Bill Text: IL SR0801 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Recognizes the Black and African-American communities of the 7th Senate District and expresses a deep appreciation and respect for the myriad of Black communities that currently reside in and have lived in the 7th District. Celebrates the history, achievements, culture, activism, and countless other contributions that Black people from a vast and beautiful diaspora have made to the 7th Senate District of Illinois on the far north side of Chicago.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-02-28 - Referred to Assignments [SR0801 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-SR0801-Introduced.html

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SENATE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The 7th Senate District is one of the most
ethnically diverse districts in the State of Illinois; and
WHEREAS, The district has long been and increasingly is
home to Black people from every corner of the vast and
beautiful Black diaspora; and
WHEREAS, The Black and African-American communities of the
district have a rich history of achievements, culture,
activism, and countless other contributions to the vibrancy
and uniqueness of the district; and
WHEREAS, Graceland Cemetery, located in the district in
Lakeview, is the permanent resting place for 29 leaders of the
Underground Railroad network that helped many thousands of
enslaved African-American people find freedom; and
WHEREAS, Uptown was one of the first places
African-Americans could live on the north side outside the
Black Belt, despite experiencing intense racism and
discrimination once they moved there; and
WHEREAS, The family of Sen. Mike Simmons, who represents
the 7th District, was one of the first Black families to move

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into and integrate the Lincoln Square neighborhood just two
years before he was born there in the early 1980s; and
WHEREAS, Sen. Simmons, who is of Ethiopian and
African-American descent, is proud to have grown up in one of
the very first scattered-site public housing apartment
buildings built on the north side of Chicago in Lincoln Square
in 1981; and
WHEREAS, Sen. Simmons is the first Black person to
represent the far north side of Chicago's 7th District in the
Illinois State Senate; and
WHEREAS, Black elders currently residing in the 7th
District as longtime residents were some of the first Black
people decades ago to move into communities such as Buena
Park, Rogers Park, Lincoln Square, Andersonville, Budlong
Woods, Uptown, Edgewater, Lakeview, West Ridge, and other
areas of the district; and
WHEREAS, Black elders have left a rich legacy in the
district by creating safe spaces and being role models for
youth of all races and ethnicities; and
WHEREAS, The Black Panther Party established a legacy of
mutual aid and humanity across racial lines, which continues

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to shape the community-led mutual aid efforts in Uptown, on
Argyle Street, in Rogers Park, along the Winthrop and Kenmore
corridors, and in other 7th District areas; and
WHEREAS, The 7th District is home to the historic Winthrop
Family Garden, which honors the legacy of African-American
families who made the historic move during the Great Migration
and began building a Black residential community along the
4600 North block of Winthrop Avenue as early as the year 1910;
and
WHEREAS, Winthrop Avenue was the only block on which Black
families could live because of segregation, with scores of
racial covenants hindering them from moving onto other blocks
in Uptown; with only 18 families living on 4600 North Winthrop
Avenue, they formed a community that supported each other and
became one family despite the restrictive covenants intended
to keep Uptown segregated; the Winthrop Family Garden stands
as a place of remembrance and celebrates what it took to make
Uptown what it is today; and
WHEREAS, Many Black residents, including whole villages
and communities, have been displaced from the far north side
over the decades, including from parts of neighborhoods within
the 7th District; and

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WHEREAS, Those same Black residents left their mark on
nearly every neighborhood in the north lake front district;
and
WHEREAS, The future of the 7th District is as bright as the
past, as Black people continue to run small businesses of
every type, continue to graduate from schools, and assume
leadership roles in their communities, in the region, and in
our state in every imaginable way; and
WHEREAS, Uptown features small businesses from West and
Central Africa, such as Osas African Kitchen, the Nigerian
Kitchen Restaurant, the Mukase African Restaurant, the Makola
African Supermarket, Amen African Braiding, the Iyanze Bar &
Cafe, The Good Shepherd Enterprise, B&Q Afro Root Cuisine, the
Queen African Hair Braiding Salon, and Chem's African Hair
Braiding, among others; and
WHEREAS, Edgewater, Uptown, and Rogers Park are home to an
extensive Eritrean and Ethiopian population spread along
Broadway and Clark Street with family-run businesses such as
the Axum Ethiopian Restaurant, the Ethiopian Diamond, the
Awash Ethiopian Restaurant, Tesfa Ethiopian Cuisine, the Selam
Ethiopian Kitchen, Queen Sheba, the Ethio Mart, the Mella
Cafe, the Demera Restaurant, the Kukulu Market, the Ethio
Mart, the Denden Restaurant, and Meron Injera; and

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WHEREAS, Howard Avenue in Rogers Park is home to many
Black-owned Caribbean small businesses, such as the Kizin
Creole Restaurant, Caribbean Cuts, the Good To Go Restaurant,
the Caribbean American Baking Co., and Ashley Beauty Supply;
and
WHEREAS, The 7th District is home to many Black Americans
and African-Americans and is comprised of a glorious multitude
of ethnic groups from all over Africa, including those from
Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Senegal, Mali,
Togo, Congo, Cameroon, Sudan, the Caribbean, and South
America, many of whom found refuge along Broadway and Sheridan
in Uptown and along Howard Avenue in Rogers Park and built a
community; and
WHEREAS, The Bryn Mawr Historic District in Edgewater is
home to a growing number of new African-American and Black and
LGBTQ+-owned small businesses that bring vibrancy to this
historic corridor; and
WHEREAS, Ebony DeBerry, a Black woman and lifelong
resident of Rogers Park, wanted to build a community of people
who lifted each other and gave back to the community she had
growing up; she helped develop ONE Northside, which is a mixed
income, multi-ethnic, intergenerational community-based

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organization that brings together the diverse communities of
Chicago's far north side and uses collective power to address
injustice and advance the community's interests; she has
created safe spaces for women of color to come together, share
resources, and encourage each other; and
WHEREAS, Jackie Taylor, a Black woman and longtime
resident of Uptown, founded the Black Ensemble Theater in
1976, which is the first cultural center in the nation
dedicated to eradicating racism through the arts; the Black
Ensemble Theater is a crown jewel of the 7th District,
bringing together not only Black residents but people from all
racial and ethnic backgrounds to celebrate through free
outdoor concerts for the community on the 4400 block of North
Clark Street, unique plays, and other programming that
celebrates the arts in the district; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Ana Vicky Castillo, an advocate for the
education of the Latin and African diaspora, created the Afro
Latino Historical Society and the African Diaspora Museum; she
has worked tirelessly to reclaim the legacy of the forgotten
history of the African-American and Latin community; she has
helped inform the public of the great achievements of the
Afro-Latino and African immigrant communities; therefore, be
it

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RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL
ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we recognize the Black
and African-American communities of the 7th Senate District
and express our deep appreciation and respect for the myriad
of Black communities that currently reside in and have lived
in the 7th District; and be it further