SR0725 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0725 LRB096 21720 KXB 39355 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to learn of the passing of the former village president of Maywood, Ralph Conner, who passed away on March 13, 2010; and

WHEREAS, He was born on April 20, 1948 in Maywood; he and his wife, Arletha, met as community activists in 1971 and married in 1974; and

WHEREAS, As a college student during the Martin Luther King riots and Democratic Convention riots in Chicago, Ralph Conner was directly engaged in movement activity; he became a Pan-Africanist relocating to Atlanta, Georgia and working with the Atlanta Urban League under the Nixon Black Capitalism programs designed to spur entrepreneurship among African-Americans; during his time in Atlanta he was exposed to the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE); and

WHEREAS, He became involved with the Small Business Administration and studied the rudiments of financing and recordkeeping for profit; he later relocated back to Chicago to re-enroll in Roosevelt University to study accounting, business administration, marketing and advertising, and real estate development; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Conner was a popular spokesman for taxpayers, government reform, school choice, gun rights, and other issues; he often appeared as a pundit on Comcast, WTTW, and Bruce DuMont's nationally syndicated "Beyond the Beltway" radio program; and

WHEREAS, In 2008, Mr. Conner launched the Chicago office of the Congress of Racial Equality; in 2009, he appeared in "No Guns for Negroes," a documentary film on the Second Amendment; he was working on a film on black World War II veterans when he died; and

WHEREAS, During his twenty years of public service, he served as Maywood village president, director of planning and development/building commissioner, and enterprise zone administrator; he ran for village president of the Village of Maywood in 2000, capturing the office in April of 2001; in 2005 he took the position of local government relations manager for the Heartland Institute; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Conner also worked with the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Illinois Terrorism Task Force and was a certified Illinois assessing official; and

WHEREAS, Ralph Conner is survived by his wife, Arletha Conner; his daughters, Isis Aida Ogoun Conner and Zenzi Dara Dayo Conner; his sons, Ralph W. Conner Jr. and Thomas Leon Conner; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn, along with his family and friends, the passing of Ralph Conner; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Ralph Conner as a symbol of our sincere sympathy.