James Horace Kemp (18 August 1912 in Muskogee – 5 December 1983 in Chicago) was an American labor organizer and elected president of the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

. He was married to Maida Springer Kemp, a labor organizer and historian. He served on the executive board of the Chicago Federation of Labor. He was also a board member of the Regional Transportation Authority. In 1969, Kemp was elected to the Illinois Constitutional Convention as a delegate from the 22nd legislative district, which covered Bronzeville and adjacent neighborhoods.

Legacy

* METX 105, an

EMD F40PH The EMD F40PH is a four-axle B-B diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division in several variants from 1975 to 1992. Intended for use on Amtrak's short-haul passenger routes, it became the backbone of Amtrak's d ...

locomotive owned by

Metra Metra is the commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area serving the city of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs via the Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, and other railroads. The system operates 242 stations on 11 rail lines. I ...

is named after James Kemp (because he was on the board of directors of the Regional Transit Authority, which oversees Metra). It entered service with Metra in 1977 and was the sixth F40PH to be delivered into their fleet. It currently serves the

BNSF Line The BNSF Line (also known informally as the "Racetrack") is a Metra commuter rail line operated by the BNSF Railway in Chicago and its western suburbs. In 2010, the BNSF Line continued to have the highest weekday ridership (average 64,600) of t ...

out of

Chicago Union Station Chicago Union Station is an intercity and commuter rail terminal located in the Near West Side neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The station is Amtrak's flagship station in the Midwest. While serving long-distance passenger trains, it is also ...

References

1912 births 1983 deaths Chicago Federation of Labor people NAACP activists People from Muskogee, Oklahoma Members of Illinois constitutional conventions African-American trade unionists 20th-century African-American people {{US-activist-stub