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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of Reverend
4Addie Wyatt, who passed away on March 28, 2012; and
 
5    WHEREAS, She married the late Reverend Dr. Claude Wyatt on
6May 12, 1940; they were married for 69 years; during that time,
7they founded and co-pastored the Vernon Park Church of God in
8Chicago and had 2 sons, Claude S. Wyatt and Renaldo Wyatt; and
 
9    WHEREAS, She was born on March 28, 1924 in Brookhaven,
10Mississippi to Ambrose and Maggie Cameron and was a personal
11friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; she came to Chicago in
121930, when she was 6 years old, and when her mother died, she
13raised her siblings; and
 
14    WHEREAS, She tried out for a typist job but was told she
15failed the test, so she began working at a meat packing company
16in 1941, where she worked until 1953; once there, she was
17elected vice president of the United Packinghouse Workers of
18America Local 56; she was the first African-American to hold
19such a high labor union position; she went on to become the
20director of the Women's Affairs and Human Rights Departments of
21the Amalgamated Meat Cutters; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, In the 1960s, Eleanor Roosevelt honored her
2leadership skills by appointing her to a position on the
3Protective Labor Legislation Committee of the United States
4Commission on the Status of Women; in the 1970s, she held a
5powerful position in the United Food and Commercial Workers
6International Union, and in 1974, she founded the Coalition of
7Labor Union Women; in 1976, she became the international vice
8president of the United Food and Commercial Workers; and
 
9    WHEREAS, She and her husband always took time to give back
10to the community, especially with their civil rights work; she
11was ordained in 1955 as a Church of God minister; her husband
12was also ordained in the same faith; together they worked with
13Dr. King, including at the March on Washington, the march from
14Selma to Montgomery, and at other civil rights events; and
 
15    WHEREAS, Reverend Wyatt was a founder and board member of
16Operation Breadbasket; she also worked very closely with the
17Southern Christian Leadership Conference as an advisor; she and
18her husband founded the Wyatt Choral Ensemble in 1944; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Reverend Wyatt is survived by her son, Claude, and
20numerous grandchildren; therefore, be it
 
21    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
22NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that

 

 

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1we mourn, along with her family and friends, the passing of
2Reverend Addie Wyatt; and be it further
 
3    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
4presented to the family of Reverend Addie Wyatt as a symbol of
5our sincere sympathy.