Goss was married on December 23, |
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| 1949 to Charles Gordon Burroughs; and
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HR0802 |
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LRB095 14188 KXB 40056 r |
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| WHEREAS, Her writing and artworks soared; her additional |
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| children's books published were, Did You Feed My Cow? Rhymes |
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| and Games From City Streets , Country Lanes (1955), and Whip Me |
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| Whop Me Pudding and Other Stories of Riley Rabbit and His |
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| Fabulous Friends (1966); her visual artworks include a |
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| watercolor, Ribbon Man, Mexico City Market , inspired by her |
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| experience at the Institute of Printing and Sculpture in New |
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| Mexico; an oil painting, Insect (1963); a marble sculpture, |
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| Head (1965); and two bronze sculptures, Black Queen and Head |
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| (1963); and
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| WHEREAS, The Burroughs' founded the Ebony Museum of |
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| African-American History (renamed the Dusable Museum of |
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| African-American History) in their home in Chicago; their aim |
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| was to make art, history, and literature on the Black |
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| experience accessible to the community; the museum was |
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| eventually moved to Washington Park, with Margaret Burroughs as |
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| the executive director
; and
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| WHEREAS, In 1967, she and Dudley Randall of the Broadside |
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| Press edited an anthology of poems by Black writers and leaders |
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| entitled, For Malcolm: Poems in the Life and Death of Malcolm |
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| X ; Margaret Burroughs published her own book of poems, What |
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| Shall I Tell My Children Who Are Black? (1968), describing the |
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| effects of racism on one's mental state; her poems, including, |
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| " Open Letter to Black Youth of Alabama and Other Places ", sent |
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HR0802 |
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LRB095 14188 KXB 40056 r |
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| a message of Black pride; some poems encompass familial themes, |
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| such as, " Apology to My Daughter for Apparent Neglect ", " Lines |
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| for My Mother ", and " Memorial for My Father "; her second volume |
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| of poetry, Africa, My Africa , was published in 1970; the poems |
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| in this volume explore the topics of slavery, African culture, |
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| and African life; and |
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| WHEREAS, Margaret Burroughs taught humanities at |
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| Kennedy-King Community College between the years of 1969 and |
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| 1979; during the 1980s, she served on the Chicago District's |
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| Board of Education; she received many awards and honors for her |
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| achievements, including a Doctorate of Humane Letters from |
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| Lewis University in Illinois, as well as honorary degrees from |
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| the Art Institute of Chicago, where she taught humanities in |
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| 1968, Chicago State, and Columbia College; a day was named in |
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| her honor by the former Mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington, on |
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| February 1, 1986; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE |
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| NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we |
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| congratulate Margaret Taylor-Burroughs on the many |
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| achievements of her life and wish her the best on the occasion |
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| of her 90th birthday; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be |
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| presented to Margaret Taylor-Burroughs as a symbol of our |