Toni Foulkes is the former

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

's 16th ward, and was formerly the alderman for the 15th ward. She is

African American 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 ...

Aldermanic career

In 2007, Foulkes was elected Chicago alderman for the 15th Ward, winning an open-race to succeed outgoing alderman Theodore Thomas. She was reelected in 2011. She was

redistricted Redistricting in the United States is the process of drawing electoral district boundaries. For the United States House of Representatives, and state legislatures, redistricting occurs after each decennial census. The U.S. Constitution in Ar ...

to the 16th Ward, where she won election in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

. The race saw her running against incumbent 16th Ward alderman JoAnn Thompson, in addition to several other contenders. However, Thompson died two weeks before the initial round of voting in the election. Ultimately, the election saw her win a

runoff election The two-round system (TRS), also known as runoff voting, second ballot, or ballotage, is a voting method used to elect a single candidate, where voters cast a single vote for their preferred candidate. It generally ensures a majoritarian resul ...

against Stephanie Coleman. In

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, Foulkes was unseated by Stephanie Coleman, who she had narrowly defeated in the previous election. In 2014, she supported a bill to require employers to provide paid for

sick leave Sick leave (or paid sick days or sick pay) is paid time off from work that workers can use to stay home to address their health needs without losing pay. It differs from paid vacation time or time off work to deal with personal matters, because sic ...

for all Chicago workers.

References

Living people Chicago City Council members Women city councillors in Illinois 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians Year of birth missing (living people) African-American women in politics African-American city council members in Illinois 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American politicians {{Illinois-politician-stub