Savage, Gus, 1925-2015

<p>Gus Savage ascended to Congress as an outsider to elective politics. A veteran civil rights activist and pioneer African–American journalist, he used his strong community ties to earn a seat in the U.S. House from South Chicago. During his 12 years in Congress, Savage’s flamboyant personality and militant approach to highlighting racial inequalities in his district and around the nation made headlines and often provoked controversy. “I value my independence,” Savage avowed. “And I view struggle as desirable. I don’t crave acceptance. I march to my own tune. If the machine doesn’t like it, that’s tough. If my colleagues don’t like it, that’s also tough.”</p>

<p>Born in Detroit, Michigan, on October 30, 1925, Gus Savage moved to the South Side of Chicago with his family at age five. He attended public schools in Chicago, graduating from Wendell Phillips High School in 1943. Savage served in a segregated unit of the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1946; the racial discrimination he witnessed contributed to his future radicalism. After he completed a tour of duty in World War II, Savage attended Roosevelt University in Chicago, where he earned a B.A. in philosophy in 1951. Enrolled in Chicago–Kent College of Law during 1952 and 1953, he changed his career to journalism in 1954 and later edited and published Citizen Newspapers, a chain of independent weekly newspapers based in Chicago. Savage married Eunice King on August 4, 1946. The couple had two children: Thomas James and Emma Mae. Savage’s wife died of lung cancer in 1981, and he never remarried.</p>

<p>A lifelong civil rights advocate, Savage fought against discrimination in housing, employment, and labor unions. In the 1960s he chaired Chicago’s South End Voters Conference and the Protest at the Polls. Savage also served as the campaign manager for the Midwest League of Negro Voters. Savage organized and participated in a series of protests, including one against the National Tea Co. (an advertiser in his newspapers) to draw attention to the company’s poor record on minority hiring practices. He also played an important role in publicizing the brutal murder of Emmett Till by printing a photograph of the body of the 14–year–old African–American boy from Chicago who was killed in Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman. The shocking photographs of the boy’s dead body, first published by Savage in TheAmerican Negro: A Magazine of Protest, as well as Jet and the Chicago Defender, caused a public outcry.</p>

<p>Augustus Alexander "Gus" Savage (October 30, 1925 – October 31, 2015) was an entrepreneur, publisher and a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois.</p>

<p>Savage was born in Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Roosevelt University in Chicago. He served in the United States Army from 1943 to 1946 and then worked as a journalist from 1954 to 1979, owning a chain of weekly community newspapers in the Chicago area including the South End Citizen. The Chicago Citizen Newspaper Group became the largest Black-owned chain of weekly newspapers in the Midwest with a circulation of 121,000.</p>

<p>Savage entered political life in 1948 as a Progressive Party organizer. He challenged the local establishment's chosen candidates for the House of Representatives in 1968 and 1970, losing the Democratic primary both times, but won election to the House in 1980, representing the 2nd District on Chicago's South Side for 6 terms, from January 1981 to January 1993.</p>

<p>Savage died on October 31, 2015, one day after his 90th birthday.</p>

SAVAGE, Gus, a Representative from Illinois; born in Detroit, Mich., October 30, 1925; attended the public schools of Chicago; graduated from Wendell Phillips High School, Chicago, Ill., 1943; B.A., Roosevelt College, Chicago, Ill., 1951; United States Army, 1943-1946; graduate work, Roosevelt College, 1952; attended Chicago-Kent College of Law, Chicago, Ill., 1952-1953; worked as a journalist, 1954-1979, and was editor and publisher, Citizen Community Newspapers, 1965-1979; a founder and chief strategist of black political independent movement in Midwest; campaign manager, Midwest League of Negro Voters, 1960; chairman, Protest at the Polls, 1963; chairman, Southend Voters Conference, Chicago, 1960; chairman, Committee for a Black Mayor, Chicago, 1976; unsuccessful candidate for election to the Ninety-first Congress in 1970; elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-seventh and to the five succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1981-January 3, 1993); unsuccessful candidate for renomination to the One Hundred Third Congress in 1992; died on October 31, 2015, in Chicago, Ill.

<p>Born October 30, 1925 in Detroit, Michigan, Gus Savage and his family moved to the South Side of Chicago five years later. Savage recalls a childhood spent in abject poverty and cramped quarters in a Chicago neighborhood that was a chief battleground in the city's racial turf wars. In this environment he was lured by gangs, violence, and gambling. After high school he entered the U.S. Army and was sent to the South for training, and it was in the South that Savage experienced first hand virulent anti-black racism. His experiences there led him away from his past gang activity and towards a renewed Christian faith, activity in the Civil Rights Movement and a burgeoning intellectual curiosity.</p>

<p>Savage was honorably discharged from the service and returned to Chicago, where, in 1950, he enrolled in Roosevelt University. Three years later, he graduated with a B.A. in philosophy. After graduating, he went on to Chicago-Kent College of Law, and began to involve himself politically. He worked on Henry Wallace's 1948 Progressive Party campaign for the Presidency and picketed city hall for housing opportunities for blacks.</p>

<p>From 1965 to 1980, Gus Savage was one of Chicago's most influential black journalists, as the owner of the Citizen newspapers, a chain of community weeklies in the Chicago area. During this time, he became a forceful voice for equality and black liberation, leading campaigns against the Chicago political machine for equal housing access and civil rights. In 1977, he managed Harold Washington's first unsuccessful bid for mayor and many credit him for paving the way for Washington's successful bid, six years later.</p>