Full Text of SR0564 102nd General Assembly
SR0564 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | SENATE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened | 3 | | to learn of the death of Timuel Dixon Black Jr. of Chicago, who | 4 | | passed away on October 13, 2021; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, Timuel Black was born to Mattie and Timuel Black | 6 | | in Birmingham, Alabama on December 7, 1918; his family moved | 7 | | to Chicago in August 1919; he grew up in Bronzeville during the | 8 | | first wave of the Great Migration; he attended Burke | 9 | | Elementary School; he graduated from DuSable High School in | 10 | | 1935; he served in the 308th Quartermaster Railhead Company of | 11 | | the U.S. Army during World War II, and he earned four Battle | 12 | | Stars and the French Croix de Guerre for his service; he | 13 | | married Norisea Cummings in 1946, and they had two children, | 14 | | Ermetra Black-Thomas and Timuel Kerrigan Black, before | 15 | | divorcing; he obtained his bachelor's degree in Sociology from | 16 | | Roosevelt University in 1952; he earned his master's degree in | 17 | | Sociology and History from the University of Chicago in 1954; | 18 | | he married his third wife Zenobia Johnson-Black in 1981; and
| 19 | | WHEREAS, Timuel Black was a revered activist, educator, | 20 | | and historian; his first experience with labor organizing | 21 | | occurred when he and his coworkers sought better wages by | 22 | | forming a chapter of the Retail Clerks Union; he walked his | 23 | | first picket line in 1931; he helped establish the Congress of |
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| 1 | | Racial Equality (CORE) in 1942 and the United Packinghouse | 2 | | Workers of America (UPWA) in 1943; he was among a group from | 3 | | Hyde Park's First Unitarian Church to invite Dr. Martin Luther | 4 | | King Jr. to his first major Chicago speech at the Rockefeller | 5 | | Memorial Chapel of the University of Chicago in 1956, where he | 6 | | worked closely with Dr. King and became a trusted adviser | 7 | | during the Civil Rights Movement; he helped organize the | 8 | | Rainbow Beach "wade-ins" in 1960 that succeeded in integrating | 9 | | that public beach a year later; he served as president of the | 10 | | Chicago chapter of the Negro American Labor Council and | 11 | | spearheaded Chicagoans' participation in the Southern | 12 | | Christian Leadership Council's '63 March on Washington for | 13 | | Jobs and Freedom, leading two "Freedom Trains" of 3,000 | 14 | | Chicagoans to D.C.; he was heavily involved in the Chicago | 15 | | Freedom Movement; he was influential in the historic one-day | 16 | | Chicago Public Schools boycott by approximately 250,000 | 17 | | students to call attention to segregation in Chicago schools | 18 | | on October 22, 1963; and
| 19 | | WHEREAS, Timuel Black gained national attention for | 20 | | coining the phrase "plantation politics" while confronting | 21 | | Mayor Richard J. Daley's political machine when he | 22 | | unsuccessfully ran for Fourth Ward alderman in 1963; he | 23 | | co-chaired the People's Movement for Voter Registration and | 24 | | Education in 1982, resulting in the registration of more than | 25 | | 250,000 voters to get Harold Washington to run against Jane |
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| 1 | | Byrne for Chicago mayor; he served as an adviser in the | 2 | | campaigns of many of Chicago's Black elected officials, | 3 | | including Carol Moseley Braun, who was elected as the first | 4 | | African American woman to serve in the U.S. Senate in 1992; he | 5 | | later served as counsel to then-Senator Barack Obama when he | 6 | | ran for president in 2008, having become friends when Obama | 7 | | was a young community organizer in the early 1980s; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, Timuel Black worked as a social worker and a | 9 | | history teacher at several high schools in Gary, Indiana and | 10 | | Chicago, including DuSable, Farragut, and Hyde Park, where he | 11 | | fought segregation and discrimination within the school | 12 | | system; he helped establish the Teachers Committee for Quality | 13 | | Education; he served as a professor of Sociology and | 14 | | Anthropology at the City Colleges of Chicago, becoming dean of | 15 | | Wright College in 1969; he was promoted to vice president of | 16 | | Academic Affairs at Olive Harvey College in 1972; he served as | 17 | | head of Communications system wide from 1973 to 1979; he then | 18 | | taught Cultural Anthropology at Loop College until his | 19 | | retirement in 1989; and
| 20 | | WHEREAS, Timuel Black became lead plaintiff in the ACLU's | 21 | | Black vs. McGuffage lawsuit, which accused Illinois' voting | 22 | | system of discriminating against minorities, in the wake of | 23 | | the 2000 presidential election; his lawsuit led to the ban of | 24 | | punch card ballots and a uniform voting system in Illinois; |
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| 1 | | and
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Timuel Black donated a collection of more than | 3 | | 250 boxes of personal photographs, correspondence, | 4 | | manuscripts, speeches, audiovisuals, clippings, programs, and | 5 | | other memorabilia to the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection | 6 | | of Afro-American History and Literature at the Carter G. | 7 | | Woodson Regional Library in Chicago; his collection was | 8 | | unveiled as the Timuel D. Black Jr. Archive in 2012; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, Timuel Black was a prolific author; he wrote two | 10 | | seminal volumes of oral histories on the subject, which were | 11 | | Bridges of Memory: Chicago's First Wave of Great Migration, | 12 | | published in 2003, and Bridges of Memory: Chicago's Second | 13 | | Generation of Black Migration, published in 2007; his memoir | 14 | | Sacred Ground: The Chicago Streets of Timuel Black was | 15 | | released on January 15, 2019; and
| 16 | | WHEREAS, Timuel Black remained active in progressive | 17 | | politics and also conducted tours of Bronzeville for the | 18 | | University of Chicago well into his late 90s; he joined the | 19 | | Community Advisory Board led by the University, working to | 20 | | bring the Barack Obama Presidential Library to Jackson Park; | 21 | | he made the Chicago Sun-Times' list of the 200 most prominent | 22 | | Illinoisans in the State's 200-year history in 2018; and
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, Timuel Black left his mark on the City of | 2 | | Chicago, on his friends who knew him, and on those who knew of | 3 | | him; his legacy will inspire others to make this world a better | 4 | | place just as he strove to do; therefore, be it
| 5 | | RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL | 6 | | ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of | 7 | | Timuel Dixon Black Jr. and extend our sincere condolences to | 8 | | his family, friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it | 9 | | further
| 10 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 11 | | presented to the family of Timuel Black as an expression of our | 12 | | deepest sympathy.
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