Full Text of SR0286 96th General Assembly
SR0286 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
|
|
|
SR0286 |
|
LRB096 12856 GRL 26611 r |
|
| 1 |
| SENATE RESOLUTION
| 2 |
| WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to | 3 |
| learn of the death of
Sam Ackerman of Hyde Park, who passed | 4 |
| away on May 1, 2009; and
| 5 |
| WHEREAS, Sam Ackerman began his career as an activist early | 6 |
| in his life, organizing interfaith gatherings and meetings of | 7 |
| black and white students during his years as a high school | 8 |
| student in Stamford, Connecticut in the early 1950s; and
| 9 |
| WHEREAS, After high school, Sam Ackerman moved on to | 10 |
| Cornell University, where he worked to fight housing | 11 |
| discrimination and became active in student politics; during | 12 |
| his time at Cornell, he met his first wife, Carol | 13 |
| June-Washington, whom he married in 1954; he then took a job at | 14 |
| the federal Civil Service Commission, where he had some | 15 |
| difficulty getting a security clearance because of a letter he | 16 |
| had written to the Cornell student newspaper supporting folk | 17 |
| singer Pete Seeger's right to perform on campus; and
| 18 |
| WHEREAS, By the 1960s, Sam Ackerman had found his lifelong | 19 |
| home in Hyde Park; he helped organize a Chicago contingent for | 20 |
| the 1963 March on Washington and his five children grew up | 21 |
| going to marches and rallies; in 1970, he married his second | 22 |
| wife, Martha; and
|
|
|
|
SR0286 |
- 2 - |
LRB096 12856 GRL 26611 r |
|
| 1 |
| WHEREAS, After he helped Harold Washington to become the | 2 |
| city's first black mayor of Chicago, Sam Ackerman landed his | 3 |
| second government job as Chicago's deputy director for | 4 |
| personnel; and
| 5 |
| WHEREAS, Sam Ackerman was a leader in the Independent | 6 |
| Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization; he was | 7 |
| also elected to the local school council at Kenwood Academy | 8 |
| High School and worked on campaigns for U.S. Representative | 9 |
| Danny Davis and U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun; he was | 10 |
| involved in the Hyde Park Jazz Society; he also helped launch | 11 |
| his community's December 31 Neighbor's Eve celebrations and, | 12 |
| for years, held New Year's Day gatherings in his spacious condo | 13 |
| that attracted as many as 150 people who came for his homemade | 14 |
| eggnog; and | 15 |
| WHEREAS, Sam Ackerman is survived by his sons, Joseph and | 16 |
| David; his daughters, Valerie, Jodie, and Anna; his brother and | 17 |
| sister; and his nine grandchildren; therefore, be it
| 18 |
| RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL | 19 |
| ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn, along with | 20 |
| his family and friends, the passing of Sam Ackerman; and be it | 21 |
| further
|
|
|
|
SR0286 |
- 3 - |
LRB096 12856 GRL 26611 r |
|
| 1 |
| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 2 |
| presented to the family of Sam Ackerman as an expression of our | 3 |
| sympathy.
|
|