Family comes to defense of former Chicago Alderman, Dorothy Wright Tillman
July 28, 2008
Laura Washington
Chicago Sun-Times
350 N Orleans St
Chicago, IL 60654
Dear Mrs. Washington:
I am writing you this letter in response to your July 28, 2008 column. In it you describe our mother, the honorable Dorothy Wright Tillman, as having a “dismal” record as Alderman of the 3rd ward.
Webster defines dismal as: 1. obsolete , disastrous, dreadful 2: showing or causing gloom or depression3: lacking merit : particularly bad, devoid of cheer or comfort. indicates extreme and utterly depressing gloominess
I stand to disagree wholeheartedly with your imaginative interpretation of her hard work and her history of accomplishment in our beloved community.
If you simply analyze the census data of the nonprofit organization We the People Media , you will find that in the Grand Boulevard area, which encompasses the 3rd ward, property values increased 400 percent from 1990 to 2000, and there was a tenfold increase in applications for building permits. It is unmistakable that her leadership led to this rebirth.
Take a ride back in your mind’s eyes to 1984, after the late, great Mayor Washington appointed her alderman of the 3rd ward. It was dirty, neglected, and not a place people were proud to say they lived. It was termed “the low end”. Under her administration the miles of dirt along the boulevard of Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive and Garfield Boulevard was restored, abandoned cars were towed, abandoned buildings boarded up, or if necessary torn down. A neighborhood that was once call “fly dump city”, initiated a clean up campaign that piloted the city’s Clean and Green Program that we still have today.
Our mother pioneered the first TIF to be used in the black community, with the construction of the 55th and Dan Ryan shopping center that continues to create jobs and millions of tax dollars, and also she left the 3rd ward rich with several other TIF districts that will continue to benefit it well into the future. As recently as 2007, she recruited Quinton Primo, III of Capri Capital for the corner of 39th and State Street for a $155 million dollar retail and condo complex that is currently be developed and countless other multi-million dollar projects that are in progress right now in the 3rd ward.
She helped to found the African American Home Builders Association and advocated for an unprecedented 70/30 plan to make certain that African American received the majority of the contracts. She is a visionary who created the Chicago Blues District and The Harold Washington Cultural Center. She even led in the area of Going Green by helping to develop two Ecofriendly houses on E. 44th Street.
These things are certainly “not dreadful or disastrous”
To describe her tenure as “causing gloom or depression”, “particularly bad, devoid of cheer or comfort” is to ignore the 16 years of producing the stellar Bring It On Home to Me Roots Festival, where over 300,000 people attended this family oriented event that attracted national and international megastars who performed for free, the over 20 years of the Christmas Gifts for Children, Thanksgiving Family Affair Dinners, and The Back to School Health Fairs.
For you to ignore her many humanitarian efforts, including the Washington-King Resource Center, an 80 bed homeless shelter that operated for many years, the two hurricane relief drives, and the ground breaking reparations legislation (READ THE BILL HERE: Part 1, Part 2) as you define these things as “lacking merit”, I say “Shame On You!”
I am not even going to touch on your false insinuation that our mother was some sort of “Daley Puppet” because Dick Simpson has already documented that she voted the least in favor of Daley, so you can really squash that lie.
The Dutch historian Pieter Geyl wrote “Imagination plays too important a role in the writing of history, and what is imagination but the projection of the author’s personality.”
I submit that your attempt to rewrite our mother‘s history is rooted in of some sort of deep down jealousy that you have of her. I researched and could not find one column that you have constructed with her name in it, that didn’t paint our mother in a negative light. What gives sister?
Her history, before, during, and now after her time in the Chicago City Council is remarkable. I will not sit quietly by as you attempt to describe her as a “mad hatter” or a “hack”, and distort that history.
Developmental psychologist Erik Erikson wrote “If history is a collection of events which come to life for us because of what some actors did, some recorders recorded, and some previewers decided to retell, a clinician attempting to interpret an historical event must first of all get the facts straight.”
Thank you for you attention.
Ebony Tillman
cc
Editor of Sun-Times
May 25, 1997 Chicago Sun-Times interview, Washington described herself as rather hard-nosed: “I’m too quick to think the worst of anything and anybody.”
August 11th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
I understand that black abolitionist Harriet Tubman had to frequently threaten the use of deadly force on some slaves in order to help to lead them from bondage in the south to quasi freedom in the north.
It sounds to me as if this woman did a wonderful job - where were the males? I am convinced that the failure of the black community to rise as it should have done throughout the world points to the historical failure of black male leadership.
Over millennia, we black males have insisted that we are ‘the heads’, and over the same period of time we demanded that our women submit themselves to us and to our leadership.
The failure of the international black nation to rise has nothing to do with any failings that I can see on the part of black females, our failure to rise has to do with the failure of black male leadership. Conversely, everywhere that you look, some person, organization or nation has become wealthy as a result of black labor or black resources, particularly in areas and nations that appear to be completely impoverished.
Even in America today, the wealthy exploit black poverty and find a way to enrich themselves from it. We have got to get over our dependency (waiting for someone else to solve unempployment, healthcare issues, the problem of socially transmitted disease, crime in our neighborhoods…) and, blaming others, instead we must overcome our obstacles). If we don’t, our women will bear the brunt of the blame, just as a well-placed gentleman that I know recently blamed black females, 70% of black households headed by them, for the failures of black males!
September 18th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I am so glad that people, especially the beautiful Black race correct issues such as this; especially Alderman Tillman’s family daughter and family; I don’t know why this occurs that we are stricken down, so easily stricken down, after having to have worked so hard to make it in our life and we do go out of our way, the nature of the black spirit, to help others, that is God’s doing and to not give this lady credit, I am giving her credit here, I remember watching a documentary on the 1960’s concerning largely of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and he was requested to come help the violence against the Blacks in an area called Gage park, and that it was terrible, of course as a lot of other places, can you imagine the racial hatred things that did not even get reported? due to fear; but Dr. King honored the request, and he was hurt by rocks and bottles and Ms. Tillman and others quickly whisked Dr. King out of harm’s way I do not understand the Chicago Sun Times at using such harmful words towards Ms. Tillman, they need to fix, retract, recant and REPRINT noting originally printed in error and give Ms. Tillman the respect she so highly deserves. Tina Thompson of South Florida