Charles Hayes (politician)

Charles Arthur Hayes ( born February 17, 1918 in Cairo, Illinois, † April 8, 1997 in Chicago, Illinois ) was an American politician of the Democratic Party, who represented the state of Illinois for ten years in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Life

After Hayes in 1935 completed the Sumner High School in his native town, he was a union official in 1938 after employment. Most recently, he was Vice President of the Union of Workers, founded in 1979 in the food and Handelsgewerber ( United Food and Commercial Workers Union). In the 1980s, Hayes was already in the 1960s a member of the civil rights organization Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC ), was arrested in a demonstration against apartheid in South Africa due to civil disobedience after participation. In addition, he was until 1986 First Executive Vice President of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists ( CBTU ), a company founded in 1972 advocacy of African-American trade union officials.

In a special election (Special election ), he was elected on 23 August 1983 as a candidate of the Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, succeeding Harold Washington, who was previously elected as the first African American mayor of Chicago. Hayes, also African American, belonged to the U.S. House of Representatives after several re- elections until January 3, 1993 as representative of the first congressional district of Illinois at. In 1992, he competed unsuccessfully for reelection, but lost his intra-party rivals Bobby L. Rush, a former activist of the Black Panther Party, which was finally successfully elected to the 103rd U.S. Congress.

Background literature

• Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 2008