Full Text of SR0725 096th General Assembly
SR0725 96TH 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 passing of the former village president of | 4 |
| Maywood, Ralph Conner, who passed away on March 13, 2010; and
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| WHEREAS, He was born on April 20, 1948 in Maywood; he and | 6 |
| his wife, Arletha, met as community activists in 1971 and | 7 |
| married in 1974; and
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| WHEREAS, As a college student during the Martin Luther King | 9 |
| riots and Democratic Convention riots in Chicago, Ralph Conner | 10 |
| was directly engaged in movement activity; he became a | 11 |
| Pan-Africanist relocating to Atlanta, Georgia and working with | 12 |
| the Atlanta Urban League under the Nixon Black Capitalism | 13 |
| programs designed to spur entrepreneurship among | 14 |
| African-Americans; during his time in Atlanta he was exposed to | 15 |
| the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE); and | 16 |
| WHEREAS, He became involved with the Small Business | 17 |
| Administration and studied the rudiments of financing and | 18 |
| recordkeeping for profit; he later relocated back to Chicago to | 19 |
| re-enroll in Roosevelt University to study accounting, | 20 |
| business administration, marketing and advertising, and real | 21 |
| estate development; and |
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| WHEREAS, Mr. Conner was a popular spokesman for taxpayers, | 2 |
| government reform, school choice, gun rights, and other issues; | 3 |
| he often appeared as a pundit on Comcast, WTTW, and Bruce | 4 |
| DuMont's nationally syndicated "Beyond the Beltway" radio | 5 |
| program; and
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| WHEREAS, In 2008, Mr. Conner launched the Chicago office of | 7 |
| the Congress of Racial Equality; in 2009, he appeared in "No | 8 |
| Guns for Negroes," a documentary film on the Second Amendment; | 9 |
| he was working on a film on black World War II veterans when he | 10 |
| died; and
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| WHEREAS, During his twenty years of public service, he | 12 |
| served as Maywood village president, director of planning and | 13 |
| development/building commissioner, and enterprise zone | 14 |
| administrator; he ran for village president of the Village of | 15 |
| Maywood in 2000, capturing the office in April of 2001; in 2005 | 16 |
| he took the position of local government relations manager for | 17 |
| the Heartland Institute; and
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| WHEREAS, Mr. Conner also worked with the U.S. Conference of | 19 |
| Mayors and the Illinois Terrorism Task Force and was a | 20 |
| certified Illinois assessing official; and | 21 |
| WHEREAS, Ralph Conner is survived by his wife, Arletha | 22 |
| Conner; his daughters, Isis Aida Ogoun Conner and Zenzi Dara |
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| Dayo Conner; his sons, Ralph W. Conner Jr. and Thomas Leon | 2 |
| Conner; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL | 4 |
| ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn, along with | 5 |
| his family and friends, the passing of Ralph Conner; and be it | 6 |
| further
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| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 8 |
| presented to the family of Ralph Conner as a symbol of our | 9 |
| sincere sympathy.
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