Chicago activist, historian and local treasure Timuel Black, 102, is receiving hospice care at his South Side home, according to an online fundraiser.
Black has been called the “senior statesman of Chicago’s South Side.” He has written multiple books, has been a professor emeritus at City Colleges of Chicago and was present at numerous pivotal events in American and world history.
He was at Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge and helped to liberate Buchenwald concentration camp. He marched for civil rights, led voter registration initiatives, worked with organized labor and stood on picket lines with teachers. He supported Black student leaders in Chicago and acted as a vocal proponent of building the Obama Presidential Center on the South Side.
Black’s own words in a 2020 essay in the Chicago Tribune sum up his incredible life: “I was born during the 1918 influenza pandemic. My grandparents were born slaves. My parents were sharecroppers in Alabama before moving to Chicago when I was 3 years old. I fought Nazis in Europe during World War II, and I organized the Chicago delegation to Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 March on Washington as the civil rights movement took wings.”
In a statement in March 2018, then-mayor Rahm Emanuel said: “Timuel Black represents not just the very best of Chicago; he represents the very best of humanity. ... He is a shining example to generations of Chicagoans of heroism, courage and decency.”
Lisa Yun Lee started a GoFundMe fundraiser to help offset the cost of Black’s care, echoing some of the sentiments he’s shared about his life. Lee called him “a Chicago treasure: beloved and legendary civil rights activist, historian and storyteller. He has had a long, rich life journey.”
Lee said Black’s “fiercely independent” wife Zenobia agreed to accept the donations.
“All of the funds raised here will go directly to Tim’s wife and loving partner Zenobia, in order to provide adequate nursing care and help with all necessary expenses in the coming period,” Lee wrote.
Nearly $40,000 of a $50,000 goal had been reached in less than 24 hours, according to the online fundraiser. Lee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Tim has been working for all of us for his whole life, fighting the good fight to create a better world. Let us join together and show how much we care. Please give generously,” she wrote. “We don’t know how much time Tim has with us, but we want him to be as comfortable and with as much dignity as possible. We owe him that.”
Former Chicago Tribune reporter Lolly Bowean contributed.
kdouglas@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @312BreakingNews
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