James Meeks

Infobox_State_Senator
name=James Meeks


state_senate=Illinois
state=Illinois
district=15th
term=2003 -
preceded=
succeeded=Incumbent
date of birth=birth date and age|1956|08|04
place of birth=Chicago, Illinois
date of death=
place of death=
spouse=Jamell Meeks
profession=minister
religion=Baptist
party=Democratic|

The Reverend James T. Meeks (born 4 August 1956) is a Democratic member of the Illinois Senate, representing the 15th district since 2003. He is also an active Baptist minister in Chicago and chairs the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus.

Early life

Meeks is a graduate of Harper High School in Chicago and continued his education at Bishop College in Dallas, Texas where he earned a degree in Religion and Philosophy.

Since 1985, Meeks has been the pastor of Salem Baptist Church of Chicago where the congregation has grown from 200 to 24,000 followers during his tenure. The church has two locations devoted to worship; the 'Old' Salem Baptist Church, built between 1912 and 1913 is a former Roman Catholic Church that is one of Chicago's historic Polish Cathedrals designed by Erhard Brielamier & Sons, while the 'New' Salem Baptist Church is known as the House of Hope and was completed in 2005.

Public service

Meeks serves as the Executive Vice President of the National Rainbow-PUSH Coalition. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Chicago Fire Department, the Roseland Community Hospital, the Korean American Merchant Association, and the Olive Branch Mission.

In 1998, Meeks led a movement to “dry up” Roseland Community by collecting votes to close 26 liquor stores. He has also created a mentoring program called “It Takes a Village” which provides support and assistance to pregnant youth and young mothers.

Senate career

Although a registered Democrat, in 2002 Meeks became the first state senator to be elected as an Independent. He won re-election in 2006 as a Democrat. Meeks has become an outspoken advocate for school reform. The June 2006 findings of the Education Trust and Illinois Education research Council showed that Chicago’s worst schools are getting the worst teachersFact|date=June 2007. Meeks believes that this is a civil rights violation of the students and has demanded that the Illinois Attorney General look into the violation. Meeks and a large group of parents also marched on city hall to meet with Mayor Daley in hopes that he could change the teacher hiring system. Meeks has come up with a proposal to solve the teacher inequalities; he says top-notch teachers should be offered a $25,000 signing bonus and $5,000 a year for five years to work in failing schools. The teacher’s union has historically been opposed to “hazard pay” because they think all teachers should be paid moreFact|date=June 2007.

Meeks is also concerned with issues of housing affordability. He sponsored a bill which would make permanent a 2003 Executive Order that established a task force to develop Annual Comprehensive Housing Plans to address critical housing issues. The bill focuses its attention on vulnerable groups, including those at risk of homelessness and low income people with disabilities.

Another bill Meeks has sponsored addresses law enforcement and racial profiling. The bill would allow police departments to apply for grants to purchase cameras for police cars. Meeks believes that cameras in police cars protects everyone involved in a traffic stop, arguing that it provides security for both the driver and the law enforcement officer, and that it may also help reduce instances of racial profiling.

Meeks is the Chairperson of the Housing and Community Affairs Committee and Vice Chairperson of the Commerce and Economic Development Committee. Additionally, he is a member of the Senate Commerce; Appropriations I; Education; Higher Education; and Senate Education Funding Reform Committees.

Meeks has been fighting for equal funding for education since he was elected state senator six years ago. In fall 2008, he announced a boycott of the Chicago Public Schools, urging his congregants and people from other churches to keep their children home until Chicago inner-city schools received more funding from Springfield.cite web |url=http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=6304243#bodyText|title=A controversial call was issued by a powerful Chicago minister Sunday.|author=Sarah Schulte |accessdate=2008-08-10 |date=2008 |publisher=ABC News ] Meeks has pointed out that at New Trier High School in Winnetka, thousands of dollars more are spent on each student, compared to Chicago Public Schools where the population is mostly minorities from low-income homes.Over a thousand students met outside New Trier High School in the suburban North Shore to protest. The boycott ended after two days when governor Rod Blagojevich said he would not with Meeks during a boycott. [cite web|url=http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1144709,CST-NWS-skul04.article|title=Meeks calls off school boycott|author=Maudelyne Ihejirika|accessdate=2008-09-09|date=2008-09-04|publisher="Chicago Sun-Times"]

Personal life

Senator Meeks and his wife, Jamell, have four children: Jamie, Janet, Trent, and Jasmine. Senator and Mrs. Meeks are the grandparents of one granddaughter, born July 30, 2008.

Anti-gay Contoversy

A spring 2007 newsletter from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) named Meeks one of the "10 leading black religious voices in the anti-gay movement". The newsletter cites him as both “a key member of Chicago's ‘Gatekeepers’ network, an interracial group of evangelical ministers who strive to erase the division between church and state” and “a stalwart anti-gay activist… [who] … has used his House of Hope mega-church to launch petition drives for the Illinois Family Institute (IFI), a major state-level ‘family values’ pressure group that lauded him last year for leading African Americans in ‘clearly understanding the threat of gay marriage.'”

The SPLC newsletter also noted that "Meeks and the IFI are partnered with Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council and the Alliance Defense Fund, major anti-gay organizations of the Christian Right. They also are tightly allied with Americans for Truth, an Illinois group that said in a press release last year that ‘fighting AIDS without talking against homosexuality is like fighting lung cancer without talking against smoking.’"

Meeks has also actively campaigned to defeat SB3186, an Illinois LGBT non-discrimination bill, while serving in the Illinois state legislature. According to a 2006 "Chicago Sun Times" article, his church sponsored a "Halloween fright night" which "consigned to the flames of hell two mincing young men wearing body glitter who were supposed to be homosexuals." [http://www.gaywired.com/NewsArticle.cfm?Section=66&id=18614&CFID=21546521&CFTOKEN=37822081]

Controversy also spread after Meeks blamed "Hollywood Jews for bringing us "Brokeback Mountain"."

Notes

External links

* [http://www.ilga.gov/senate/Senator.asp?MemberID=1271 Illinois General Assembly - Senator James Meeks (D) 15th District] official IL Senate website
** [http://ilga.gov/senate/SenatorBills.asp?MemberID=1271 Bills] [http://ilga.gov/senate/SenCommittees.asp?MemberID=1271 Committees]
* [http://votesmart.org/bio.php?can_id=MIL95074 Project Vote Smart - Senator James T. Meeks (IL)] profile
*"Follow the Money" - James T Meeks
** [http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/candidate.phtml?si=200614&c=417339 2006] [http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/candidate.phtml?si=200414&c=407213 2004] [http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/candidate.phtml?si=200214&c=38908 2002] campaign contributions
* [http://www.senatedem.ilga.gov/page_display.asp?PID=26 Illinois State Senate Democrats - Senator James T. Meeks] profile
* [http://www.sbcoc.org/ Salem Baptist Church of Chicago]