[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 116 (Wednesday, August 17, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 17, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                TRIBUTE TO A GREAT LEADER: CECIL PARTEE

  (Mr. DURBIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam Speaker, Illinois and the Nation lost a great 
leader yesterday, Cecil Partee, the Illinois Senate's first black 
president, died in Chicago.
  As the first African-American in Illinois' history to preside over a 
chamber of the State legislature, he was truly a pioneer. Cecil 
Partee's life story traces the progress we have made in race relations 
in America. Cecil Partee was born in Arkansas in 1921, the son of a 
teacher. He was a brilliant student in high school and college. When he 
graduated from college, he applied for admission to the University of 
Arkansas Law School. He passed the admission test, but that law school 
was all white, so the State of Arkansas told Cecil Partee that they 
would pay his tuition for any law school he could be admitted to 
outside of the State of Arkansas. It turned out that he was admitted to 
Northwestern University Law School in Chicago. Arkansas' loss was 
Illinois' gain.

                              {time}  1010

  Cecil Partee graduated from Northwestern Law School and was admitted 
to the bar in Illinois. He served five times in the Illinois House, and 
then served in the Illinois Senate, and was president of the State 
Senate for two terms. During that time Cecil Partee sponsored fair 
employment legislation, open housing consumer rights legislation. He 
was the first black in Illinois running for attorney general in 1976.
  Cecil Partee was my friend and my boss. I count myself fortunate to 
have learned the craft of politics at his side, and, equally important, 
to have learned that there is real happiness to be found in fighting 
the good political fight.
  Cecil Partee is survived by his wife, Paris, granddaughters, and 
family. We join today in celebrating his life and mourning his loss.

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