The Illinois Legislative Black Caucus is an American

political organization A political organization is any organization that involves itself in the political process, including political parties, non-governmental organizations, and special interest advocacy groups. Political organizations are those engaged in politi ...

composed of

African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

elected to the

Illinois Legislature The Illinois General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois. It has two chambers, the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in 18 ...

Priorities

The primary mission of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus is "to assure that the interests of African American citizens are given equitable representation in the General Assembly and that legislative action is directed to address those interests." The Caucus's efforts have focused in the areas of housing, health & welfare, education, employment and minority business enterprise. Specific priorities include: *Reform the current education funding inequalities in Illinois Schools *Develop a comprehensive job training program, which will focus on the top ten zip code areas with the highest unemployment statistics. *Make Illinois a SAC (State Apprenticeship Council) state. *Restore education classes to all prisons. *Develop comprehensive expungement legislation.

Current membership

Officers are elected from within the Caucus with equal representation from both the House and Senate members.

Officers

The following legislators are officers of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus for the 102nd General Assembly.

Senate Members

House Members

History

African Americans in the Illinois General Assembly have had the longest uninterrupted presence in any state legislature in the United States, dating back to 1882. The first African American in the Illinois House of Representatives,

John W. E. Thomas John William Edinburgh Thomas ( May 1, 1847 – December 18, 1899) was an American businessman, educator, and Illinois politician. Born into slavery in Alabama, he moved to Chicago after the Civil War, where he became a prominent community leade ...

of Chicago, was elected in 1876, and after not being re-nominated in 1878 and 1880, returned to the House in 1882. The number of African-Americans in the House increased to two in 1912. Adelbert H. Roberts became the first African American in the Illinois Senate in 1924. Roberts, in 1927, became the first to chair a legislative committee, the Senate Committee on Criminal Procedure. Until 1934, all of the African-Americans elected to the General Assembly were Republicans, after which the African-American presence in the legislature gradually shifted to the Democratic caucus.

Floy Clements Floy Mae Clements (née Stephens November 20, 1891 – September 29, 1973) was an American politician in Illinois notable for being the first African American woman to serve in the Illinois General Assembly upon her election to the Illinois Ho ...

(1958) and Earlene Collins (1977) became the first African-American women to be elected to the House and Senate, respectively. Cecil A. Partee rose to become the first Minority Leader (1973) and President of the Senate (1975). The Caucus originated in a study group formed by

Harold Washington Harold Lee Washington (April 15, 1922 – November 25, 1987) was an American lawyer and politician who was the 51st Mayor of Chicago. Washington became the first African American to be elected as the city's mayor in April 1983. He served as ma ...

, Louis A.H. Caldwell, Otis Collins, and Calvin Smith (Illinois politician) in 1966. The Caucus was formally established in 1967, and purchased a permanent headquarters in Springfield in 2004.

Works cited

References

External links

Illinois Legislative Black Caucus Foundation official website
{{Coord , display=title , 39.817 , -89.686 Illinois General Assembly State Legislative Black Caucuses African-American history of Illinois