SR0416 99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0416 LRB099 12082 MST 34780 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to learn of the death of legendary civil rights icon, Alice Tregay; and

WHEREAS, Alice Tregay was a native of Evanston, known as a child by the name of Lucille Hicks; and

WHEREAS, Alice Tregay became active in public life in the 1960s; in 1971, along with her longtime allies, (the late) Janice Bell and Rev. Willie T. Barrow (who recently preceded her in death), she helped start the Political Education Division for Dr. King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference, under the leadership of a young organizer named Jesse Jackson; and taught thousands of students how to organize citizens and lead political campaigns; she served as director and chief lobbyist for the Black Illinois Legislative Lobby in Springfield from 1977 to 1982; and

WHEREAS, Alice Tregay directed the local and national voter registration, voter education, and get-out-the-vote campaigns under Operation Breadbasket, PUSH, and Rainbow/PUSH, including the historic election and re-election of Chicago's first black Mayor Harold Washington; and

WHEREAS, Alice Tregay and her husband, James, marched numerous times alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in support of open housing and desegregation in the Chicago public schools; she was also the President of the South Shore Organization for Human Rights; and

WHEREAS, Alice Tregay has advocated on behalf of the disadvantaged, registered thousands of new voters, and managed or worked on behalf of many high-profile political campaigns, including Rev. Jackson's presidential campaigns of 1984 and 1988, and President Obama's campaign in 2008, and as a result, the citizens of Illinois and those across the country are better off; and

WHEREAS, A documentary on Alice Tregay's extraordinary life, "Alice's Ordinary People", was presented to a full-house at the Shorefront Legacy Center on June 19, 2013; and

WHEREAS, Alice Tregay was never one to slow down and was still promoting voter registration late in her life; she will go down in history as registering more voters than any other voter education activist in political history; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of a civil rights icon, Alice Tregay, and extend our sincere condolences to her family, friends, and all who knew and loved her; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Alice Tregay as an expression of our deepest sympathy.