HR0157 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0157 LRB094 11394 HSS 42281 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the House of Representatives of the State of Illinois were grieved to learn of the death of Chicago community banking pioneer Milton Davis on Friday, February 11, 2005; and

WHEREAS, He was born in Jasper, Alabama, and graduated from Morehouse College, a private college for African-American men, with a bachelor's degree in sociology; he served his country honorably in the U.S. Army and took master's level courses at Washington University in St. Louis before he moved to Chicago in 1958, where he worked with Ronald Grzywinski and Mary Houghton on an experimental minority lending program at Hyde Park Bank; he married his wife, Gertude, in 1960; and

WHEREAS, During the early years of his marriage, Mr. Davis became a civil rights leader joining South Side Chicago's Congress on Racial Equality (CORE), rising to become its President in 1965, and was arrested many times as he led sit-ins for fair housing and picketed outside Chicago school board meetings to end segregation; and

WHEREAS, In 1973, Mr. Davis, Mr. Grzywinski, Ms. Houghton, and James Fletcher bought South Shore Bank to prevent its move downtown; now called ShoreBank, it began providing African Americans, low-income residents, and businesses from Chicago's poorest neighborhoods with access to financial resources; by "pounding the pavement" on the South Side, Mr. Davis and his colleagues reached out to potential shareholders, depositors, and loan customers to help build the first and leading community development bank in the nation; the bank has invested $1.7 billion in underserved U.S. communities; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Davis was the co-founder and chairman emeritus of ShoreBank Corp.; ShoreBank is known for making profitable investments in depressed urban areas; it also aids development projects outside the United States, in countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and South Africa; Mr. Davis was bank president from 1973 to 1982 and chairman from 1983 to 1996; and

WHEREAS, The bank has gone from $40 million in assets at its founding to more than $1.5 billion today; it has more than 500 employees, and affiliate banks and non-profits in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and the Pacific Northwest; it has helped to finance the unsubsidized renovation and purchase of more than 45,000 affordable housing residences and created or retained more than 10,000 jobs for local residents; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Davis served in community organizations across the city, including on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Housing Authority, Columbia College, the Chicago Community Trust, the Southside YMCA, Chicago United, the ETA Creative Arts Foundation, and the Field Foundation of Illinois; he also served on the Illinois Institute of Technology Board of Trustees; last fall, he was honored by Shared Interest, a non-profit social investment fund, for helping to create an international model for financing minority businesses that helped establish The Community Banking Project in South Africa and for creating an internship program at ShoreBank that trains Black South Africans for positions with financial institutions in South Africa; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Davis was active in Chicago political life, serving on the fundraising committees of both Harold Washington mayoral campaigns, and he was an advisor to both Washington administrations; and

WHEREAS, The passing of Milton Davis has been deeply felt by many, especially his wife, Gertrude (Trudy); his daughter, Shelley; his son-in-law, Omar McRoberts; his granddaughter, Naima Davis-McRoberts; and his innumerable relatives and friends; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the death of Milton Davis, and we extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it further

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