Timuel Black

Timuel Black was born in December 1918 in Birmingham, Alabama.[2] His great-grandparents were slaves and his grandparents were born as slaves and freed by the Emancipation Proclamation; his parents were sharecroppers.[3]

Black described his father and mother as having taken part in the Great Migration. In his memoir, Sacred Ground, Black writes that his parents "migrated twice." Their first move was "from tenant farms where they chopped cotton to the market town of Florence, Alabama, and then on from there to the city of Birmingham," where his "daddy worked for Bessemer Steel." Their second migration was to Chicago in order "to be able fight back against white attackers, to get better jobs and be able to vote, and to get a better education for their children."[4]

He grew up in Chicago, where he graduated from DuSable High School in 1937.[5] He graduated from Roosevelt University, where he earned a bachelor's degree, and he earned a master's degree from the University of Chicago.[5]

Black served in World War II, and he received four Battle Stars, the Croix de Guerre, and the Legion of Honour.[5]

Black began his career as a social worker.[5] During the 1960s, Black was president of the Negro American Labor Council (Chicago Chapter) and an organizer of Chicago participation in the 1963 March on Washington.[6]

Black was the named plaintiff in the lawsuit Black v. McGuffage.[7] The suit claimed that the Illinois voting system discriminated against minorities in its use of faulty punch card ballots. Deployed in black and Hispanic neighborhoods in Chicago, the faulty ballots prevented residents from casting valid votes in the 2000 presidential election. After Black v. McGuffage, punch card ballots were eliminated and a uniform voting system was put in place.[8]

Black currently serves on the board of Defending Rights & Dissent.[9]

In 2017, Senator Dick Durbin introduced a tribute to Black in the Congressional Record on the occasion of Black's receipt of Citizen Action Illinois' ninth annual Pauls Award, named for Paul Simon and Paul Wellstone, describing Black's as "a decorated World War II veteran, an educator, author, labor leader, civil rights activist, and historian—and a bender of the moral arc of the universe. He is a visionary and—for me and so many others—a personal hero."[10]

Sacred Ground is a memoir of interviews with Black about the African-American history of the South side of Chicago conducted by Susan Klonsky and edited by Bart Schultz was published in 2019. Black explained, "I'm here to personalize and transfer that history to younger people across all lines--race and gender."[11]

• Black, Timuel D. (2003). Bridges of Memory: Chicago's First Wave of Great Migration. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. ISBN 9780810123151. OCLC 567296988.
• Black, Timuel D. (2007). Bridges of Memory: Chicago's Second Generation of Great Migration. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. ISBN 9780810122956. OCLC 608033460.
• Black, Timuel D.; Klonsky, Susan (2019). Schultz, Eduard (ed.). Sacred Grounds: The Chicago Streets of Timuel Black as Told to Susan Klonsky. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. ISBN 9780810139244. OCLC 1088790146.