Full Text of SR0422 95th General Assembly
SR0422 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| SENATE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to | 3 |
| learn of the death of Earl Durham of Chicago, who passed away | 4 |
| on October 27, 2007; and
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| WHEREAS, Earl L. Durham was the youngest child of seven | 6 |
| born to parents who came to Chicago from Mississippi during the | 7 |
| Great Migration of the 1920s; he worked as a waiter on the | 8 |
| Illinois Central Railroad until being drafted during World War | 9 |
| II; after his service to his country ended, he took advantage | 10 |
| of the G.I. Bill and enrolled in college; he was a graduate of | 11 |
| Roosevelt College and the University of Chicago; and
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| WHEREAS, Mr. Durham received his degree in chemistry and | 13 |
| worked in a chemical plant; he later organized parents in | 14 |
| Woodlawn and Hyde Park to pressure the Board of Education to | 15 |
| improve Hyde Park High School so that parents of all races | 16 |
| would want to send their children there; over the next few | 17 |
| years, Earl Durham made his living studying the | 18 |
| psychopharmacology of substance abuse and serving as research | 19 |
| director at a halfway house for ex-offenders and heroin | 20 |
| addicts, where part of his job was to organize an advisory | 21 |
| committee of community residents; and
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| WHEREAS, Earl Durham made the decision to earn a master's |
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| degree at the School of Social Service Administration (SSA) at | 2 |
| the University of Chicago, and upon graduation was hired by the | 3 |
| School as a professor; he taught at SSA for 12 years and was | 4 |
| able to influence many students to consider community | 5 |
| organizing as a career; and
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| WHEREAS, In the 1970s, Earl Durham joined with Dr. Don | 7 |
| Moore as a founding member of Designs for Change, a group | 8 |
| committed to changing the Chicago school system for the | 9 |
| betterment of all students; he continued to work at the | 10 |
| University, with Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI) | 11 |
| and encouraging others to make a difference; and | 12 |
| WHEREAS, Earl L. Durham was preceded in death by his son, | 13 |
| Claude Durham; his brothers, Richard Durham and Curtis Durham; | 14 |
| his sisters, Winifred Holland and Marie Durham; and
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| WHEREAS, Earl L. Durham is survived by his three sons | 16 |
| Gerald, Eric, and Jody; his brother, Caldwell Durham; his | 17 |
| sister, Clotilde Smith; his sister-in-law, Clarice Durham; his | 18 |
| two grandchildren Cheyane and Jaz Durham; and many nieces, | 19 |
| nephews and a host of friends; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL | 21 |
| ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn, along with | 22 |
| his family and friends, the passing of Earl L. Durham; and be |
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| it further
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| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 3 |
| presented to the family of Earl L. Durham as a symbol of our | 4 |
| sympathy.
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