Earlean Collins (born September 4, 1937) is an American politician. In 1976, Collins became the first

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

woman elected to the

Illinois Senate The Illinois Senate is the upper chamber of the Illinois General Assembly, the legislative branch of the government of the State of Illinois in the United States. The body was created by the first state constitution adopted in 1818. Under the I ...

, where she rose to leadership positions. In

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

, she was the

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candidate for

Comptroller of Illinois The Comptroller of Illinois is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of government of the U.S. state of Illinois. Ten individuals have held the office of Comptroller since the enactment of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, replacing t ...

. Collins left the Illinois Senate to run for the

Cook County Board of Commissioners The Cook County Board of Commissioners is a legislative body made up of 17 commissioners who are elected by district, and a president who is elected county-wide, all for four-year terms. Cook County, which includes the City of Chicago, is the Uni ...

in the 1998 election. From 1998 to 2014, she was a member of the County Board representing the 1st district which includes the Humboldt Park,

West Garfield Park West Garfield Park on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois, is one of 77 officially designated Chicago community areas. It is directly west of Garfield Park. Neighborhood boundaries The boundaries of West Garfield Park are NORTH: W. Kinzie St. ...

, Austin and Montclare areas of the

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as well as the surrounding suburbs of Oak Park,

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, Maywood, Broadview,

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, Bellwood and Hillside.

Early life

Collins was born in

Rolling Fork, Mississippi Rolling Fork is a town in Sharkey County, Mississippi. The population was 1,883 as of the 2020 Census. It is the county seat of Sharkey County. History Thomas Y. Chaney located here in 1828, and was the first settler in the county. Deer Cree ...

as one of fourteen children, and moved to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...

. She was married to

Otis G. Collins Otis Grant Collins (May 2, 1917 – January 1, 1992) was a businessman and politician in Illinois. He was succeeded in office after his death by his wife Earlean Collins. Collins was born in Camden, Mississippi and was an African-American. ...

who also served in the Illinois General Assembly. They separated and Collins then remarried. Collins was a graduate of the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Unive ...

.The History Makers-The Honorable Earlean Collins
/ref>

Public service

Before her election as a commissioner, Collins served as Assistant Minority Leader in the

and an Assistant Administrator of Children and Family Services. Collins was the first

woman elected to the Illinois Senate. In 1994, she ran for

Illinois Comptroller The Comptroller of Illinois is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of government of the U.S. state of Illinois. Ten individuals have held the office of Comptroller since the enactment of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, replacing th ...

. After narrowly prevailing in the Democratic

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against Kane County Coroner Mary Lou Kearns, she was defeated in the general election by Republican Loleta Didrickson.

Cook County Commissioner

Collins was elected to the

1st district The Innere Stadt (; Central Bavarian: ''Innare Stod'') is the 1st municipal district of Vienna () located in the center of the Austrian capital. The Innere Stadt is the old town of Vienna. Until the city boundaries were expanded in 1850, the Inn ...

of the

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, and was reelected in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...

, 2006, and

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

. She did not seek reelection in

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

. As a Cook County Commissioner, Collins is Chairperson of the Business and Economic Development, Public Health, and Family Court and Juvenile Detention Center Committees. Additionally, Collins is a member of nine committees: Construction, Litigation, Tax Delinquency, Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations, Rules, Health and Hospitals, Finance, Zoning and Building, and Roads and Bridges. Her top issues are improving conditions for the mentally ill in

Cook County Jail The Cook County Jail, located on in South Lawndale, Chicago, Illinois, is operated by the Sheriff of Cook County. A city jail has existed on this site since after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, but major County prisoners were not generally coll ...

and improving community-based mental health treatment. She also wants to increase affordable housing in the county and to train people to repair houses. As Cook County Board Commissioner, Collins voted to uphold a historic 2008 Cook County sales tax increase, remaining the highest in the nation. As a result, the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'' has encouraged voters to vote against her in the 2010 elections.

References

* Stevens, Susan S. "Collins has low-profile challenger for Cook County Commissioner," ''

The Gazette (Chicago) Gazette Chicago (formerly the ''Near West Gazette'' and then ''Near West/ South Gazette'') is a monthly newspaper covering the Near West/Tri-Taylor, University Village, West Loop, South Loop, West Haven, Bridgeport/Armour Square, Chinatown, Bronz ...

,'' Nov. 3, 2006. {{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Earlean Living people People from Rolling Fork, Mississippi Illinois lawyers African-American women in politics African-American state legislators in Illinois Members of the Cook County Board of Commissioners Politicians from Chicago University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Democratic Party Illinois state senators Politicians from Cook County, Illinois Women state legislators in Illinois 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 1937 births