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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 Cardiss
4Collins, who passed away on February 3, 2013; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Cardiss Collins was born on September 24, 1931, in
6St. Louis, Missouri; her parents were Finley and Rosia Mae
7Robertson; she married George Washington Collins in 1958; and
 
8    WHEREAS, After graduating from Detroit High School of
9Commerce, Cardiss Collins worked in a mattress factory while
10attending night classes at Northwestern University, where she
11earned a business certificate in 1966 and a diploma in
12professional accounting a year later; after college, she
13remained in Chicago and worked for the Illinois Department of
14Labor as a secretary; she later worked with the Illinois
15Department of Revenue as an auditor until her election to
16Congress; and
 
17    WHEREAS, Following the death of her husband, Cardiss
18Collins took his place as Representative of Illinois' 7th
19Congressional District, which includes Austin and the greater
20West Side; she served from 1973 until her retirement in 1995;
21and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Cardiss Collins was the first black woman elected
2to Congress from Illinois and the Midwest; she was the first
3African American and woman selected as a Democratic Whip
4At-Large; she also served as chair of the Congressional Black
5Caucus from 1979 to 1981 and was only the second woman at the
6time to hold that leadership position; and
 
7    WHEREAS, During her tenure in Congress, Cardiss Collins was
8responsible for numerous public initiatives; in 1993, she
9introduced the Equality in Athletic Disclosure Act, which
10directed colleges and universities to publicize the rate of
11program participation by gender; as chair of the Manpower and
12Housing and Government Activities and Transportation
13subcommittee from 1983 to 1991, she worked to improve safety in
14air travel and fought for stricter controls on the
15transportation of toxic materials; in the 1980s, she stridently
16defended affirmative action by drawing attention to the hiring
17practices of U.S. airlines, which rarely placed African
18Americans in professional positions; her push for equality in
19the aviation industry helped pave the way for an amendment to
20the Airport and Airway Safety, Capacity, and Expansion Act of
211987, requiring that 10% of all concession stands in airports
22be run by minority- and women-owned businesses; she worked to
23prevent federal tax write-offs for advertising firms that
24discriminated against minority-owned media companies; she also
25co-sponsored the Universal Health Care Act and the Health

 

 

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1Security Act in 1993; and
 
2    WHEREAS, In recognition of her commitment to gender equity
3in athletics, Cardiss Collins was inducted into the Women's
4Sports Hall of Fame in 1994; therefore, be it
 
5    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
6NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
7we mourn, along with his family and friends, the passing of
8Cardiss Collins; and be it further
 
9    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
10presented to the family of Cardiss Collins as an expression of
11our sympathy.