Resolution
1954 Decision |
Illinois Commission on the 50th Anniversary The Impact of Brown on The Voters' Right Act The Brown v. Board decision has also served as an impetus for other civil rights legislation that have increased and empowered African-Americans political participation. The Voter’s Rights Act is one apparatus. This Act has helped to increase the number of African-Americans elected to Congress, state legislatures and local branches of government. In Illinois, the number of African-Americans elected to the Illinois General Assembly has grown significantly over the past century. For example, the first African-American state legislator, Representative John W. E. Thomas, was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1876. Since that time, Illinois has elected approximately 125 African-American legislators to the Illinois General Assembly. The Illinois State Senate elected its second African-American President, Senator Emil Jones, Jr. from the 14 th District, representing the south side of Chicago . The late Cecil A. Partee, also from the south side of Chicago , was the first African-American to be elected to this distinguished and powerful position in Illinois . The late Mayor Harold Washington was among the illustrious legislators who served in the Illinois House and Illinois Senate. In 1981, he was elected Congressman for the First Congressional District in Illinois . As Congressman, he sponsored the extension of the Voters' Rights Act. In 1983, he was elected as the first African-American Mayor of the City of Chicago. Other African-American members of the Illinois General Assembly have served in various powerful leadership positions in both the Illinois House and Senate, ranging from Assistant Majority/Minority Leaders to Senate Appropriations I Chair. Fred J. Smith and Corneal A. Davis each spent 36 years in the General Assembly. The Dean of the Illinois House of Representatives, Smith was the longest serving member of the chamber. He served 24 years. Davis served in the Illinois House during his entire career. Carol Moseley Braun left the Illinois House of Representatives in 1988 to become the Cook County Recorder of Deeds. Later, she was the first African-American woman elected to the United States Senate. Earlean Collins was the first African-American woman elected tothe State Senate and the first to serve in leadership. Senators Margaret Smith and Earlean Collins were the first African-American to join their spouses in service to the State of Illinois . Secretary of State Jesse White, a former member of the Illinois House, became Cook County Recorder of Deeds in 1993. He is the first African-American to be elected Illinois Secretary of State. Senator Barack Obama is the first African-American who has been catapulted to a level of becoming the first African- American president of the United States . Representative Eddie Washington, of Waukegan , is the first African-American legislator to be elected from Lake County , Illinois . African-American legislators have been instrumental in passing major laws that have empowered the African-American and other communities socially, economically, educationally, and politically. Some examples of significant legislation that they have passed to empower the African-American community are Chapter I funds to equalize funding for minority disadvantaged children in the Chicago Public Schools; the judicial sub-circuit legislation, which increased the number of African- American judges by approximately 200 percent; capital funds to build a new Kennedy-King College; capital funds to construct a new Library, Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center, and a new child care center at Chicago State University; construction dollars to reconstruct the Dan Ryan Expressway; capital dollars to construct the Bronzeville Children Museum and The Beverly Art Center and renovation of the DuSable Museum of African-American History; creation of the Illinois Human Rights Commission; passage of the Illinois Housing Trust Fund, the Death Penalty, racial profiling, Illinois Fair Housing Act, the Expungement Act, and revision to the Reapportionment Act, which resulted in the election of three African- American Congressmen for Illinois. BibliographyBarnes, Eugene . Former Member of the Illinois House of Representatives. Personal Interview. September 2004. Know Your African-American State Legislator: Illinois Legislative Black Caucus. Pioneers in the Struggle: The History of African-Americans in the Illinois General Assembly: 1877 – 2001. (2001-2002). Video cassetteecd-rom. The History Maker. Share the Vision Reception Honoring The Honorable Cecil A. Partee at Montay College . Video Tape. June 13,1994 . Washington, Eddie. Member of the Illinois House of Representatives - D-District 60. Personal Interview. 25 September 2004 . Williams, Paul. Former Member of the Illinois House of Representatives. Personal Interview. September 2004. |
Illinois Commission on the 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education Contact: Executive Director Ollie McLemore |