Chicago Civil Rights Activist Timuel Black Dies at Age 102
Source: NBC5 Chicago
Timuel Dixon Black, a prominent Chicago civil rights activist who promoted equal rights and dedicated his life to service and education, has passed away. Tim spent decades chronicling and lifting up Black Chicago history. But he also made plenty of history himself.
Black was a highly-celebrated centenarian in the city and his death sparked condolences from high places. "Today, the city of Chicago and the world lost an icon with the passing of Timuel Black," former President Barack Obama wrote on social media, calling him a "truly incredible man." "Tim spent decades chronicling and lifting up Black Chicago history."
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she was "fortunate enough" to visit with Black before his death. "I want [Black's wife] to be able to speak to this incredibly sad moment first but I'll have a lot more to say about it after she speaks," Lightfoot said. Black was born Dec. 7, 1918 to sharecroppers in Birmingham, Alabama. A year later, he and his family moved to Chicago as part of the great migration - and never left.
Black's activism started as a teenager, walking picket lines to protest white-only employment in Bronzeville's shopping district. He attended DuSable High School, where he was classmates with famed musician Nat King Cole, and John Johnson, founder of Ebony and Jet magazines. Black joined the Army at the age of 23, serving in World War II at Normandy and Battle of the Bulge...
Read more: https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-civil-rights-activist-timuel-black-dies-at-age-102-report/2635940/
- Timuel Black worked with A. Phillip Randolph on labor issues, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders and activists during his lifetime.
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- Chicago historian, activist and cultural icon Timuel Black dies at 102, WBEZ Chicago, Oct. 13, 2021.
Black strategized with Martin Luther King Jr., challenged the Democratic Party machine and fought to desegregate housing and public schools.. Black, the grandson of slaves, lived more than a century and had a hand in electing the city's first Black mayor and the first Black U.S. president. He fought Nazis in World War II, which earned him four bronze battle stars. But he came home angry. Returning to racial discrimination radicalized him and led to a life of civil rights and public service. Black was fired from a job for attempting to unionize.
In 1960, Black helped found the Negro American Labor Council and worked with A. Phillip Randolph on labor issues. The historian and author strategized with Martin Luther King Jr., challenged the Democratic Party machine and fought to desegregate housing and public schools. "I am not an intellectual. I'm not a scholar. I'm not an academic. But I have lived a long time. And that does help," Black, a retired professor from the city college system, said in 2012 when he donated more than 250 archival boxes to the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature at Woodson Regional Library, a part of the Chicago Public Library system...
https://www.wbez.org/stories/chicago-historian-and-activist-timuel-black-dies-at-102/a87e6c54-77e8-410e-a53b-284bce362279
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ignorance. RIP.