HJ0025 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HJ0025 LRB098 11293 GRL 42637 r

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois General Assembly are saddened to learn of the death of Susan Cayton Woodson of Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, who passed away on January 31, 2013; and

WHEREAS, Susan Cayton Woodson was born on October 16, 1918, in Seattle, Washington; as her mother died when she was just one year old, she was raised by her maternal grandparents, Horace Roscoe Cayton, Sr., and Susie Revels Cayton; and

WHEREAS, Susan Cayton Woodson was very conscious of her heritage and worked hard to honor her ancestors in her life's work; her great-grandfather, Hiram Rhodes Revels, made history in 1870 in Reconstruction Mississippi when he was elected the country's first African-American U.S. Senator and later became the first president of Alcorn State University in Mississippi; her maternal grandmother was a suffragette and union activist and her maternal grandfather published the Seattle Republican, the city's first black newspaper; and

WHEREAS, The Caytons passed on their strong work ethic to their children and granddaughter; Susan Cayton Woodson's aunt, Madge, was one of the first black women to graduate from the University of Washington; her uncle, Horace, Jr., served as director of Chicago's Parkway Community House, a social-service center in Bronzeville, and co-authored the 1945 book Black Metropolis; her uncle, Revels Cayton, was a prominent labor and civil rights activist in San Francisco; her aunt, Lillie, became a counselor and spokesperson for Alcoholics Anonymous throughout the West Coast; and

WHEREAS, Following her grandfather's death in 1940, Susan Cayton moved to Chicago; she was entrusted for the long drive to Paul Robeson, a close family friend; she worked a switchboard at Parkway Community House and became involved in the Chicago Renaissance when black artists like Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Walker, Charles Wilbert White, and Richmond Barthe produced their early works; she counted among her friends such leading African-American cultural and political figures as Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Gordon Parks, William Carter, Eldzier Cortor, Charles Sebree, Elizabeth Catlett, and Irene Clark; and

WHEREAS, Susan Cayton Woodson and Chicago businessman and chemist Harold Woodson were married in 1949; the couple raised a family together; and

WHEREAS, Susan Cayton Woodson was an avid collector of African-American art; her home became the site of the Susan C. Woodson Gallery of Chicago, which she created to allow her to remain at home to care for her ailing husband; the gallery became the preeminent and internationally acclaimed collection of the Chicago Renaissance; and

WHEREAS, For more than three decades, Susan Cayton Woodson was one of the most devoted supporters of the Chicago Public Library's Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection; in 1983, she donated the Horace Cayton papers; in 1988, she organized the visual arts exhibit and programming for the first-ever exhibit on the Chicago Black Renaissance; the following year, she donated her own papers and those of her husband; she also served on the Board of the South Side Community Art Center for almost 40 years and, when they offered her the chance to take emeritus status, she insisted on remaining a working member of the Board; and

WHEREAS, Susan Cayton Woodson was preceded in death by her loving husband of 48 years, the late Harold W. Woodson; and

WHEREAS, Susan Cayton Woodson is survived by her son, Harold W. Woodson, Jr., (Virginia); her stepdaughter, Eleanor Kamuda; her grandson, Charles J. Woodson; her granddaughters, Melissa Waldon-Ongley (Ryan Stephen) and Meredith Kamuda; her great-granddaughter, Marley Rose Meanie; her nieces, Madge Cayton and Susie Cayton; her nephews, Leroy Revels Cayton and Richard Rice; her grandson-in-love, William K. Gilchrist; and her daughters-in-love, Jan Spivey Gilchrist (Kelvin) and Derise Tolliver (Osofo); therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that we mourn, along with her family and friends, the passing of Susan Cayton Woodson; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Susan Cayton Woodson as a symbol of our deep sympathy and great esteem.