SR0725 LRB096 21720 KXB 39355 r

1
SENATE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to
3 learn of the passing of the former village president of
4 Maywood, Ralph Conner, who passed away on March 13, 2010; and
 
5     WHEREAS, He was born on April 20, 1948 in Maywood; he and
6 his wife, Arletha, met as community activists in 1971 and
7 married in 1974; and
 
8     WHEREAS, As a college student during the Martin Luther King
9 riots and Democratic Convention riots in Chicago, Ralph Conner
10 was directly engaged in movement activity; he became a
11 Pan-Africanist relocating to Atlanta, Georgia and working with
12 the Atlanta Urban League under the Nixon Black Capitalism
13 programs designed to spur entrepreneurship among
14 African-Americans; during his time in Atlanta he was exposed to
15 the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE); and
 
16     WHEREAS, He became involved with the Small Business
17 Administration and studied the rudiments of financing and
18 recordkeeping for profit; he later relocated back to Chicago to
19 re-enroll in Roosevelt University to study accounting,
20 business administration, marketing and advertising, and real
21 estate development; and
 

 

 

SR0725 - 2 - LRB096 21720 KXB 39355 r

1     WHEREAS, Mr. Conner was a popular spokesman for taxpayers,
2 government reform, school choice, gun rights, and other issues;
3 he often appeared as a pundit on Comcast, WTTW, and Bruce
4 DuMont's nationally syndicated "Beyond the Beltway" radio
5 program; and
 
6     WHEREAS, In 2008, Mr. Conner launched the Chicago office of
7 the Congress of Racial Equality; in 2009, he appeared in "No
8 Guns for Negroes," a documentary film on the Second Amendment;
9 he was working on a film on black World War II veterans when he
10 died; and
 
11     WHEREAS, During his twenty years of public service, he
12 served as Maywood village president, director of planning and
13 development/building commissioner, and enterprise zone
14 administrator; he ran for village president of the Village of
15 Maywood in 2000, capturing the office in April of 2001; in 2005
16 he took the position of local government relations manager for
17 the Heartland Institute; and
 
18     WHEREAS, Mr. Conner also worked with the U.S. Conference of
19 Mayors and the Illinois Terrorism Task Force and was a
20 certified Illinois assessing official; and
 
21     WHEREAS, Ralph Conner is survived by his wife, Arletha
22 Conner; his daughters, Isis Aida Ogoun Conner and Zenzi Dara

 

 

SR0725 - 3 - LRB096 21720 KXB 39355 r

1 Dayo Conner; his sons, Ralph W. Conner Jr. and Thomas Leon
2 Conner; therefore, be it
 
3     RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL
4 ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn, along with
5 his family and friends, the passing of Ralph Conner; and be it
6 further
 
7     RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
8 presented to the family of Ralph Conner as a symbol of our
9 sincere sympathy.