Full Text of HR0423 102nd General Assembly
HR0423 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | 3 | | Representatives wish to recognize Timuel "Tim" D. Black Jr. | 4 | | for his accomplishments and especially his local and national | 5 | | work in the civil rights movement; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, Timuel Black was born in Birmingham, Alabama on | 7 | | December 7, 1918; his family became part of the first Great | 8 | | Migration of African Americans from the Deep South and settled | 9 | | in Chicago in 1919; during his early school years at Edmund | 10 | | Burke Elementary School and DuSable High School, he worked as | 11 | | a paper boy for the Chicago Defender; as a teen during the | 12 | | Great Depression, he worked as a delivery boy for a local | 13 | | grocery store,
where he had his first experience as an | 14 | | organizer; and
| 15 | | WHEREAS, In the early thirties, Timuel Black helped | 16 | | organize the "Don't Spend Your Money Where You Can't Work" | 17 | | campaign, which led to the formation of the Negro Retail | 18 | | Clerks Union; in the 1940s, he was an active organizer of the | 19 | | Congress on Racial Equality (CORE), which worked to | 20 | | desegregate Chicago department stores and public | 21 | | accommodations; and
| 22 | | WHEREAS, Timuel Black served in the U.S. Army during World |
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| 1 | | War II and was awarded four battle stars and a Croix de Guerre, | 2 | | the highest military honor accorded by France to non-citizens; | 3 | | and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, After the war, Timuel Black received a bachelor's | 5 | | degree from Roosevelt University and later pursued a master's | 6 | | degree from the University of Chicago;
in 1955, after seeing | 7 | | Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on television, he was motivated to | 8 | | abandon his doctoral studies at the University of Chicago to | 9 | | become an active participant in the civil rights movement; and
| 10 | | WHEREAS, Immersing himself in civil rights work, Timuel | 11 | | Black served as the Chicago chair of the historic 1963 March on | 12 | | Washington;
as a pioneer in the independent Black political | 13 | | movement, he was one of the first African Americans in Chicago | 14 | | to challenge the "Regular Democratic Organization" and coined | 15 | | the phrase "Plantation Politics"; he ran for public office | 16 | | several times and was a leader in the massive voter | 17 | | registration campaign that resulted in the election of former | 18 | | Chicago Mayor Harold Washington; and
| 19 | | WHEREAS, In 2000, Timuel Black served as the lead | 20 | | plaintiff in Black v. McGuffage, a lawsuit that charged the | 21 | | Illinois voting system with systemic discrimination against | 22 | | minorities; and
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, In January of 2012, the Timuel D. Black Jr. | 2 | | Archive was officially inaugurated and opened to researchers; | 3 | | the massive archive of Timuel Black documents, letters, and | 4 | | memorabilia is housed in the Vivian Harsh Collection at the | 5 | | Carter G. Woodson Regional Library in Chicago; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, In 2008, Timuel Black received an honorary | 7 | | doctoral degree from his alma mater, Roosevelt University; in | 8 | | 2010 and again in 2015, he traveled to the Netherlands and The | 9 | | Hague to be honored and lecture at the annual Dr. Martin Luther | 10 | | King Day Dinner of the United States Embassy; in June of 2012, | 11 | | half a century after he withdrew from the University of | 12 | | Chicago in order to join Dr. King, he was awarded the 2012 | 13 | | Benton Medal for Distinguished Public Service from the | 14 | | University of Chicago and was the first person of color to | 15 | | receive this award;
in 2013, he was honored by the City of | 16 | | Chicago with the inaugural Chicago Champion of Freedom medal | 17 | | in recognition of his work in the civil rights movement both | 18 | | locally and nationally;
on December 9, 2018, he was awarded | 19 | | the French Legion of Honor by the French Consul General of | 20 | | Chicago during the gala celebration of his 100th birthday;
and
| 21 | | WHEREAS, Two volumes of Timuel Black's three-volume work, | 22 | | Bridges of Memory: Chicago's First Wave of Great Migration, | 23 | | have been published, and the third volume is in production; | 24 | | these books chronicle the history of Black Chicago from the |
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| 1 | | 1920s to the present; his memoir, Sacred Ground, which focuses | 2 | | heavily on his lifelong home of the Chicago's South Side, was | 3 | | published in December of 2019 by Northwestern University | 4 | | Press; therefore, be it
| 5 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 6 | | HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 7 | | we recognize the lifelong accomplishments of Timuel "Tim" D. | 8 | | Black Jr., respected educator, political activist, community | 9 | | leader, oral historian, philanthropist, and philosopher; and | 10 | | be it further
| 11 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 12 | | presented to Timuel Black as a symbol of our esteem and | 13 | | respect.
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