Memorial Bridge Dedication in the Name of Studs Terkel
WHEREAS, Studs Terkel was a man who lived a life of civic engagement and activism and was known throughout the world as a historian of human experience, a chronicler of American lives, an actor, broadcaster, interviewer and a Chicagoan; and
WHEREAS, Studs Terkel, born in New York City on May 16, 2012, moved with his family to Chicago in 1920, where the family ran a rooming house for men at the corner of Ashland Avenue and Flournoy Street and later at Wells and Grand. Terkel graduated from the University of Chicago School of Law, made his home in Chicago with his wife Ida and son Dan, and forged a career as an actor, author, broadcaster and activist and won the Prix Italia and the Pulitzer Prize; and
WHEREAS, Studs Terkel's first book of oral history was Division Street: America named for Division Street in the City of Chicago. It recorded the experiences, ideas and hopes of Chicagoans in all walks of life and, according to the author, the title also serves as a metaphor for the divisions within all of us and the cultural and social divisions that separate us from each other; and
WHEREAS, Studs Terkel contributed to the cultural life and development of Chicago as host ofthe early television show "Studs Place," an exemplar ofthe "Chicago School" of television in the late 1940's and early 1950's. He hosted WFMT radio's "The Studs Terkel Program," interviewing thousands of writers, artists and musicians over 45 years - creating an archive of more than 7,000 audio programs at the Chicago History Museum and now available to the world via the Internet; and
WHEREAS, Studs Terkel wrote prolifically about common and uncommon Americans in the books The Giants of Jazz, Division Street, Hard Times, Working, American Dreams, The Good War, The Great Divide, Coming of Age, My American Century, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Hope Dies Last, The Spectator, Touch and Go, Talking to Myself, P.S. Further Thoughts from a Lifetime of Listening, They All Sang and Studs Terkel's Chicago; and
WHEREAS, Division Street is connected not only to Studs Terkel's book of the same name, but also to Terkel's close friend, Nelson Algren, who set many stories along and around Division Street on Chicago near west side, including The Man with the Golden Arm, Never Come Morning and The Neon Wilderness, about Division Street and the surrounding neighborhood; and
WHEREAS, the Studs Terkel Bridge was originally dedicated in a 1992 ceremony attended by Mayor Richard M. Daley, Mike Royko and other Chicago dignitaries and citizens. It was rededicated on what would have been Terkel's 100th birthday and on what Illinois Governor proclaimed "Studs Terkel Day," in a May, 16, 2012 ceremony attended by U.S. Congressman Mike Quigley, Illinois State Senator Pat McGuire, 32nd Ward Alderman Scott Waguespack and a large crowd of Chicago citizens marking the 100th centenary of Terkel's birth; and, now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and members of the Chicago City Council, gathered here on this twenty second day of June, 2016, do hereby declare the Division Street bridge be renamed Studs Terkel Bridge; and