Bill Text: IL HR1449 | 2009-2010 | 96th General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Mourns the death of Bishop Arthur Brazier of Chicago.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2010-11-16 - Resolution Adopted [HR1449 Detail]
Download: Illinois-2009-HR1449-Introduced.html
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1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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2 | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | ||||||
3 | Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of Bishop | ||||||
4 | Arthur M. Brazier of Chicago, who passed away on October 22, | ||||||
5 | 2010; and
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6 | WHEREAS, He was born in Hyde Park, was forced out of high | ||||||
7 | school by the Depression, and worked in a laundry until he was | ||||||
8 | drafted into the United States Army in 1942, where he earned a | ||||||
9 | staff sergeant's stripes serving in a trucking company in India | ||||||
10 | and Burma; after the war, he took a high school correspondence | ||||||
11 | course and became a minister in 1951 while working as a letter | ||||||
12 | carrier; he graduated from the Moody Bible Institute in 1956 | ||||||
13 | after 6 years of night school; and
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14 | WHEREAS, He was the founding president of The Woodlawn | ||||||
15 | Organization and went from picketing Mayor Richard J. Daley to | ||||||
16 | being appointed by Mayor Daley's son to sit on the board of the | ||||||
17 | Public Building Commission; and
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18 | WHEREAS, Pastor Emeritus of the Apostolic Church of God, he | ||||||
19 | became a Bishop in the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, | ||||||
20 | helped bring the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. to Chicago in | ||||||
21 | 1966, and was a friend and onetime tennis partner of President | ||||||
22 | Obama; and
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1 | WHEREAS, In the 1960s, he started working with community | ||||||
2 | organizer Saul Alinsky and helped found The Woodlawn | ||||||
3 | Organization to battle slumlords and the University of | ||||||
4 | Chicago's efforts to displace Blacks south of 61st Street;
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5 | Bishop Brazier also helped organize a boycott of Chicago Public | ||||||
6 | Schools to protest the concentration of Black students in | ||||||
7 | mobile classrooms; Bishop Brazier joined forces with Johnson | ||||||
8 | Publishing Company founder John H. Johnson, Chicago Urban | ||||||
9 | League president Edwin C. "Bill" Berry, and other prominent | ||||||
10 | leaders to unite Chicagoans around the fight for civic and | ||||||
11 | economic equality; and
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12 | WHEREAS, In 1969, Bishop Brazier went to work for a | ||||||
13 | national group, Citizens Crusade Against Poverty, and a year | ||||||
14 | later, resigned from The Woodlawn Organization; working for | ||||||
15 | Citizens Crusade while based in Chicago, he consulted with | ||||||
16 | community groups across the country on housing and commercial | ||||||
17 | redevelopment, remaining active in the Woodlawn community; and
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18 | WHEREAS, Bishop Brazier was founder of the Woodlawn | ||||||
19 | Preservation and Investment Corporation, which acquired city | ||||||
20 | property at little cost, building low and mixed-income housing; | ||||||
21 | he was also chairman of the Fund for Community Development, and | ||||||
22 | fought to tear down the dilapidated and unused elevated | ||||||
23 | structure that then stretched along 63rd Street from Cottage |
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1 | Grove to Dorchester; after it's demolition, he built a new | ||||||
2 | church complex at 63rd and Dorchester, which many of his | ||||||
3 | congregants call the "Miracle on 63rd";
he retired from the | ||||||
4 | church two years ago; and
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5 | WHEREAS, Bishop Arthur M. Brazier is survived by his wife, | ||||||
6 | Esther Isabelle Brazier; his son, Reverend Byron T. Brazier; | ||||||
7 | his daughters, Lola Hillman, Janice Dortch, and Rosalyn | ||||||
8 | Shepherd; his 7 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren, and | ||||||
9 | his godson, Tyrone Stoudemire; therefore, be it
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10 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | ||||||
11 | NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | ||||||
12 | mourn, along with his family, friends, and congregation, the | ||||||
13 | passing of Bishop Arthur M. Brazier; and be it further
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14 | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | ||||||
15 | presented to the family of Bishop Arthur M. Brazier as a symbol | ||||||
16 | of our sincere sympathy.
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