Pencil

Home


Lonzie O’Bannon, 1916 - 2005 PDF Print E-mail

By George N. Schmidt

While the nation was mourning the loss of Rosa Parks, another drum major for justice was taking his leave of us, less heralded, in a Chicago hospital room. At 4:00 p.m., on November 1, 2005, Lonzie O’Bannon died after a brief battle with cancer. It was one of the few battles he had finally lost in his life, his friends and admirers said.

“Lonzie was one of the most courageous men I have ever known,” said Dr. Grady Jordan, a friend. “I found him to be a man of extraordinary commitment and integrity. He fought as hard as he could for the children of Chicago. He had no tolerance for the corruption and dishonesty that has descended upon Chicago and the schools...”

Dr. Jordan was filled with memories of Lonzie, as were all of Lonzie’s friends and admirers.

Lonzie O'Bannon
Lonzie O’Bannon (above, center) with Brooks counselor Pat Jones (left) and CVS teacher Leandres White (right) celebrating the election of his son, Phillip O’Bannon, president of the South Side Chicago branch of the NAACP last January. A man who never flinched in the struggle for justice, Lonzie died on November 1, 2005, at age 85. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.  


“When there were a lot of knives out for me, Lonzie saved my career,” Dr. Jordan continued. “At that point, he hardly knew me, but he knew what people were planning to do was not right, and he helped with the right tactic at precisely the right time...”

NAACP leaders at both the local and national level will be remembering Lonzie in the days ahead. When problems in the venerable South Side branch of the NAACP increased over the past few years, Lonzie assembled the information and went to the national leaders, travelling at his own expense to right things. One of the results of Lonzie’s work at the NAACP was that in late 2004, a new leadership (led by Lonzie’s son Phillip) was elected to the branch. Lonzie was as happy as anyone at the South Shore Cultural Center on January 4, 2005 when the new leadership of the South Side NAACP was installed with Phillip O’Bannon as president. During the hectic months after the change of power at the NAACP, Lonzie was more active than ever, helping reorganize things at the NAACP and checking out complaints of discrimination in the schools.

“Lonzie was as strong in his eighth decade as he must have been at every point,” Dr. Jordan continued. “If anyone in our community was a tireless and uncompromising fighter for justice, it was Lonzie O’Bannon.”

Lonzie O’Bannon came to Chicago like hundreds of thousands of others during the Great Migration from the rural south. Born in Mississippi and raised in Jackson, he worked in Chicago and began raising his family and defending his home and community. During his time with Substance, he shared a number of his experiences with the staff, often shocking some people with his directness regarding the history of racism in Chicago. He also enjoyed being a Substance reporter, often covering stories that developed during the monthly meetings of the Chicago Board of Education. At the NAACP, he promised to bring it back to the traditions of W.E.B. Dubois, who once relied heavily on the Chicago branch. At Substance press time, final arrangements had not yet been made.
 
< Prev   Next >
[ Back ]