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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
RESOLUTION CONGRATULATING THE COOK COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION ON ITS 100TH ANNIVERSARY
WHEREAS in 1869 Lloyd G. Wheeler became the first Black man licensed to practice law in the State of Illinois, and in 1894 Ida Platt became the first Black woman licensed to practice law in the State of Illinois. By 1896, 32 African Americans had been admitted to the Illinois Bar, and they began meeting informally to devise a legal strategy to protest discrimination in hotels, theaters, restaurants, schools and the judiciary; and,
WHEREAS this informal collaboration among African American attorneys lasted until 1914, when a younger generation of Black lawyers decided to form the Cook County Bar Association ("CCBA") to improve, protect and defend the lives and rights of all citizens in the Greater Chicago Area. The CCBA is the oldest association of Black lawyers in the country; and,
WHEREAS since the CCBA's inception, its members have served as advocates, judges, and legal educators, and as elected and appointed representatives, participating at every level of government, to fight injustice, to advocate on behalf of underserved communities, and to promote the interests of African American lawyers and judges; and,
WHEREAS throughout its distinguished history the CCBA has provided leadership, service, and advocacy for African American attorneys and to people residing in underserved communities; and,
WHEREAS the CCBA's myriad accomplishments include the work of its outstanding members, such as C. Francis Stradford, who co-founded the National Bar Association in 1925; Earl B. Dickerson, who represented the plaintiffs in Hansberry v. Lee, the seminal 1940 case protesting restrictive covenantsin Chicago's housing markets; and William R. Ming, who served on the NAACP team litigating Brown v. Board of Education in 1954; and,
WHEREAS since its founding, the CCBA has celebrated many firsts with its members, including Jewel Stradford LaFo...
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