[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 6 (Wednesday, January 18, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E32]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 TRIBUTE TO THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF DR. TIMUEL D. BLACK, JR. OF CHICAGO

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOBBY L. RUSH

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 18, 2012

  Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to the life and legacy 
of my friend and constituent Dr. Timuel D. Black, Jr. on the occasion 
today of the unveiling of the ``Timuel D. Black Jr. Papers'' at the 
Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and 
Literature of the Chicago Public Library's Carter G. Woodson Regional 
Branch.
  The grandson of slaves, Dr. Black was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 
1919. He and his family, who were part of the first big wave of 
African-Americans to migrate from the South, came to Chicago when he 
was just 8 months old. He is the product of the Chicago Public Schools 
system, graduating from DuSable High School and completed his 
undergraduate degree at Roosevelt University and graduate degree at the 
University of Chicago.
  Dr. Black taught in the Chicago Public Schools for 40 years, served 
as a Dean of Transfer Programs and Vice President in the City Colleges 
of Colleges. He is Professor Emeritus of Social Science at the City 
Colleges' Harold Washington College. Dr. Black is a revered political 
and social activist, community leader, oral historian, and philosopher.
  It was while teaching in the City Colleges system that Black trained 
himself to be an oral historian. His collection includes the extended 
versions of the 400 interviews that were excerpted for Black's 
celebrated two-book series, Bridges of Memory: Chicago's First Wave of 
Great Migration, which chronicled black Chicago history from the 1920s 
to the present.
  Dr. Black was a pioneer in the independent, progressive black 
political movement in Chicago which eventually saw the rise of 
Chicago's first Black Mayor, the late Harold Washington. Black has 
spent his life furthering the cause of social justice, and promoting 
the political, educational and social empowerment of African Americans.
  The ``Black Papers'', containing nearly 260 archival boxes, is the 
largest collection assembled at the historic Vivian G. Harsh Research 
Collection in more than two decades. It contains material from the 1963 
March on Washington, rare photos of Black with the late Dr. Martin 
Luther King, Jr. and a vast jazz collection featuring Duke Ellington 
and others.
  Mr. Speaker, Dr. Timuel D. Black, Jr.'s life has been seen through 
the lenses of discrimination, restrictive housing covenants, marches 
and protests for human rights and dignity, and struggles for social and 
political self-determination and empowerment that have been preserved 
and will be unveiled for Chicago, this nation, and indeed the world to 
now see. I commend him and the Chicago Public Library for their 
forethought in capturing, recording, and displaying an important part 
of American history. I am privileged to enter these words in the 
Congressional Record of the U.S. House of Representatives.

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