Jeanette Taylor

Taylor was born in Chicago on May 15, 1975.[4][5] Her parents were a clerk at Chicago Public Schools and a taxi driver.[5] She attended Dunbar Vocational High School.[5]

At age 19, she was elected as a member of the local school council for Mollison Elementary School, where her son attended school, and served in that position for over 20 years.[4] She has been an organizer at Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, and is a member of People United for Action and United Working Families.[4]

In 2015, Taylor led a hunger strike that successfully protested the proposed closure of Dyett High School.[2][6]

Taylor took office as a member of Chicago City Council on May 20, 2019.

In July 2019, Taylor and fellow alderman Leslie Hairston introduced a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) ordinance aimed at protecting affordable housing near the proposed Barack Obama Presidential Center development.[7][8] The ordinance gained the support of nearly 30 aldermen, but in January 2020, the Lightfoot administration announced that it would support a scaled-back version. Taylor opposed the scaled-back version and reiterated support for the initial CBA ordinance.[9] In July 2020, a compromise ordinance was formulated after negotiations between Lightfoot's administration, aldermen Taylor and Hairston, and community groups.[10] Taylor called the compromise ordinance a "step in the right direction" and called for further action.[11]

In November 2019, Taylor was one of eleven aldermen to vote against Mayor Lori Lightfoot's first budget.[12] She joined all five other members of the Socialist Caucus in signing a letter to Lightfoot which criticized her budget for "an over-reliance on property taxes" and "regressive funding models" that are "burdensome to our working-class citizens, while giving the wealthy and large corporations a pass."[13]

• List of Chicago aldermen since 1923
• List of Democratic Socialists of America who have held office in the United States