Full Text of HR0798 94th General Assembly
HR0798 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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HR0798 |
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| HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, The members of the House of Representatives of the | 3 |
| State of Illinois learned with sadness of the death of Jorja | 4 |
| English Palmer on December 29, 2005; and
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| WHEREAS, She was born June 16, 1930, in New Madrid, | 6 |
| Missouri, to Frank and Elizabeth (Bessie) Williams; when she | 7 |
| was four years old, both of her parents died; she and her | 8 |
| brothers and sisters were brought to Chicago, Illinois, where | 9 |
| they lived with their aunt, Esther Mack, on Chicago's south | 10 |
| side; and
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| WHEREAS, She attended Willard and Forestville Elementary | 12 |
| Schools; she graduated from DuSable
High School and Chicago | 13 |
| City Junior Colleges with honors; while in elementary school, | 14 |
| she participated in a special program for the Study of Gifted | 15 |
| Children, and in high school, she was singled out by several | 16 |
| teachers to join the NAACP and Youth Committee, involvement | 17 |
| that began to shape and mold her life for all time to come; and
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| WHEREAS, In 1952, she married Jami English, Sr., and in | 19 |
| this union they became parents of four children, Darien Yvonne, | 20 |
| Karen Elaine, Jami, Jr., and Stanford; by 1960, she was head of | 21 |
| the West Chatham Improvement Organization Education Committee | 22 |
| and was sent by that body to the newly formed Chicago Community | 23 |
| Council Organization; in the 1970s, she engaged in the fight | 24 |
| for an African-American school board president for the Chicago | 25 |
| Board of Public Schools and made history as a delegate to the | 26 |
| National Black Political Assembly in Gary, Indiana; and
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| WHEREAS, In 1975, she married journalist and political | 28 |
| pundit Lu Palmer; in 1981 they made a move for
real community | 29 |
| power when they convened "Toward a Black Mayor" at Malcolm X | 30 |
| College; it was Jorja Palmer who created the process for | 31 |
| selecting a black mayoral candidate; together, the Palmers |
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| launched the largest voter registration drive in Chicago's | 2 |
| history, which created the political environment in the | 3 |
| African-American community that persuaded Harold Washington to | 4 |
| launch his candidacy for mayor; and
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| WHEREAS, She worked with S.N.C.C., CORE, SCLE, and the | 6 |
| NAACP, the Urban League, the Black Panthers, the Parent | 7 |
| Equalizers, Operation PUSH, the Garfield Organization, WSO, | 8 |
| and many other groups; with Arnita Boswell, Nancy Jefferson, | 9 |
| and Lenore Cartwright, Mrs. Palmer helped found the League of | 10 |
| Black Women; she went on to work in the political thrust with | 11 |
| leaders such as Allan Streeter, Danny K. Davis, Rev. Jesse L. | 12 |
| Jackson, Sammy Rayner, Attorney William Cousins, Anna | 13 |
| Langford, Barbara A. Sizemore, Bobby Rush, Lovana Jones, | 14 |
| Dorothy Tillman, Wesley South, Cirilo McSween, Minister Louis | 15 |
| Farrakhan, Bob Starks, Conrad Worrill, Dr. Martin Luther King, | 16 |
| Malcolm X, Lu Palmer, and many others; and
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| WHEREAS, She became more involved with the communications | 18 |
| aspect of the Movement, drafting press releases, summarizing | 19 |
| the slogans, the media events, and the general call-to-arms for | 20 |
| CBUC's thrust Toward a Black Mayor; she helped Lu with his | 21 |
| newspaper, The Black X-Press, and she stood beside him in every | 22 |
| venture of his life, from an earlier battle to get an African | 23 |
| American chosen as school board president, to the crusade to | 24 |
| elect Harold Washington, to their joint membership in an | 25 |
| inter-racial political organization called PRO-CAN | 26 |
| (Progressive Chicago Area Network), and in countless other | 27 |
| causes; on October 22, 1982, Jorja founded and established the | 28 |
| Stanford English Home for Boys, the first group home for | 29 |
| African-American children in Illinois, which was named for her | 30 |
| autistic son, Stanford English, who is deceased; and
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| WHEREAS, The passing of Jorja English Palmer has been | 32 |
| deeply felt by many, especially her children Darien Y. Simon | 33 |
| (Horace "Les"), Karen E. English, and Jami D. English, Jr. |
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| (Karen); her grandchildren, Patrick Simon (Nolanna), Natilee | 2 |
| Simon, and Jelani and Imani English; her great-grandchildren, | 3 |
| Nya and Patrick (P.J.) Simon; her stepson, Lu Palmer, III; and | 4 |
| her many cousins, nieces, nephews, friends, and co-workers; | 5 |
| therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 7 |
| NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 8 |
| we mourn the passing of Jorja English Palmer, a woman whose | 9 |
| contributions to the African-American community of Chicago | 10 |
| will long be remembered, and we extend our deepest sympathy to | 11 |
| her family, friends, and all who knew and loved her; and be it | 12 |
| further
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| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 14 |
| presented to her family as an expression of our sincerest | 15 |
| condolences.
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