[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 185 (Thursday, October 21, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1123]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF DR. TIMUEL BLACK

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOBBY L. RUSH

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 21, 2021

  Mr. RUSH. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor and celebrate the life 
and legacy of an extraordinary man and international icon: civil rights 
activist and educator, Dr. Timuel Dixon Black, Jr.
  Timuel Black was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1918. His father was 
a sharecropper, and his grandparents were formerly enslaved. Black's 
parents moved to Chicago when he was an infant as part of the Great 
Migration of Black Americans moving North, seeking a better life.
  Black grew up in Bronzeville, in the densely populated ``Black Belt'' 
where African Americans were confined due to Chicago's discriminatory 
housing laws. Black attended Burke Elementary School and DuSable High 
School, and was drafted into the Army in 1943, where he fought on D-Day 
and in the Battle of the Bulge. Black visited the Buchenwald 
concentration camp shortly after it was liberated and later said that 
the atrocities he saw there motivated him to dedicate his life towards 
peace and justice for all people.
  Upon returning home to Chicago, Black attended Roosevelt University, 
where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in sociology, and continued 
his education at the University of Chicago, earning masters degrees in 
both sociology and history. Black spent several years teaching high 
school in Chicago, Illinois and Gary, Indiana before becoming a 
professor at Loop College, which was later renamed Harold Washington 
College.
  In 1955, Black saw Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. deliver a 
riveting sermon on television. He was so impressed that he immediately 
traveled to Alabama to meet Dr. King. That initial meeting would lead 
Professor Black to help build support networks for Dr. King while Dr. 
King commuted between Chicago and Alabama. In 1960, A. Philip Randolph 
enlisted Black to run the Chicago division of the Negro American Labor 
Council, an advocacy organization that would go on to organize the 
landmark March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Black helped 
organize the ``freedom trains'' that took thousands of Chicagoans to 
the event. More than 4,000 Chicagoans ended up attending the March on 
Washington. Over the course of his life, Black worked to mobilize 
African American voters and increase African American representation in 
Illinois politics. Black ran for office a number of times and 
consistently agitated against Chicago's machine politics. In 1963, 
Black ran for alderman as part of a coalition of independent Black 
candidates running against ``Silent Six'' machine incumbents, notably 
saying that it was time to ``end plantation politics.''
  In 1982, Black suggested to his childhood friend, Illinois U.S. 
Representative Harold Washington, that he should consider running for 
Mayor of Chicago. In the fight to combat rising poverty, inadequate 
housing, and unemployment in Chicago's African American and Latino 
communities, Black spearheaded an effort to support Washington's 
campaign by registering 263,000 new voters and raising more than $1 
million. In 1983, thanks in large part to Black's efforts, Harold 
Washington became Chicago's first Black mayor. In 1987, soon after 
Washington's death in office, Black led a successful advocacy campaign 
to rename Loop College in Washington's honor.
  A renowned author and historian, Black wrote an acclaimed oral 
history on the migration of Black Americans to Chicago from the South, 
titled ``Bridges of Memory.'' Later, in 2019, he published a memoir 
titled ``Sacred Ground: The Chicago Streets of Timuel Black.'' For 
nearly his entire life, Timuel Black made the South Side of Chicago his 
home and Bronzeville his open classroom, where he taught and mentored 
future educators, community activists, and business and political 
leaders.
  Madam Speaker, Timuel Black spent every day of his 102 years on this 
earth pouring his best into others.
  As an educator, an activist, a civil rights leader, a confidante, an 
elder, and a sage, Tim gave his all to all of us.
  He was at the center--the beating heart--of the Black community, the 
Chicago community, the national community, and the international 
community. Black's contributions were felt in countless historic 
events: Nelson Mandela's election as President of South Africa, Harold 
Washington's election as Mayor of Chicago, Barack Obama's election as 
the first Black President of the United States, Jesse Jackson's 
campaign for President, and Carol Moseley Braun's election as the first 
Black woman in the U.S. Senate, among others.
  His loss is deeply felt in Chicago, in this Nation, and indeed across 
the entire world. My thoughts and prayers are with Tim's wife and 
family, and with all who loved and were impacted by this truly great 
man.

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