Bill Text: IL SR0725 | 2009-2010 | 96th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Mourns the passing of the former village president of Maywood, Ralph Conner.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)

Status: (Passed) 2010-03-25 - Resolution Adopted [SR0725 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2009-SR0725-Introduced.html

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SENATE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to
learn of the passing of the former village president of
Maywood, Ralph Conner, who passed away on March 13, 2010; and
WHEREAS, He was born on April 20, 1948 in Maywood; he and
his wife, Arletha, met as community activists in 1971 and
married in 1974; and
WHEREAS, As a college student during the Martin Luther King
riots and Democratic Convention riots in Chicago, Ralph Conner
was directly engaged in movement activity; he became a
Pan-Africanist relocating to Atlanta, Georgia and working with
the Atlanta Urban League under the Nixon Black Capitalism
programs designed to spur entrepreneurship among
African-Americans; during his time in Atlanta he was exposed to
the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE); and
WHEREAS, He became involved with the Small Business
Administration and studied the rudiments of financing and
recordkeeping for profit; he later relocated back to Chicago to
re-enroll in Roosevelt University to study accounting,
business administration, marketing and advertising, and real
estate development; and

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WHEREAS, Mr. Conner was a popular spokesman for taxpayers,
government reform, school choice, gun rights, and other issues;
he often appeared as a pundit on Comcast, WTTW, and Bruce
DuMont's nationally syndicated "Beyond the Beltway" radio
program; and
WHEREAS, In 2008, Mr. Conner launched the Chicago office of
the Congress of Racial Equality; in 2009, he appeared in "No
Guns for Negroes," a documentary film on the Second Amendment;
he was working on a film on black World War II veterans when he
died; and
WHEREAS, During his twenty years of public service, he
served as Maywood village president, director of planning and
development/building commissioner, and enterprise zone
administrator; he ran for village president of the Village of
Maywood in 2000, capturing the office in April of 2001; in 2005
he took the position of local government relations manager for
the Heartland Institute; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Conner also worked with the U.S. Conference of
Mayors and the Illinois Terrorism Task Force and was a
certified Illinois assessing official; and
WHEREAS, Ralph Conner is survived by his wife, Arletha
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
Conner; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL
ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn, along with
his family and friends, the passing of Ralph Conner; and be it
further
RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
presented to the family of Ralph Conner as a symbol of our
sincere sympathy.