James Meeks

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For the United States Representative, see James A. Meeks.

James Meeks

Member of the Illinois State Senate from the 15th district
In office 2003 -

Born	August 4, 1956 (1956-08-04) (age 51) Chicago, Illinois
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Jamell Meeks
Profession	minister
Religion	Baptist

The Reverend James T. Meeks (born 4 August 1956) is a Democratic member of the Illinois Senate, representing the 15th district since 2003. He is also an active Baptist minister in Chicago and chairs the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus.

1 Early life
2 Public service
3 Senate career
4 Personal life
5 Anti-gay Contoversy
6 Antisemitism
7 Notes
8 External links

[edit] Early life

Meeks is a graduate of Harper High School in Chicago and continued his education at Bishop College in Dallas, Texas where he earned a degree in Religion and Philosophy.

Since 1985, Meeks has been the pastor of Salem Baptist Church of Chicago where the congregation has grown from 200 to 24,000 followers during his tenure. The church has two locations devoted to worship; the 'Old' Salem Baptist Church, built between 1912 and 1913 is a former Roman Catholic Church that is one of Chicago's historic Polish Cathedrals designed by Erhard Brielamier & Sons, while the 'New' Salem Baptist Church is known as the House of Hope and was completed in 2005.

[edit] Public service

Meeks serves as the Executive Vice President of the National Rainbow-PUSH Coalition. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Chicago Fire Department, the Roseland Community Hospital, the Korean American Merchant Association, and the Olive Branch Mission.

In 1998, Meeks led a movement to “dry up” Roseland Community by collecting votes to close 26 liquor stores. He has also created a mentoring program called “It Takes a Village” which provides support and assistance to pregnant youth and young mothers.

[edit] Senate career

Although a registered Democrat, in 2002 Meeks became the first state senator to be elected as an Independent. He won re-election in 2006 as a Democrat.

Meeks has become an outspoken advocate for school reform. The June 2006 findings of the Education Trust and Illinois Education research Council showed that Chicago’s worst schools are getting the worst teachers^{[citation needed]}. Meeks believes that this is a civil rights violation of the students and has demanded that the Illinois Attorney General look into the violation. Meeks and a large group of parents also marched on city hall to meet with Mayor Daley in hopes that he could change the teacher hiring system. Meeks has come up with a proposal to solve the teacher inequalities; he says top-notch teachers should be offered a $25,000 signing bonus and $5,000 a year for five years to work in failing schools. The teacher’s union has historically been opposed to “hazard pay” because they think all teachers should be paid more^{[citation needed]}.

Meeks is also concerned with issues of housing affordability. He sponsored a bill which would make permanent a 2003 Executive Order that established a task force to develop Annual Comprehensive Housing Plans to address critical housing issues. The bill focuses its attention on vulnerable groups, including those at risk of homelessness and low income people with disabilities.

Another bill Meeks has sponsored addresses law enforcement and racial profiling. The bill would allow police departments to apply for grants to purchase cameras for police cars. Meeks believes that cameras in police cars protects everyone involved in a traffic stop, aruging that it provides security for both the driver and the law enforcement officer, and that it may also help reduce instances of racial profiling.

Meeks is the Chairperson of the Housing and Community Affairs Committee and Vice Chairperson of the Commerce and Economic Development Committee. Additionally, he is a member of the Senate Commerce; Appropriations I; Education; Higher Education; and Senate Education Funding Reform Committees.

[edit] Personal life

Senator Meeks and his wife, Jamell, have four children: Jamie, Janet, Trent, and Jasmine.

[edit] Anti-gay Contoversy

A spring 2007 newsletter from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) named Meeks one of the "10 leading black religious voices in the anti-gay movement". The newsletter cites him as both “a key member of Chicago's ‘Gatekeepers’ network, an interracial group of evangelical ministers who strive to erase the division between church and state” and “a stalwart anti-gay activist… [who]… has used his House of Hope mega-church to launch petition drives for the Illinois Family Institute (IFI), a major state-level ‘family values’ pressure group that lauded him last year for leading African Americans in ‘clearly understanding the threat of gay marriage.'”

The SPLC newsletter also noted that, "Meeks and the IFI are partnered with Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council and the Alliance Defense Fund, major anti-gay organizations of the Christian Right. They also are tightly allied with Americans for Truth, an Illinois group that said in a press release last year that ‘fighting AIDS without talking against homosexuality is like fighting lung cancer without talking against smoking.’"

[edit] Antisemitism

On a more personal level, Meeks has reportedly blamed "Hollywood Jews for bringing us Brokeback Mountain" and actively campaigned to defeat SB3186, an Illinois LGBT non-discrimination bill, while serving in the Illinois state legislature. According to a 2006 Chicago Sun Times article, his church sponsored a "Halloween fright night" which "consigned to the flames of hell two mincing young men wearing body glitter who were supposed to be homosexuals." ^[1]