RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Josephine "Jo" Baskin Minow, age 95, passed away in Chicago on February 17, 2022;and
WHEREAS, The Chicago City Council has been informed ofthis occasion by Alderman Thomas Tunney of the 44th Ward: and
WHEREAS, Baskin Minow was born in Chicago on November 2, 1926, to Bessie and Salem Baskin, founder ofthe Baskin clothing stores. Jo grew up in Lakeview, attended Senn High School and received a Bachelor of Science degree from Northwestern University in 1948; and
WHEREAS, Baskin Minow had a lifetime love affair with Chicago and Chicago history, spawned by her family's presence in the city for five generations; and
WHEREAS, she was the wife of Newton Minow for 72 years, who served as the chair of the Federal Communications Commission under John F. Kennedy and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2016, Ms. Baskin Minow blazed her own trail in Chicago through social and political landscapes; and
WHEREAS, While raising her own three children, Ms. Baskin Minow also fought to improve the lives of others. After teaching kindergarten and 5th grade at Francis W. Parker School in the late 1940s, she later became president ofthe Juvenile Protective Association originally founded by Jane Addams; and
WHEREAS, She also was a staunch believer in equal rights and advocacy, starting in her college days when she participated in the Quibblers — a group advocating against the exclusion of members of racial minority groups from university housing — at Northwestern University. In the mid-1970s, Ms. Baskin Minow joined a group of women pushing department stores to end racial discrimination, meeting with Marshall Fields to advocate for Black sales associates to be allowed on the floor; and
WHEREAS, In 1978, Ms. Baskin Minow returned to Northwestern University, to be a founding member of the Northwestern University Women's Board; and
WHEREAS, Her love for the city's history and its iconic institutions was demonstrated through her involvement in the Women's Boards ofthe University of Chicago, the Field Museum and as a governing member ofthe Chicago Symphony Orchestra. When she was 80, she became a member ofthe Board ofthe Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. At 85, she co-chaired an event for the Center on Halsted, and was asked to cut the ribbon on Chicago's LGBTQ community center; and
WHEREAS, Combined with her passion for writing, Ms. Baskin Minow tunneled her advocacy for kids into children's books — the first, published in 1992, called "Marty the Broken-Hearted Artichoke," was distributed free to nonprofits across the country. While Hillary Rodham Clinton was the first lady, she chose to read Ms. Baskin Minow's book at the inauguration of the "Reach Out and Read" project at the University of Chicago Friends Children's Clinic; and
WHEREAS, She was honored with the Caroline Margaret Mcllvaine Making History Award for Distinction in Creative Cultural Leadership in 2018 from the Chicago History Museum, where she
served 30 years as a trustee. In 2015, the museum dedicated the Jo Baskin Minow Balcony Gallery in her honor; and
WHEREAS, She is survived by her husband Newton and three daughters, Nell, Martha, and Mary, and grandchildren Ben and Rachel Apatoff and Mira Singer; and
WHEREAS, Josephine Baskin Minow served the City of Chicago and Chicago institutions with compassion and integrity; now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that we, the Mayor and members of the City Council of the City of Chicago, assembled this 27th day of April, 2022, do hereby honor the service and accomplishments of Josephine Baskin Minow and extend our sincere condolences to her family, friends and colleagues; and
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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Newton Minow and family as a symbol of our esteem and gratitude, )
Thomas M. Tunney Alderman, 44th Ward