![]() Rush's allies in the black-power movement abandoned the Democrats in the wake of the political turmoil that followed the sudden death in 1987 of Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington, and formed their own political party, naming it after Washington. In 1975, Rush ran for a seat on the Chicago City Council, the first of several black militants to seek political office, and lost to incumbent alderman William Barnett, receiving 23% of the vote to Barnett's 55% and Larry S. On May 13, 2017, Rush received a Doctorate of Humanities, honoris causa, from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) for his outstanding contributions to Chicago. He completed a degree in theological studies at McCormick Theological Seminary in 1998. Rush earned his Bachelor of General Studies with honors from Roosevelt University in 1973, and a Master's degree in political science from University of Illinois at Chicago in 1974. A deeply religious born-again Christian, Rush said, "I don't repudiate any of my involvement in the Panther party-it was part of my maturing." Formal education "We started glorifying thuggery and drugs", he told People. ![]() In 1974, he left the Black Panthers, who were already in decline. ![]() Rush was imprisoned for six months in 1972 on a weapons charge after carrying a pistol into a police station. He worked on several nonviolent projects that built support for the Black Panthers in African-American communities, such as coordinating a medical clinic which offered sickle-cell anemia testing on an unprecedented scale. We advocate offensive violence against the power structure." After Hampton's death, Rush became acting chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party. The trend now is not to wait to be attacked. Earlier that year, Rush had discussed the philosophy of his membership in the Black Panthers, saying, "Black people have been on the defensive for all these years. After the Chicago Police Department and the State's Attorney Office assassinated Black Panther Fred Hampton in a police raid, Rush said, "We needed to arm ourselves", and called the police "pigs". After co-founding the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1968, he served as its defense minister. Throughout the 1960s, Rush was involved in the civil rights movement and worked in civil disobedience campaigns in the southern United States. He later finished his Army service, receiving an honorable discharge. In 1968, he went AWOL from the Army and co-founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers. While stationed in Chicago in 1966, he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which had helped obtain national civil rights legislation passed in 19. In 1963, Rush dropped out of high school before graduating and joined the U.S. After his parents separated when Rush was 7 years old, his mother took him and his siblings to Chicago, Illinois, joining the Great Migration of African Americans out of the South in the first part of the 20th century. Rush was born on November 23, 1946, in Albany, Georgia. On January 3, 2022, Rush announced that he was retiring from Congress. A member of the Democratic Party, Rush is the only politician to have defeated Barack Obama in an election, which he did in the 2000 Democratic primary for Illinois's 1st congressional district. Although still minority-majority, since early 2013 it is 51.3% African American, 36.1% White, 9.8% Hispanic, and 2% Asian. In 2011 the Illinois General Assembly redistricted this area after the 2010 census. His district was originally principally on the South Side of Chicago, with a population from 2003 to early 2013 that was 65% African-American, a higher proportion than any other congressional district. ![]() He has since won consecutive reelections. Rush was first elected to Congress in 1992. A civil rights activist during the 1960s, Rush co-founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. representative for Illinois's 1st congressional district for three decades. Bobby Lee Rush (born November 23, 1946) is an American politician, activist and pastor who served as the U.S.
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