GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion was an American lawyer and politician who was the 51st Mayor of Chicago. He became the first African American to be elected as the city’s mayor in April 1983 after a multiracial coalition of progressives supported his election. He served as mayor from April 29, 1983 until his death on November 25, 1987. Born in Chicago and raised in the Bronzeville neighborhood, he became involved in local 3rd Ward politics under Chicago Alderman and future Congressman Ralph Metcalfe after graduating from Roosevelt University and Northwestern University School of Law.He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 1983, representing Illinois’s first district. He had previously served in the Illinois State Senate and the Illinois House of Representatives from 1965 until 1976.A lot of folks who submit questions to Curious City take the call quite literally: What do you want to know about Chicago, the region or the people who live there? Questioner Jon Quinn put his own twist by submitting our first (and only) question about a robot — not just any robot, but the talking, animatronic likeness of former mayor Harold Washington that sits in a corner of the DuSable Museum of African American History.The team spent four years cycling through options, dispensing with staid life-sized statues made of bronze or others covered in resin. Eventually, someone mentioned that animatronic technology was dropping in price, with costs ranging between $10,000 and $30,000, depending on how large a figure’s range of movement needs to be.“It was like, we could literally put him at his desk, we could literally bring video and audio into the presentation to make it that much more interactive,” Bethea says. “That’s where the excitement came because it was like, ‘What? We can actually get this!’”Today in our History – September 17, 1991 –The DuSable Museum honors former Mayor Harold Washington.Harold Lee Washington (April 15, 1922 – November 25, 1987) Translating Harold the man into Harold the robotThe DuSable team hired Life Formations, an Ohio-based factory of the life-like that’s created everything from Abe Lincoln to a drum-playing gorilla. Bethea says the most expensive (and difficult) part of the partnership was the “human sculpting,” or coming up with a just-right Harold. Bethea gathered photos, interviews, and even an iconic Playboy magazine profile article to help Life Formations recreate Washington’s likeness.Harold Washington posing in Playboy Magazine, which is one image Life Formations used to replicate the former mayor.Translating that material fell to a team that included designer and project manager Travis Gillum.“They gave us quite a bit of video footage that we tried to work from,” Gillum says, adding that Washington smiled quite a bit. “If [an animatronic has] to speak sternly as part of their character in final form, that becomes a little bit weird if they have a smile on their face.” Gillum says historic figures such as Washington and Abraham Lincoln typically require special care.“That’s a tough line to walk, especially with the humans,” he says. “Obviously if you’re not very realistic with the human, it can be somewhat disappointing and sometimes creepy. But at the same token, if it’s ultra-realistic, that can be really creepy to people.”Gillum’s nodding to the concept of the uncanny valley, coined in the 1970s by robotics professor Masahiro Mori. Even with that idea firmly in mind, Life Formations aimed to make Washington look realistic.Bethea invited Washington’s family to review the robot’s development. Bethea says there was some back-and-forth, mostly around big-ticket items. For instance, some family members felt the early bust of Harold’s head (still pigmentless and hairless at that point) actually looked like “their Harold,” but the museum gave the robot several hairdos because the curl pattern wasn’t quite right and the grays weren’t scattered accurately.Another consideration: Washington died at age 65, but which time in Harold’s life should the robot depict? Washington’s hair greyed as he served as mayor, but he had also gained dozens of pounds during his terms. The family felt that the final body of the ‘bot was too slim. Washington had weighed 284 lbs at his death, but Bethea says he took “artistic license” by representing a healthier Washington that looked closer to age 58.At the touch of a button, the Harold Washington robot gives three presentations, one each about Washington’s mayoral campaign, his struggle to push a legislative agenda during Chicago’s Council Wars, and his funeral and legacy. (A kicker: He invites patrons to check out Chicago’s population of green parrots — a fixture of the South Side’s Washington Park.)Did they get it right?Bethea’s a fan of the DuSable Museum’s Harold Washington likeness (he calls it “his baby”), but not everyone is sold on how the robot turned out. Jacky Grimshaw, Vice President of Policy at the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and one of Washington’s former advisors, says the Harold ‘bot is okay for people who didn’t know him, but it doesn’t dig below the surface.“For me, it doesn’t really get at who Harold was,” she says.A young Grimshaw first knew Washington from Corpus Christi Church, where she saw the future mayor hobnob with Chicago aldermen and other politicians. While she was graduating college, Grimshaw’s mother was involved in Washington’s campaign for Illinois senator.It wasn’t long before her mother set her up with a gig as a staffer. Later, she served in Washington’s own mayoral administration, where she formed housing policy.Grimshaw believes DuSable visitors don’t sense Harold Washington as a person; it’s not that a patron should know Washington preferred eggs or oatmeal for breakfast, but to understand him, she says, they need a heftier dose of his personality. He moved people, she says. Seeing him in action was like a 1983 edition of Obama’s “Yes We Can” campaign.“He was such a magnetic person that you would know he was there,” she says, adding that that was the case in small venues or in rooms of more than a hundred.“That exhibit doesn’t even begin to relay that kind of personality, that kind of magnetism, that interaction with people which I believe … was nourishing to him.”For museum curator Bethea, the proof of the robot’s effectiveness is its impact.“You gravitate towards it and it pulls you in, then you really start to think about that person’s life; legacy and where they fit history and how hopefully you relate,” he says.Interestingly, that’s exactly what happened for Jon Quinn, our questioner. After his encounter with the robot, he spent two months diving deep into Harold, his history and his legacy: He sought out This American Life’s two part special on Washington’s read the biography Fire on the Prairie, and he closely watched Chuy Garcia’s 2015 mayoral campaign.Garcia campaigned for Washington and considered him a mentor. Garcia lost the 2015 race for mayor to incumbent Rahm Emanuel.Quinn even thinks it should be a requirement that Chicagoans venture to the DuSable Museum.“As strange and odd as that [animatronic] was, it was a really important afternoon for me in this weird way because it got me thinking a lot about this person and his legacy and what things from his mayoralty are still with us,” he says. “It went from this moment of eerie, uncanny valley creepiness to this fascinating exploration of the city’s recent history and politics.” Research more about this great American Champion and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!

GM-FBF – Today’s American Tragedy is were Ten buses belonging to the Pontiac school system were destroyed by dynamite on the night of Aug. 30, 1971, just days before a court‐ordered plan to bus children across town to achieve racial Integration went into effect.Today in our History – September 16, 1971 – Klansman go on trial for bus bombing.Six klansmen were arrested in connection with the bombing about a week after it took place. A Federal grand jury subsequently indicted five of the six. Today, United States District Judge Lawrence Gubow found all five guilty of conspiracy. The defendants had waived a jury trial.Those convicted were Robert Miles, 48 years old, formerly the Grand Dragon of the Klan in Michigan; and Wallace Fruit, Alex Distel Jr., Raymond Quick and Dennis Ramsey, all in their twenties and thirties and all of them klansmen at the time of the bombings. The five defendants were residents of small towns near Pontiac in 1971.Each of the defendants faces a jail term of up’ to 10 years or a fine of up to $10,000, or both. Judge Gubow delayed sentencing pending the completion of probation reports. All five men are free on $10,000 bond. The defendants attor ney, James Wells, said the convictions would be appealed.Technically, the men were found guilty of conspiring to interfere by force with the execution of the court‐ordered desegregation plan and of conspiring to frighten Pontiac schoolchildren into giving up their federally guaranteed right to attend school without regard to race or color.The men could be tried for the actual bombing only in state coutts, and no charges have been lodged there.In effect, if not in law, Judge Gubow convicted the defendants of the bombing as well as the conspiracy.“This reprehensible act of destruction was the fruit of a conspiracy entered into by these defendants,” the judges said in pronouncing the verdict.The bombing of the buses took place while the vehicles were parked in a city lot. No injuries resulted.Judge Gubow based his verdict largely on the testimony of a paid informant who had infiltrated the klan for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. During a three‐and‐a‐half‐week trial that ended two weeks ago, the informant, Jerome Lauinger, testified that the defendants were members of a supermilitant wing of the klan called the Rangers.Mr. Lauinger testified that the Pontiac bombing had been planned at secret meetings daring July and August of 1971,1 and that he was in on the conspiracy. Research more about this great American Tragedy and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!

GM – FBF – Today’s American Tragedy should never be forgotten. In fact, when you can get to this city you need to go and see for yourself what a fellow human being would do to other human beings.Today in our History – September 15, 1963 – Four Black schoolgirls killed in Birmingham church bombing.On September 15, 1963, a bomb explodes during Sunday morning services in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls: Addie Mae Collins (14), Cynthia Wesley (14), Carole Robertson (14) and Carol Denise McNair (11).With its large African American congregation, the 16th Street Baptist Church served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., who once called Birmingham a “symbol of hardcore resistance to integration.”Alabama’s governor, George Wallace, made preserving racial segregation one of the central goals of his administration, and Birmingham had one of the most violent and lawless chapters of the Ku Klux Klan.The church bombing was the third in Birmingham in 11 days after a federal order came down to integrate Alabama’s school system. Fifteen sticks of dynamite were planted in the church basement, underneath what turned out to be the girls’ restroom.The bomb detonated at 10:19 a.m., killing Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collins—all 14 years old—and 11-year-old Denise McNair. Immediately after the blast, church members wandered dazed and bloodied, covered with white powder and broken stained glass, before starting to dig in the rubble to search for survivors. More than 20 other members of the congregation were injured in the blast.When thousands of Black protesters assembled at the crime scene, Wallace sent hundreds of police and state troopers to the area to break up the crowd. Two young Black men were killed that night, one by police and another by racist thugs. Meanwhile, public outrage over the bombing continued to grow, drawing international attention to Birmingham. At a funeral for three of the girls (one’s family preferred a separate, private service), King addressed more than 8,000 mourners.A well-known Klan member, Robert Chambliss, was charged with murder and with buying 122 sticks of dynamite. In October 1963, Chambliss was cleared of the murder charge and received a six-month jail sentence and a $100 fine for the dynamite.Although a subsequent FBI investigation identified three other men—Bobby Frank Cherry, Herman Cash and Thomas E. Blanton, Jr.—as having helped Chambliss commit the crime, it was later revealed that FBI chairman J. Edgar Hoover blocked their prosecution and shut down the investigation without filing charges in 1968. After Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley reopened the case, Chambliss was convicted in 1977 and sentenced to life in prison.Efforts to prosecute the other three men believed responsible for the bombing continued for decades. Though Cash died in 1994, Cherry and Blanton were arrested and charged with four counts of murder in 2000. Blanton was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Cherry’s trial was delayed after judges ruled he was mentally incompetent to stand trial. This decision was later reversed. On May 22, 2002, Cherry was convicted and sentenced to life, bringing a long-awaited victory to the friends and families of the four young victims. Research more about this great American tragedy and shear it with your babies. Make it a champion day!

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion is an American librarian and the 14th Librarian of Congress. She is the first woman and the first African American to hold the post. She is the first professional librarian appointed to the post in over 60 years. Born in Tallahassee, Florida, she began her career at the Chicago Public Library, eventually earning a doctorate in library science from the University of Chicago. From 1993 until 2016, she was the CEO of Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland, and president of the American Library Association (ALA) from 2003 to 2004.During her presidency, she was the leading voice of the ALA in speaking out against the newly passed United States Patriot Act. In 2020, she was elected to the American Philosophical Society.Today in our History – September Carla Diane Hayden (born August 10, 1952) was sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress.On September 14, 2016, Dr. Carla Hayden was sworn in by Chief Justice John G. Roberts as the 14th Librarian of Congress. The third professional librarian, the first woman and the first person of African American descent to hold the position, Dr. Hayden had served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Enoch Pratt Free Library system in Baltimore. Her work there earned her the Library Journal Librarian of the Year award, the first African American to receive the award. She has also served as president of the American Library AssociationDr. Hayden was nominated to serve as Librarian of Congress by President Barack Obama on February 24, 2016. During her confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration Dr. Hayden was introduced by Senators Barbara Mikulski and Benjamin Cardin as well as former Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland. After her appearance at the confirmation hearing the committee voted to move her nomination to the full Senate where it was approved on July 13, 2016.Dr. Hayden noted in an interview for the Library of Congress Magazine (LCM), that she remembers being surprised that there was a profession that was dedicated to books and reading and providing knowledge to people, and she thought it was an ideal career for her. When she started working at the Chicago Public Library she spoke about walking in to the store front library she was assigned to and seeing a young lady who she was to work with sitting on the floor having story time with children with autism. Hayden remembers thinking, “Wait a minute. This is a different type of profession. You’re bringing things right to people. I was hooked. Seeing what libraries could do in communities and how they could help people just opened my eyes.”In her speech after she was sworn in, she discussed the importance of harnessing the power of technology to provide access to the unparalleled resources at the Library of Congress. She noted her excitement in seeing the papers of Rosa Parks and knowing that this collection of papers had been digitized and was available to everyone.She also noted the importance of using the staff to build on the legacy of the Library and to make it accessible to everyone. In her remarks she said:“When I received the call from the White House about this opportunity, and was asked, ‘Will you serve?’ Without hesitation I said ‘yes’. But we cannot do it alone. I am calling on you, both who are here in person and those watching virtually, that to have a truly national library, an institution of opportunity for all: it is the responsibility of all.”She noted that her vision is to make sure that the people of the United States know that they have a national treasure that is part of their heritage and that everyone can find something in or created by the Library of Congress that relates to their lives or where they want to go.She wants to make the collections accessible and wants the Library to be seen as the “go to” place for information. Research more about this great American Champion and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion event was the Attica Prison Uprising, also known as the Attica Prison rebellion or Attica Prison riot, occurred at the Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, New York, United States, in 1971.Based upon prisoners’ demands for better living conditions and political rights, the uprising was one of the best-known and most significant flashpoints of the Prisoners’ Rights Movement.On September 13, 1971, two weeks after the killing of George Jackson at San Quentin State Prison, 1,281 of the Attica prison’s approximately 2,200 inmates rioted and took control of the prison, taking 42 staff hostage.During the following four days of negotiations, authorities agreed to most of the prisoners’ 27 demands, but would not agree to demands for complete amnesty from criminal prosecution for the prison takeover or for the removal of Attica’s superintendent. By the order of Governor Nelson Rockefeller, state police took back control of the prison. When the uprising was over, at least 43 people were dead, including ten correctional officers and civilian employees, and 33 inmates.Rockefeller, who refused to visit the prisoners during the rebellion, stated that the prisoners “carried out the cold-blood killings they had threatened from the outset,” despite only one of the officers and four inmates killed being attributed to the prisoners. New York Times writer Fred Ferretti said the rebellion concluded in “mass deaths that four days of taut negotiations had sought to avert”.As a result of the riot, a number of changes were made in the New York prison system to satisfy some of the prisoners’ demands, reduce tension in the system, and prevent such incidents in the future. As of 2021, Attica remains the most prominent prison riot to have occurred in the United StatesToday in our History – Attica Prison rebellion on September 9, 1971On Thursday, September 9, 1971, 5 Company lined up for roll-call. Hearing rumors that one of their companions was to remain in his cell after being isolated for an incident involving an assault on prison officer Tom Boyle after he was hit in the face with a full soup can by inmate William Ortiz, a small group of 5 Company inmates protested that they too would be locked up and began walking back towards their cells. The remainder of 5 Company continued towards breakfast. As the protesting group walked past the isolated inmate Ortiz, they freed him from his cell. They then rejoined the rest of 5 Company and proceeded on their way to breakfast. A short time later, when the command staff discovered what had occurred, they changed the usual scheduling of the prisoners, but did not tell prison officer Gordon Kelsey, the correctional officer in charge of leading 5 Company to the yard.Instead of going to the yard after breakfast as they usually did, the prisoners were led there to find a locked door, puzzling them and the correctional officer Kelsey. Complaints led to anger when more correctional officers led by Lt. Robert T. Curtiss arrived to lead the prisoners back to their cells. Officer Kelsey was assaulted and the riot began. The inmates quickly gained control of sections, D-yard, two tunnels, and the central control room, referred to as “Times Square”. Inmates took 42 officers and civilians hostage, and produced a list of grievances demanding their conditions be met before their surrender. As the demands were not met, negotiations broke down and the mood among the inmates deteriorated. It appeared as though Gov. Rockefeller remained opposed to the inmates’ demands, and they became restless. Defensive trenches had been dug, metal gates had been electrified, crude battlements were fashioned out of metal tables and dirt, gasoline was put in position to be lit in the event of conflict, and the “Times Square” prison command center was fortified.The inmates brought four corrections officers to the top of the command center and threatened to slit their throats. Reporters in helicopters circling the prison reported that the hostages in D yard were also being prepared for killing. Gov. Rockefeller had ordered that the prison be retaken that day if negotiations failed. Situation commander Oswald, seeing the danger to the hostages, ordered that the prison be retaken by force. Of the decision, he later said “On a much smaller scale, I think I have some feeling now of how Truman must have felt when he decided to drop the A-bomb.” At 9:46 a.m. on Monday, September 13, 1971, tear gas was dropped into the yard and New York State Police troopers opened fire non-stop for two minutes into the smoke. Among the weapons used by the troopers were shotguns, which led to the wounding and killing of hostages and inmates who were not resisting. Former prison officers were allowed to participate, a decision later called “inexcusable” by the commission established by Rockefeller to study the riot and the aftermath. By the time the facility was retaken, police had killed nine hostages and 29 inmates. A tenth hostage, Correctional Officer Harrison W. Whalen died on October 9, 1971, of gunshot wounds received during the assault. The final death toll from the uprising also includes the officer fatally injured at the start of the uprising and four inmates who were subjected to vigilante killings. Nine hostages died from gunfire by state troopers and soldiers. The New York State Special Commission on Attica wrote, “With the exception of Indian massacres in the late 19th century, the State Police assault which ended the four-day prison uprising was the bloodiest one-day encounter between Americans since the Civil War.” False media reports claimed that inmate hostage-takers slit the throats of many of their hostages, reports that contradicted official medical evidence. Newspaper headlines made statements such as “I Saw Slit Throats”, implying that prisoners had cut the hostages’ throats when the armed raid occurred. These reports set the stage for reprisals by troopers and prison officers. Inmates were made to strip and crawl through the mud and then some were made to run naked between lines of enraged officers, who beat the inmates. Several days after the uprising’s end, prison doctors reported evidence of more beatings. The Special Commission found that state officials failed to quickly refute those rumors and false reports. Within four years of the uprising, 62 inmates had been charged in 42 indictments with 1,289 separate counts. One state trooper was indicted for reckless endangerment. Inmates and families of inmates killed in the prison retaking sued the State of New York for civil rights violations by law enforcement officers during and after the retaking of Attica. After decades in the courts, the State of New York agreed in 2000 to pay $8 million ($12 million minus legal fees) to settle the case. The State of New York separately settled with families of the slain prison employees for $12 million in 2005. The Forgotten Victims of Attica have asked the State of New York to release state records of the uprising to the public. In 2013, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said he would seek release of the entire 570-page Meyer Report, the state’s review of the uprising, submitted in 1975 by former State Supreme Court Justice Bernard S. Meyer.One volume was made public, but a State Supreme Court ordered in 1981 that the other two be sealed permanently. In May 2015, 46 pages of the report were released. The released pages contain accounts from witnesses and inmates describing torture, burning, and sexual abuse of inmates by prison authorities. Research more about this American Tragedy and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion was an American film and television actress, as well as a director, writer, and artist. Her career spanned more than half a century, from the early 1950s to 2010. Hamilton’s early film credits included the 1959 film noir Odds Against Tomorrow opposite Harry Belafonte and The Leech Woman in 1960. She was also one of the first African-American actors to appear on the soap opera Days of Our Lives and was the only African-American to appear in a speaking role on Leave It to Beaver. Hamilton portrayed, in an uncredited role, Helen Robinson in the 1962 film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, based on Harper Lee’s novel of the same name. She was the film’s last surviving African-American adult cast member with a speaking role.Today in our History – September 12, 1932 – Kim Hamilton was born.Born in Los Angeles, California, Hamilton as a young woman initially wanted to be a model but said she could not find work in the fashion industry owing to her short stature and race. Instead, she enrolled in acting classes after seeing an advertisement in the Los Angeles Times and then enlisted the services of an agent. Hamilton made her professional acting debut in the 1950s television sitcom Amos ‘n’ Andy. She played the girlfriend of Andy (Spencer Williams) on the show for several episodes. She briefly moved to London to pursue acting.Hamilton was able to find some roles but returned to the United States after the British Actors’ Equity Association and the Secretary of State for Employment denied her a work permit, a practice commonly used against American actors at the time. Hamilton appeared in more than 60 television series and television films throughout her career. In 1960, she guest-starred in an episode of The Twilight Zone called “The Big Tall Wish.” In 1963 and 1964, she played a high-school librarian on two episodes of the popular series My Three Sons. She also became one of the first black actresses to appear on the soap opera Days of Our Lives.Other guest appearances included on the Adam-12 episode entitled “Hollywood Division (01/22/1974), and in the series The Thin Man, General Hospital, Sanford and Son, Good Times, The Jeffersons, In the Heat of the Night, All In The Family, and Law & Order. She portrayed Songi in “Final Mission” a 1990 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Her last television credit was a 2008 episode of the ABC series Private Practice. Hamilton was also an artist, director, and writer. In her final credits, she was credited as Kim Rousseau. In December 2007, Hamilton was honored for her career achievements by Columbia University and the Harlem community at an event held at the Museum of the City of New York. Hamilton’s honor was part of series of Columbia University’s Big Read program, focusing on To Kill a Mockingbird through guest lectures, productions, and panel discussions. Kim Hamilton was married twice. Her first marriage, at age 18, was to Robert Henry Hamilton in 1951. They had two children but divorced a decade later. One of her children, her son Robert, predeceased her. She then dated German-born actor Werner Klemperer for more than two decades before they married in 1997.They remained together until Klemperer’s death on December 6, 2000. Hamilton in her later years divided her time between the East and West coasts, living at her home in Manhattan and at her other residence in her hometown of Los Angeles. In 2013, at age 81, she died of undisclosed causes while in Los Angeles. Research more about this great American Champion and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!+6

GM – FBF – Today as America still remembers this day at the effects on our society. I wanted to look at two people who were working on the United airplane that was diverted over Shanksville. PA where it crashed. Today in our History – September 11. 2001 – the heroes of United Airlines Flight 93.Flight attendant Lyles, 33, resided in Fort Myers, Florida. Prior to being a flight attendant she spent six years with the Fort Pierce, Florida Police Department rising in rank from patrol officer to detective. She achieved her lifelong dream of being a flight attendant on October 11, 2000. She was married in May of 2000 to police officer Lorne Lyles. Prior to her marriage she spent several years as a single mother. During that time she worked two or three jobs and was proud of the fact that she never had to take welfare. She often helped with police programs for children during her free time. She and her husband were the parents of sons Jerome Smith, Javon Castrillo, Justin Lyles and Jordan Lyles. During the hijacking of Flight 93, Mrs. Lyles used her cell phone to phone her husband twice. She told him of the hijacking and also how much she loved him and their boys. According to her husband , she remained calm as she prayed to see her husband’s face again and then “beseeched God to forgive and welcome her home – along with everyone else on the plane.”Age: 49Hometowns: Oakland, California/Linden, New JerseyOccupation: Flight Attendant, United AirlinesWanda Anita Green was a flight attendant with United Airlines for 29 years, fulfilling a dream of flying and seeing the world. According to her mother, Green was one of the first African American flight attendants with United Airlines. Green was a dedicated mother of two children, a church deacon, and active in her community of Linden, New Jersey. She held a degree from Rockland Community College, earned a real estate license, and hoped to open her own real estate office when she retired from flying. Green planned to visit her family in Oakland, California on her layover after the September 11 flight to the West Coast.Never forget! Make It A Champion Day!

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion was an American politician who served as the U.S. Representative for Ohio’s 11th congressional district from 1999 until her death in 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, her district encompassed most of Downtown and Eastern Cleveland and many of the eastern suburbs in Cuyahoga County, including Euclid, Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights. She was the first African American woman to be elected to Congress from Ohio.On December 19, 2006, Tubbs Jones was named Chairwoman of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct for the 110th Congress. She was also a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. On August 19, 2008, Tubbs Jones was found unconscious in her car, having suffered a cerebral hemorrhage caused by a burst aneurysm. She was taken to an East Cleveland hospital, where she died the next day.Today in our History – September 10, 1949 – Stephanie Tubbs Jones was born.Stephanie Tubbs Jones won election to the United States House of Representatives in 1998, becoming the first African-American woman to represent Ohio in Congress. Nine years later she became one of the first African-American women to chair a standing congressional committee—the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, commonly known as the Ethics Committee.1 In the House, she focused on a range of policies important to her district, including home ownership, women’s health, and voting rights. “All my life I had wanted to help others, and I had been active in helping others,” she said. “I was always interested in service.”Stephanie Tubbs Jones was born Stephanie Tubbs in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 10, 1949, to Mary Tubbs, a factory worker and cook, and Andrew Tubbs, an airline skycap. Raised in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood as the youngest of three daughters, she graduated from Collinwood High. At Case Western Reserve University, Jones founded the African American Students Association and, in 1971, graduated with a degree in sociology and a minor in psychology. She completed her law degree at Case Western University Law School in 1974. Jones then served as the assistant general counsel and the equal opportunity administrator of the northeast Ohio regional sewer district.3 She married Mervyn Jones and raised a son, Mervyn.Jones eventually became an assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor and trial attorney for the Cleveland district equal employment opportunity commission. When she and several friends worked on a successful political campaign in 1979, the group began promoting Jones for public office. Noting a lack of people of color on the bench, Jones ran for a local judgeship and won election to the Cleveland municipal court. Ohio Governor Richard Celeste then appointed Jones to the Cuyahoga County court of common pleas, where she served from 1983 to 1991. In 1992 she was elected the Cuyahoga County prosecutor, making her the state’s first African-American prosecutor and the only Black woman prosecutor in a major urban area in the country.When Cleveland’s Representative of 30 years, Louis Stokes, retired in 1998, Jones entered the Democratic primary to succeed him. She ran on her nearly two decades in public office in Cuyahoga County and on her well-established connection with voters in the district.5 After capturing 51 percent of the vote in the primary against a handful of other candidates, she dominated the general election with 80 percent.6 Jones faced no serious challenges in her four re-election bids; she usually won with 75 percent or more of the vote, and ran unopposed in 2004.When Jones took her seat in the 106th Congress (1999–2001), she received assignments on the Banking and Financial Services Committee (later renamed Financial Services) and the Small Business Committee. In the 107th Congress (2001–2003), she picked up a third assignment to the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, which oversees House ethics guidelines for Members and staff. In the 108th Congress (2003–2005), Jones left the Financial Services and Small Business Committees to become the first African-American woman to hold a seat on the prestigious Ways and Means Committee, which writes and oversees America’s tax laws.Jones’s Ohio district encompassed some of Cleveland’s wealthiest suburbs as well as poor neighborhoods in the city. On Capitol Hill, she worked to control predatory mortgages and lending practices. As chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Housing Task Force, she facilitated a panel on home ownership at the Congressional Black Caucus Weekend in 2000.In the 107th Congress, she introduced the Predatory Mortgage Lending Practice Reduction Act to abolish certain fees and prevent lenders from targeting low-income and minority communities with subprime mortgages, which carried high interest rates. She routinely re-introduced the bill, and although she did not live to see it, Congress eventually passed legislation amid the financial crisis in 2009 that curbed subprime lending.For four straight Congresses—the 107th through 110th Congresses (2001–2009)—Jones joined Maryland Senator Barbara A. Mikulski in introducing the Uterine Fibroids Research and Education Act. The proposal included $10 million over four years to fund research by the National Institutes of Health and increase public awareness. Jones focused on the issue because African-American women are statistically more likely to be affected than other women and the condition was relatively unknown. “Women deserve better,” she said. Jones introduced the bill four times, and although it never became law, she felt more people learned about the disease through her legislative efforts.Additionally, Jones focused on fire safety on college campuses. Citing a number of deadly fires in the previous decade, Jones introduced the Campus Fire Prevention Act in the 107th Congress to create a grant program for sprinkler systems in student housing. She re-introduced it in the following three Congresses. The bill would have provided colleges and universities $100 million a year for four years and directed 10 percent of the funds to “historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities,” as well as another 10 percent to fraternity and sorority housing. In 2009 Ohio Representative Marcia L. Fudge introduced the Honorable Stephanie Tubbs Jones College Fire Prevention Act—the same bill Jones introduced—which passed the House in May 2010.In the lead up to the 2004 presidential election, the Democratic Party chose Jones to serve as co-chair for the Democratic National Committee. She told a local newspaper she was chosen for the role because of her judicial background and Ohio’s status as a swing state, but mainly because she was “not afraid to speak out” for what she felt was right.After George W. Bush won re-election in 2004, Jones suspected irregular voting procedures in Ohio had swayed the state’s results. Supported by findings from a forum held by the Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee, Jones sought a Senate colleague to make a formal objection during the ceremonial electoral vote count before a Joint Session of Congress. California Senator Barbara Boxer agreed and the pair challenged the count on January 6, 2005—only the second time since the modern counting practice was established in 1887. Jones knew it was unlikely to change the outcome of the election, but in a news conference said, “I raised these objections because I am convinced that we as a body must conduct a formal and legitimate debate about election irregularities. I raise these objections to debate the process and protect the true will of the people.” Both chambers debated the issue and ultimately voted to uphold the results: 74 to 1 in the Senate and 267 to 31 in the House.The following month, Jones joined Senators Boxer and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York in introducing the Count Every Vote Act which proposed wide-ranging electoral reform. The bill would have declared Election Day a national holiday, made the distribution of misleading election information a federal crime, and required a paper ballot back-up for every electronic vote to be used in the event of a recount.In the 110th Congress (2007–2009), Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California named Jones chair of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, more commonly known as the Ethics Committee, despite criticisms that Jones had used campaign funds for personal purchases and had taken free flights from special interest groups. With Jones as chair, the Ethics Committee initiated guidance for Members who earmarked federal funding—line items in appropriations bills for specific projects—to avoid conflict of interest issues, and for Members who flew on private planes. The committee also began a yearly requirement for all House staff to complete ethics training.Representative Jones died suddenly of a brain aneurysm on August 20, 2008. At the news of her passing, then Senator and Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama stated, “It wasn’t enough for her just to break barriers in her own life. She was also determined to bring opportunity to all those who had been overlooked and left behind.”27 Jones was succeeded by Marcia Fudge—one of her former aides and the mayor of Warrensville Heights, Ohio—in a special election on November 18, 2008. Research more about this great American Champion and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion was an American businessman, investor and banker. One of the first wealthy African American entrepreneurs in America, he is credited with being the first African American man to own banks in the United States, specifically owning and controlling white banks in the state of Texas despite Jim Crow laws. Today in our History – September 9, 1999 – Bernard S. Garrett Sr. died.Garrett was born in Willis, Texas. He completed 11th grade in Houston, Texas and married his first wife, Eunice. They had a son, Bernard Garrett Jr. He and Eunice separated and divorced in 1959. He met Linda Marie Guillemette in 1960 and they married in 1962. By 1963, Bernard and Linda had amassed an empire of wealth in real estate all over California, buying the prestigious Bankers Building in 1963 in downtown, Los Angeles. They joined in Martin Luther King Jr.’s August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.Garrett started and ran a cleaning business in Texas. In 1945, the family moved to California where Garrett started another cleaning business and a wastepaper collection business. When Garrett wanted to buy an apartment building in a white neighborhood in Los Angeles, he worked out a deal with the owner, Mr. Barker, who, along with a bank, loaned Garrett money to renovate the apartment units. Garrett was successful in renting the units to black residents and in paying back the loans. He and Barker formed a partnership investing in real estate.In 1954, Garrett was worth $1.5 million. He proposed a deal to Joseph B. Morris that they purchase real estate together. Morris was a graduate of UCLA and a Black businessman who had once owned two nightclubs. Joe and his wife Cora became friends with Linda and Bernard Sr. Together they bought the Bankers Building, the tallest building in Los Angeles. They succeeded by having Linda, whose skin was very fair, and sometimes other white faces, pretend to be the faces of their empire, appearing to run their operations while, in fact, Garrett and Morris were the owners and actual operators of the properties.Morris and Garrett went on to purchase multiple banks and savings & loans, in Texas. They acquired their first bank in Texas in 1964 going on to buy an additional four banks and savings & loans. A racist Democratic power base eventually found a way to stop Bernard and Linda’s growing banking control of white banks in Texas. Senator John L. McClellan from Arkansas brought Garrett before the Senate Investigations Committee in 1965. Bernard Sr and Linda hired lawyers Melvin Belli—who had defended Jack Ruby— and Joe Tonahill to defend Bernard. Bernard Sr was sentenced in 1967 to a stay at Terminal Island Federal Facility in Long Beach, California, shortly after his second daughter Sheila, was born.Bernard Sr and Linda built another real estate empire with an eye on becoming early investors in the newly independent country of The Bahamas. By 1974, they moved their family of six children to the Bahamas to run a large boat marina they bought, while awaiting bank charter approval to own banks in the Bahamas.Bernard Sr and Linda hoped to own banks in the Bahamas, until they encountered a banking charter denial because of his prior racist conviction in Texas. They eventually moved back to the United States.Bernard Garret and Linda had six children . The couple divorced in 1977–78. Garett went on to meet and marry, Kathy Ussery. They had 2 sons. Garrett died in 1999.Garrett and Morris’s story was adapted into the 2019 critically acclaimed film The Banker.In Garrett’s lifetime, he built a real estate and banking portfolio worth tens of millions of dollars, which equates to well over $100 million in today’s dollarsIn 2020, the family established The Bernard Garrett Sr Foundation, a public foundation focused on financial literacy and opportunity for African Americans. Research more about this great American Champion and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!