H.Doc. 108-224 Black Americans in Congress 1870-2007

FORMER MEMBERS H 1929–1970 �� George Washington Collins 1925–1972 UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE H 1970–1972 DEMOCRAT FROM ILLINOIS diligent but reserved public servant, George Collins in his ward office—Collins succeeded his former supervisor A served only two years in Congress. He entered the as 24th Ward alderman, a position he held until his election political scene at the local level in Chicago, and converted to Congress in 1970.4 his loyal service to Mayor Richard Daley’s Democratic When Representative Daniel J. Ronan of Illinois died machine to a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. during his third term in Congress in August 1969, Collins Unaffected by the redistricting many experts predicted decided to run for the vacant seat. As a faithful member of would lead to his political demise, Collins won a second the Cook County Democratic organization, Collins received term in the House. His untimely death in a plane crash the solid backing of Mayor Daley in the special election for ended a promising House career but launched a long term Ronan’s unexpired term for the 91st Congress (1969–1971) of service by his widow, Cardiss. and for the election for a full term in the 92nd Congress George Washington Collins was born in Chicago, (1971–1973). TheM arch 1970 Democratic primary Illinois, on March 5, 1925. The son of Wash and Leanna for the congressional district encompassing Chicago’s Collins, George grew up during the Great Depression in predominantly black West Side and two working-class white the impoverished Cabrini-Green neighborhood, an area suburbs, Cicero and Berwyn (once labeled the “Selma of in the North Side of Chicago that was later known for its the North” by Martin Luther King, Jr.), received national failed public housing experiment.1 After graduating from media attention because both candidates were African Waller High School in Chicago, Collins entered the U.S. American.5 During the campaign, Collins emphasized his Army as a private in 1943. He served with the Engineers political experience and his ability to bring improvements Corps in the South Pacific during World WarII before to the district because of his connections with city hall. He being discharged as a sergeant in 1946. Upon returning easily defeated his opponent Brenetta Howell, an outspoken to civilian life, Collins continued his education, earning a community activist, social worker, and mother, with 86 business law degree in 1957 from Northwestern University. percent of the vote.6 Due in great part to the citywide On August 5, 1958, he married Cardiss Robertson. The influence of the Daley machine, Collins bested Alex couple had one son, Kevin.2 Zabrosky—a white engineer and steel executive who resided Collins gained his first political experience in the in Berwyn—in the general election, 56 to 44 percent.7 With local Democratic organization headed by Mayor Daley. this victory, Collins became the firstA frican-American Appointed precinct captain in 1954 for Chicago’s 24th Member of the 20th century to represent a minority-black Ward on the West Side—a section of the city known district. (Two black Members from districts without a black for its loyalty to the Democratic Party and the local majority—Ron Dellums of California and Parren Mitchell machine—he went on to serve as deputy sheriff ofC ook of Maryland—joined Collins in the House in the 92nd County from 1958 to 1961. Collins ascended further Congress.8) Collins’s 1970 election also marked the first time in local government as secretary to veteran alderman two African Americans represented Chicago simultaneously Benjamin Lewis of the 24th Ward and as an administrative in Congress.9 assistant to the Chicago Board of Health.3 After Lewis’s Sworn in on November 3, 1970, Collins was assigned to brutal murder in 1963—he was handcuffed and shot the Public Works and Government Operations committees. 362 H BLACK AMERICANS IN CONGRESS CONGRESSIONAL PI C TORIAL DIRE C TORY , 92nd Congress H EDWARD W. BURKE H H GEORGE WASHINGTON COLLINS H Vowing to serve his constituents “in any way,” he made United States, several members of the CBC, including frequent trips to Chicago to ensure that he kept in touch Collins, reproached him. “Mr. Agnew, take off those with voters.10 To advance the interests and concerns of rose-colored glasses,” Collins retorted. “When the black his urban district, the Illinois Representative promoted a leadership talk about social, economic, and financial wide range of legislation aimed at improving the lives of conditions of the black and the poor, it is very real.”13 the poor in American cities. Although Collins supported Despite a comfortable margin of victory in his President Richard M. Nixon’s proposals to provide a initial election to office, Collins’s bid for a second term minimum federal payment to low-income families with in Congress was met with uncertainty. As a result of a children and to share federal tax revenues with states court-ordered redistricting plan for the state of Illinois, and localities, he judged funding levels to be inadequate. Collins found himself facing another product of the Collins sought to increase spending for the Elementary Chicago Democratic machine, Frank Annunzio—an and Secondary Education Act and advocated the passage of Illinois Representative first elected in the 89th Congress federal highway legislation that addressed the needs of mass (1965–1967)—in a newly drawn district extending east to transit programs and of urban residents uprooted from west from the heart of downtown Chicago to the western their neighborhoods by road construction. He introduced portion of the city.14 Unconcerned with the restructuring a bill requiring the Treasury Department to provide free tax that would potentially pit two Daley followers against preparation to low- and moderate-income taxpayers and one another, Annunzio confided to friends on Capitol backed a measure to offer fiscal relief to states burdened Hill that the situation “will be taken care of by the by high welfare costs.11 Collins participated in efforts to organization.”15 Allegedly offered a position in the city reform the Federal Housing Administration after hearings administration in return for not opposing Annunzio, conducted by the Government Operations Subcommittee Collins defied the mayor, declaring his intention to enter on Legal and Monetary Affairs revealed that low-income the upcoming election. In a different political climate, homeowners had been defrauded by speculators, real estate Daley might not have tolerated such insubordination. brokers, and home repair companies. But relations between the Chicago Democratic machine As a veteran of World War II, Collins cared deeply and the city’s African-American political leadership had about the welfare of American soldiers, and he devoted deteriorated in the aftermath of a split between the mayor particular attention to ending racial discrimination in and South Side Representative Ralph Metcalfe, William the armed services. In 1971, Collins and nine other Dawson’s successor. Metcalfe had accused Daley of members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)— devoting insufficient attention to the death of an unarmed the newly-formed organization created to promote black teenager shot by a Chicago policeman. Given his economic, educational, and social issues affecting African difficulties with Metcalfe, Daley could not afford to Americans—toured American military bases to investigate alienate the city’s other African-American Representative, widespread allegations of racial discrimination. He and so he accommodated Collins’s wishes to stand for another his CBC colleagues conducted a series of hearings to term.16 In an attempt to avoid a direct contest between investigate the complaints.12 Known as a Member who the two politicians, Daley successfully encouraged preferred to work quietly behind the scenes, Collins Annunzio to run for an open congressional seat in a made only occasional speeches on the floor during his more affluent Chicago district vacated by Representative tenure in the House. When Vice President Spiro Agnew Roman Pucinski, who unsuccessfully challenged accused African-American Representatives of exaggerating Republican Senator Charles Percy.17 With a formidable the desperate circumstances of many blacks living in the foe eliminated, Collins handily defeated Rhea Mojica 364 H BLACK AMERICANS IN CONGRESS FORMER MEMBERS | 1929–1970 H 365 H GEORGE WASHINGTON COLLINS H Hammer, an associate producer of a Spanish-language FOR FURTHER READING television program, in the March primary.18 In the heavily “Collins, George Washington,” Biographical Directory of the Democratic district, Collins trounced his Republican U.S. Congress, 1774–Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/ opponent, real estate broker Thomas Lento, in the general scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000637. election, garnering 83 percent of the vote.19 On December 8, 1972, a month after his re-election to NOTES a second term, Collins died in an airplane crash that killed 1 James S. Stephens, “Collins Lauded at Rites,” 22 December 1972, 45 of the 61 passengers and the crew onboard a flight from Chicago Daily Defender: 29. This article lists Collins’s parents as Washington, DC, to Chicago, where Collins had planned Wash and Leanna. Wash is presumably short for Washington, to organize a Christmas party for children in his district.20 which is George Collins’s middle name. See also Maurine Then-CBC chairman Louis

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