Bill Text: IL HR0423 | 2021-2022 | 102nd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Recognizes the lifelong accomplishments of Timuel "Tim" D. Black Jr.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2021-09-09 - Resolution Adopted [HR0423 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2021-HR0423-Introduced.html

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HR0423 LRB102 19599 ECR 28367 r
HOUSE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
Representatives wish to recognize Timuel "Tim" D. Black Jr.
for his accomplishments and especially his local and national
work in the civil rights movement; and
WHEREAS, Timuel Black was born in Birmingham, Alabama on
December 7, 1918; his family became part of the first Great
Migration of African Americans from the Deep South and settled
in Chicago in 1919; during his early school years at Edmund
Burke Elementary School and DuSable High School, he worked as
a paper boy for the Chicago Defender; as a teen during the
Great Depression, he worked as a delivery boy for a local
grocery store, where he had his first experience as an
organizer; and
WHEREAS, In the early thirties, Timuel Black helped
organize the "Don't Spend Your Money Where You Can't Work"
campaign, which led to the formation of the Negro Retail
Clerks Union; in the 1940s, he was an active organizer of the
Congress on Racial Equality (CORE), which worked to
desegregate Chicago department stores and public
accommodations; and
WHEREAS, Timuel Black served in the U.S. Army during World

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War II and was awarded four battle stars and a Croix de Guerre,
the highest military honor accorded by France to non-citizens;
and
WHEREAS, After the war, Timuel Black received a bachelor's
degree from Roosevelt University and later pursued a master's
degree from the University of Chicago; in 1955, after seeing
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on television, he was motivated to
abandon his doctoral studies at the University of Chicago to
become an active participant in the civil rights movement; and
WHEREAS, Immersing himself in civil rights work, Timuel
Black served as the Chicago chair of the historic 1963 March on
Washington; as a pioneer in the independent Black political
movement, he was one of the first African Americans in Chicago
to challenge the "Regular Democratic Organization" and coined
the phrase "Plantation Politics"; he ran for public office
several times and was a leader in the massive voter
registration campaign that resulted in the election of former
Chicago Mayor Harold Washington; and
WHEREAS, In 2000, Timuel Black served as the lead
plaintiff in Black v. McGuffage, a lawsuit that charged the
Illinois voting system with systemic discrimination against
minorities; and

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WHEREAS, In January of 2012, the Timuel D. Black Jr.
Archive was officially inaugurated and opened to researchers;
the massive archive of Timuel Black documents, letters, and
memorabilia is housed in the Vivian Harsh Collection at the
Carter G. Woodson Regional Library in Chicago; and
WHEREAS, In 2008, Timuel Black received an honorary
doctoral degree from his alma mater, Roosevelt University; in
2010 and again in 2015, he traveled to the Netherlands and The
Hague to be honored and lecture at the annual Dr. Martin Luther
King Day Dinner of the United States Embassy; in June of 2012,
half a century after he withdrew from the University of
Chicago in order to join Dr. King, he was awarded the 2012
Benton Medal for Distinguished Public Service from the
University of Chicago and was the first person of color to
receive this award; in 2013, he was honored by the City of
Chicago with the inaugural Chicago Champion of Freedom medal
in recognition of his work in the civil rights movement both
locally and nationally; on December 9, 2018, he was awarded
the French Legion of Honor by the French Consul General of
Chicago during the gala celebration of his 100th birthday; and
WHEREAS, Two volumes of Timuel Black's three-volume work,
Bridges of Memory: Chicago's First Wave of Great Migration,
have been published, and the third volume is in production;
these books chronicle the history of Black Chicago from the

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1920s to the present; his memoir, Sacred Ground, which focuses
heavily on his lifelong home of the Chicago's South Side, was
published in December of 2019 by Northwestern University
Press; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
we recognize the lifelong accomplishments of Timuel "Tim" D.
Black Jr., respected educator, political activist, community
leader, oral historian, philanthropist, and philosopher; and
be it further
RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
presented to Timuel Black as a symbol of our esteem and
respect.