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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 Irving
4Maurice King of Chicago on February 6, 2011; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Mr. King was born on July 22, 1931 in Ashland,
6Virginia, the youngest of six children of Charles Henry King
7and Martha Bradby King, Native Americans descended from the
8Chickahominy, Cherokee, and Pamunkey nations; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Growing up during a time of racial segregation,
10Mr. King attended African-American schools, married an
11African-American woman, and considered himself black; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Mr. King, not allowed to attend schools closer to
13his home, graduated from Virginia Randolph Community High
14School in Henrico County and received a four-year scholarship
15to Hampton Institute, a historically black college where he
16graduated with honors with a degree in English, received a John
17Hay Whitney Fellowship to Yale Law School, and met his future
18wife of 60 years, Lillian; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Mr. King was inspired to go to law school by his
20admiration for the NAACP's chief counsel, Thurgood Marshall,
21and was among three African-Americans listed in Yale Law

 

 

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1School's graduating class of 1958; and
 
2    WHEREAS, When recruiters from law firms came to Yale, they
3liked Mr. King but they would not hire him because of his race;
4one of his Yale professors saw the barriers Mr. King was facing
5and put in a call to the Chicago law firm of Eugene Cotton;
6Cotton offered Mr. King a job and eventually he became a
7partner and the firm added his name to become Cotton, Watt,
8Jones and King; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Mr. King fought for workers' rights and civil
10rights for more than 50 years, often taking cases pro bono; he
11handled landmark cases including an Iowa packinghouse case that
12contributed to a National Labor Relations Board requirement
13that unionized firms must bargain with workers before
14relocating; he worked with legendary civil rights leader Fannie
15Lou Hamer to challenge voting rights violations against
16African-Americans in Mississippi; and he helped win a
17pioneering sex-discrimination case against a major airline
18when it fired a female flight attendant for getting married;
19and
 
20    WHEREAS, Mr. King liked fishing in Wisconsin and he loved
21music, especially Beethoven and Mahler; and
 
22    WHEREAS, Mr. King is survived by his wife, Lillian; his

 

 

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1sons, Michael and Alan; his daughter, Karen; his sisters, Alma
2Winston and Verna Gray; his three granddaughters; and his
3great-granddaughter; therefore, be it
 
4    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
5NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
6we mourn, along with his family and friends, the passing of
7Irving King; and be it further
 
8    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
9presented to the family of Irving King as a symbol of our
10deepest sympathies and great esteem.