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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of Dr.
4Margaret Burroughs, a longtime Chicago Park District
5commissioner who started the nationally recognized DuSable
6Museum of African American History in the living room of her
7South Side home almost 50 years ago, who passed away on
8November 21, 2010; and
 
9    WHEREAS, She and her husband, the late Charles Burroughs,
10co-founded the DuSable Museum in 1961, and she was one of
11several artists and art supporters who 70 years ago started the
12South Side Community Art Center; and
 
13    WHEREAS, She was born in St. Rose, Louisiana, and moved to
14Chicago as a child; she attended the Chicago Teachers College
15and received bachelor's and master's degrees from the Art
16Institute of Chicago; she later received several honorary
17degrees; and
 
18    WHEREAS, She taught for more than 20 years at DuSable High
19School; she also taught at Kennedy-King College; in her early
2020s, she joined several others in starting the South Side
21Community Art Center; she set up a legendary salon in
22Bronzeville, which attracted the likes of sociologist W.E.B.

 

 

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1DuBois and writer James Baldwin; she was unhappy that there
2were few places for black artists to showcase their work, and
3helped launch an art fair in the late 1950s at a shopping
4center at 35th Street and King Drive; and
 
5    WHEREAS, She and her husband later planted the seeds for
6what would become a thriving museum with about 100 items in
7their living room, calling it the Ebony Museum of Negro History
8and Art; today, the DuSable Museum, boasts a collection of more
9than 100,000 pieces in its Washington Park building; and
 
10    WHEREAS, Mrs. Burroughs also helped start the National
11Conference of African-American Artists; she taught art and
12poetry to prison inmates; for the last 35 years, she and
13Reverend Jesse Jackson spent Christmas Day at the Cook County
14Jail; and
 
15    WHEREAS, Mrs. Burroughs bowled and took up roller-skating
16in her 80s; in 1989, she was inducted into the Chicago Women's
17Hall of Fame; former President Jimmy Carter appointed her a
18member of the National Commission on African-American History
19and Culture; she won the Paul Robeson Award; most recently,
20Mrs. Burroughs received the Legacy Award from the Art Institute
21of Chicago; and
 
22    WHEREAS, Dr. Margaret Burroughs is survived by her son,

 

 

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1Paul Burroughs; her grandson, Eric Toller; and three other
2grandchildren; therefore, be it
 
3    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
4NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
5mourn, along with her family, friends, and the many people she
6has inspired over the years, the passing of Dr. Margaret
7Burroughs; and be it further
 
8    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
9presented to the family of Dr. Margaret Burroughs as a symbol
10of our sincere sympathy.