Bobby L. Rush - Congressman Representing the First District of Illinois
Congressman Bobby Rush has represented the First Congressional District of Illinois for almost two decades. Rush serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee, the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade ,the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, and is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Power.
He was born in Albany, Georgia on November 23, 1946. It was a time of terror and random violence against African-Americans living in the south. When Rush was a child, his family joined the great African-American migration and moved north to Chicago. Throughout the 1960s, Rush was involved in the civil-rights movement and worked in civil-disobedience campaigns in the Southern United States. After co-founding the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers in 1968, he served as its defense minister. Rush is an honorably discharged Army veteran and an ordained minister with a Master’s Degree in Theology. In addition to his congressional responsibilities, Rush is the pastor of the Beloved Community Christian Church of Chicago. He and his wife of 31 years, Carolyn, have a blended family with six children including a son who lost his life to gun violence in 1999.