Full Text of HR1453 96th General Assembly
HR1453 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | 3 | | Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of Bishop | 4 | | Arthur M. Brazier of Chicago, who passed away on October 22, | 5 | | 2010; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, He was born in Hyde Park, was forced out of high | 7 | | school by the Depression, and worked in a laundry until he was | 8 | | drafted into the United States Army in 1942, where he earned a | 9 | | staff sergeant's stripes serving in a trucking company in India | 10 | | and Burma; after the war, he took a high school correspondence | 11 | | course and became a minister in 1951 while working as a letter | 12 | | carrier; he graduated from the Moody Bible Institute in 1956 | 13 | | after 6 years of night school; and
| 14 | | WHEREAS, He was the founding president of The Woodlawn | 15 | | Organization and went from picketing Mayor Richard J. Daley to | 16 | | being appointed by Mayor Daley's son to sit on the board of the | 17 | | Public Building Commission; and | 18 | | WHEREAS, Pastor Emeritus of the Apostolic Church of God, he | 19 | | became a Bishop in the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, | 20 | | helped bring the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. to Chicago in | 21 | | 1966, and was a friend and onetime tennis partner of President | 22 | | Obama; and
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, In the 1960s, he started working with community | 2 | | organizer Saul Alinsky and helped found The Woodlawn | 3 | | Organization to battle slumlords and the University of | 4 | | Chicago's efforts to displace Blacks south of 61st Street;
| 5 | | Bishop Brazier also helped organize a boycott of Chicago Public | 6 | | Schools to protest the concentration of Black students in | 7 | | mobile classrooms; Bishop Brazier joined forces with Johnson | 8 | | Publishing Company founder John H. Johnson, Chicago Urban | 9 | | League president Edwin C. "Bill" Berry, and other prominent | 10 | | leaders to unite Chicagoans around the fight for civic and | 11 | | economic equality; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, In 1969, Bishop Brazier went to work for a | 13 | | national group, Citizens Crusade Against Poverty, and a year | 14 | | later, resigned from The Woodlawn Organization; working for | 15 | | Citizens Crusade while based in Chicago, he consulted with | 16 | | community groups across the country on housing and commercial | 17 | | redevelopment, remaining active in the Woodlawn community; and | 18 | | WHEREAS, Bishop Brazier was founder of the Woodlawn | 19 | | Preservation and Investment Corporation, which acquired city | 20 | | property at little cost, building low and mixed-income housing; | 21 | | he was also chairman of the Fund for Community Development, and | 22 | | fought to tear down the dilapidated and unused elevated | 23 | | structure that then stretched along 63rd Street from Cottage |
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| 1 | | Grove to Dorchester; after it's demolition, he built a new | 2 | | church complex at 63rd and Dorchester, which many of his | 3 | | congregants call the "Miracle on 63rd";
he retired from the | 4 | | church two years ago; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, Bishop Arthur M. Brazier is survived by his wife, | 6 | | Esther Isabelle Brazier; his son, Reverend Byron T. Brazier; | 7 | | his daughters, Lola Hillman, Janice Dortch, and Rosalyn | 8 | | Shepherd; his 7 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren, and | 9 | | his godson, Tyrone Stoudemire; therefore, be it
| 10 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 11 | | NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | 12 | | mourn, along with his family, friends, and congregation, the | 13 | | passing of Bishop Arthur M. Brazier; and be it further
| 14 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 15 | | presented to the family of Bishop Arthur M. Brazier as a symbol | 16 | | of our sincere sympathy.
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