Bobby Rush
| Bobby Rush | |
|---|---|
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 1st district |
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Assumed office January 3, 1993 |
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| Preceded by | Charles Hayes |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Bobby Lee Rush November 23, 1946 Albany, Georgia, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Carolyn Rush |
| Children | 6 |
| Residence | Chicago, Illinois |
| Alma mater |
Roosevelt University (B.G.S.) University of Illinois (M.A.) McCormick Seminary (M.A.) |
| Occupation | Civil Rights leader |
| Religion | Baptist |
| Website | rush |
| Military service | |
| Service/branch | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1963–1968 |
Bobby Lee Rush (born November 23, 1946) is the U.S. Representative for Illinois's 1st congressional district, serving in Congress for more than two decades; he was first elected in 1992 and took office in 1993. He has since won consecutive re-election. The district was located 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 in the nation. In 2011 the Illinois General Assembly redistricted this area following the 2010 census. While still minority-majority, since early 2013 it is 51.3% African American, 9.8% Latino and 2% Asian. It re-elected Rush in 2016.
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' 1st congressional district. A civil rights activist during the 1960s, Rush became radicalized for a period and founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers.
Rush was born on November 23, 1946 in Albany, Georgia. 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.
In 1963 Rush dropped out of high school before graduating; he joined the U.S. Army. While stationed in Chicago in 1966, he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which had helped obtain national civil rights legislation passed in 1964 and 1965. In 1968, he went AWOL from the Army and co-founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers. He later finished his service, receiving an honorable discharge from the Army.
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