Tribute to Mr. Lutrelle Palmer

TRIBUTE TO MR. LUTRELLE PALMER -- (House of Representatives - September 14, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise in tribute to the life and legacy of Mr. Lutrelle Palmer, better known as Lu, one of the greatest and most prolific journalists known in this country during the last half of the 20th century.

Mr. Palmer was born in 1922 in Newport News, Virginia. He attended the local schools, went to Virginia Union where he earned a bachelor's degree, then to Syracuse University where he was awarded a master's degree in communications. He then went on to the University of Iowa where he completed course work for a Ph.D. but lost his dissertation materials on a train and consequently never received his doctoral degree.

Lu worked for several newspapers and taught at a number of colleges and universities. He wrote for the Chicago Daily Defender, the Chicago Courier, the Chicago Daily News, the Tri state Defender, and he developed and owned the Chicago Black X Express and wrote freelance articles for other newspapers and magazines.

Lu had a unique and provocative style of writing and was known as "the Panther with a pen." He spent 50 years informing, stimulating, motivating and activating the African American community as a reporter, syndicated columnist, newspaper publisher, radio commentator, activist, community organizer and political strategist.

Lu and Vernon Jarrett were black journalistic pioneers in Chicago in that they worked for mainline publications and major electronic outlets but always returned to the black press. Lu Palmer was a Black Nationalist who wrote and spoke eloquently and passionately about black plight, black needs, injustice and black hopes.

During the activist 1960s, Lu's pen and voice were read and heard all over America. When the police raided the Black Panther headquarters in Chicago and killed Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, Lu's articles were scathing. He was a leader in the successful effort to defeat then-Cook County State's attorney Edward Hahnrahan.

As a result of editorial interference, Lu eventually resigned from the Daily News and organized his own paper, the Black X Express. However, Lu was very selective in the kind of advertising that he would accept. Therefore, his paper only survived for a little more than a year.

Lu then got involved with radio journalism and developed Lu's Notebook, a hard-hitting editorial newscast which often ended with the phrase, "That's enough to make a Negro turn black."

Lu was now, for all practical purposes, a full-time activist. He was holding community forums, book reviews and seminars. He organized CBUC, Chicago Black United Communities, and then BIPO, Black Independent Political Organization, which held political education classes and trained hundreds of citizens to better understand and be involved in the political process.

After the death of Mayor Richard J. Daley, black activists and white political progressives in Chicago saw a crack in the dominant political machine, and Lu Palmer emerged as a leader in the effort to elect a black mayor in Chicago. While Lu was characterized as a black nationalist, he was also a coalition builder. He played a key role in the development of Pro-Can, the Progressive Chicago Area Network, which was made up of mostly blacks, young whites and Hispanics whose goals were good, clean, progressive and honest government.

Lu became so obsessed with understanding what a good black mayor could mean for Chicago that he was willing to lose sponsorship of his radio series, and he did. He organized forums, focus groups, rallies and eventually a plebiscite to convince then-Congressman Harold Washington to run for mayor. Mayor Jane Byrne had infuriated the black community with some of her appointments to the school board and the Chicago Housing Authority, plus engineered the loss of Lu's radio series sponsorship from which came the slogan, "We shall see in '83."

Harold Washington agreed, ran for mayor and was elected. Lu ran for Harold Washington's vacated seat. Harold, as mayor, supported labor leader Charles Hayes and Charlie was elected. Lu was always a political independent, and after Harold Washington's death, Lu became even more disillusioned with local Democrats and helped Republican Jim Edgar to become governor of Illinois and had enough influence with the black or African American Illinois voters to make it happen.

Lu eventually became ill and retired from active public life, but helped his wife Jorja to operate the MENHELCO Group Home for boys which was founded in honor of their son Skipper who suffered from a disability and is now deceased.

Lu represented the best of what is a husband, father, teacher, journalist and lover of freedom, liberation, self-determination and race pride could exhibit. He was fiercely black, made no bones about it, and often referred to himself as being an African in America.

He leaves to mourn his wife, Jorja, and their children Trudy Palmer, Darien Simon, Karen English, Lu Palmer III, Jamie English, Junior, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Lu Palmer, a man of principle, a man of the people, for the people and of the people. Lu Palmer, a man of greatness.

END