Augustus Alexander "Gus" Savage (October 30, 1925 – October 31, 2015) was an American entrepreneur, publisher and a Democratic member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

from

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

Life and career

Savage was born in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

, and graduated from

Roosevelt University Roosevelt University is a private university with campuses in Chicago and Schaumburg, Illinois. Founded in 1945, the university was named in honor of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The unive ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. He served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

from 1943 to 1946 and then worked as a journalist from 1954 to 1979, owning a chain of weekly community newspapers in the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

area including the South End Citizen. The Chicago Citizen Newspaper Group became the largest Black-owned chain of weekly newspapers in the Midwest with a circulation of 121,000. Savage entered political life in 1948 as a Progressive Party organizer. He challenged the local establishment's chosen candidates for the House of Representatives in

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * J ...

and

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

, losing the Democratic primary both times, but won election to the House in

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 ...

, representing the 2nd District on Chicago's South Side for 6 terms, from January 1981 to January 1993. In 1983 he joined with 7 other Congressional Representatives to sponsor a resolution to impeach Ronald Reagan over his sudden and unexpected

invasion of Grenada The United States invasion of Grenada began at dawn on 25 October 1983. The United States and a coalition of six Caribbean nations invaded the island nation of Grenada, north of Venezuela. Codenamed Operation Urgent Fury by the U.S. military ...

. In 1989, Savage was accused of trying to force himself on a female

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John ...

worker in

Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...

. He denied the allegations and blamed them on the "racist press." The

House Ethics Committee The Committee on Ethics, often known simply as the Ethics Committee, is one of the committees of the United States House of Representatives. Prior to the 112th Congress it was known as the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. The House Et ...

decided that the events did indeed occur, but it did not take disciplinary action only because Savage wrote a letter of apology. Savage had long been controversial even in his own district. His racially incendiary and anti-Semitic remarks frequently drew bipartisan criticism. He never won a primary election–the real contest in this overwhelmingly Democratic district–with more than 52% of the vote, and usually faced multiple challengers. For the

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

election,

redistricting Redistribution (re-districting in the United States and in the Philippines) is the process by which electoral districts are added, removed, or otherwise changed. Redistribution is a form of boundary delimitation that changes electoral distri ...

pushed his district further into Chicago's south suburbs, territory that Savage did not know and that did not know him. He faced a rematch with

Mel Reynolds Melvin Reynolds (born January 8, 1952) is an American politician from Illinois. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995. He resigned in October 1995 after a jury convicted him o ...

, who had challenged him in the 1988 and 1990 primaries. Savage claimed that "racist Jews" were donating to Reynolds, while Reynolds claimed that Savage was involved in a drive-by shooting that injured him. Although Savage accused Reynolds of staging the shooting, he lost the 1992 election to Reynolds by a margin of 63%-37% after voters in the suburban portion of the district voted 4-to-1 for Reynolds. In defeat Savage declared, "We have lost to the white racist press and to the racist reactionary Jewish misleaders." In one of his final acts as chairman of the House Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds, excavation and construction at the site of the

African Burial Ground African Burial Ground National Monument is a monument at Duane Street and African Burial Ground Way (Elk Street) in the Civic Center section of Lower Manhattan, New York City. Its main building is the Ted Weiss Federal Building at 290 Broadway. ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

was temporarily halted in 1992, pending further evaluation by the

General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. GSA supplies products and communications for U.S. gover ...

, after Savage was able to leverage his reputation as a national political figure to bring attention to the potential importance of the site. The site was eventually designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993 and a National Monument in 2006 by President George W. Bush. Savage died on October 31, 2015, one day after his 90th birthday, which he celebrated with his closest friends and family. He is survived by his son Thomas Savage, daughter, Dr. Emma Savage, and grandchildren Thomas Savage Jr., Chyella McBride, and Alexandria Savage.

References

External links

The New York Times
Article archives on former Representative Gus Savage (135 articles).

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Savage, Gus 1925 births 2015 deaths African-American members of the United States House of Representatives African-American United States Army personnel African-American people in Illinois politics United States Army personnel of World War II American newspaper editors Editors of Illinois newspapers Politicians from Chicago Politicians from Detroit Roosevelt University alumni United States Army soldiers Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois 20th-century American politicians People from Olympia Fields, Illinois Burials at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery African Americans in World War II

Life and career

See also

References

External links