Dorothy Tillman
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Dorothy J. Tillman (born May 12, 1947) is a Chicago alderman for the 3rd Ward (map). A member of the Democratic Party, she represents part of the city's South Side in the Chicago City Council. She has been a strong advocate of slavery reparations since her election in 1985. Prior to her career as an alderman, Tillman was active in the civil rights movement, working for Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) as an activist.
[edit] Civil rights activities
Dorothy Tillman was born in Montgomery, Alabama in 1947. She joined the SCLC as a trainee and field staff organizer in 1963.
Tillman marched with King and was one of the first SCLC activists to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in the Selma to Montgomery marches on 7 March, 1965.
She had her first involvement in Chicago politics later in 1965 when Dr. King sent her there to campaign for better housing, education and employment conditions for blacks. This campaign marked the start of King's effort to improve socio-economic conditions for blacks. Tillman was involved in organising King's move into a Chicago tenement in early 1966 and the launch of his campaign in July 1966.
While in Chicago, Tillman met her husband jazz musician Jimmy Lee Tillman. The Tillmans moved to San Francisco shortly after their marriage and became involved in a campaign to improve public transport services to their neighbourhood.
The Tillmans later returned to Chicago where Dorothy Tillman became involved in educational issues. She founded the Parent Equalizers of Chicago, which eventually became active in 300 schools across the city.
[edit] Chicago Alderman
Dorothy Tillman was elected as an Alderman representing the third ward in 1985, being the first woman elected for that ward. As an alderman, she has been active in education, housing and homelessness.
Tillman has been a leading advocate of reparations for slavery and has been successful in having a number of resolutions passed in support of the concept and has organised conferences supporting the concept. She authored a bill, passed unanimously in 2002, forcing companies who perform contracts with the council to declare any past ties with slavery. Within the city, this focus on extramural activities generally causes her to be recognized only for a fondness of loud hats.
In early 2005, she led a campaign against a $500 million refinancing deal with the Bank of America because of its alleged links with slavery. In the case of the Bank of America, these links are allegedly through FleetBoston Financial, a company which it acquired in 2004. Providene, a predecessor of Fleet Boston, was supposedly founded by a slaveowner in 1791.
