Sam Cunningham is an American politician who was elected as the first African-American mayor of

Waukegan ''(Fortress or Trading Post)'' , image_flag = , image_seal = , blank_emblem_size = 150 , blank_emblem_type = Logo , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivisi ...

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 ...

, the largest city in and the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US ...

Lake County, Illinois Lake County is situated in the northeastern corner of the U.S. state of Illinois, along the shores of Lake Michigan. As of the 2020 census, it has a population of 714,342, making it the third-most populous county in Illinois. Its county seat ...

Biography

Cunningham was born and raised in Waukegan. He is a graduate of

Waukegan East High School Waukegan High School, or WHS, is a public four-year high school located in Waukegan, Illinois, USA, a city to the north of Chicago, Illinois. It is part of Waukegan Community Unit School District 60. Students attend classes at the Washington Cam ...

and

Central State University Central State University (CSU) is a public, historically black land-grant university in Wilberforce, Ohio. It is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Established by the state legislature in 1887 as a two-year program for t ...

where he earned a B.S. in Business Administration and Marketing. After college, he established his own business as an insurance agent. In 1975, he joined the Waukegan Police Department as an officer. In 1999, he was elected as alderman for the 1st Ward in Waukegan. In 2017, he defeated independent Lisa May, who at the time would have been the city's first female mayor. He was the first African-American to serve as mayor in Waukegan.

Tenure as Mayor

Cunningham proposed the development of a casino on the vacant land that used to house

Lakehurst Mall Lakehurst Mall was a shopping mall in Waukegan, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The mall officially opened in 1971. The mall's anchor stores were JCPenney, Wieboldt's, and Carson Pirie Scott. After Wieboldt's closed in 1 ...

. In 2019, with the signing of the Rebuild Illinois Act by governor

J. B. Pritzker Jay Robert "J. B." Pritzker (born January 19, 1965) is an American billionaire businessman, philanthropist, and politician serving as the 43rd governor of Illinois since 2019. A member of the wealthy Pritzker family, which owns the worldwide h ...

, six new casinos were to be constructed, including one in Waukegan. As of 2021, no operator had been chosen to construct and manage the proposed casino site. Another vision he had for the city was the transformation of the lake-front to a "northern

Navy Pier Navy Pier is a pier on the shoreline of Lake Michigan, located in the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side community area in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Navy Pier encompasses over of parks, gardens, shops, restaurants, famil ...

" of Lake County. This vision included the establishment of recreational, commercial, and residential areas along the abandoned industrial areas of the shore. Critics of this objected to it, as they claimed that the city did not have sufficient funds to accomplish this goal. During the month of April 2019, Sam Cunningham and his mother, Lake County Board vice-chair Mary Ross Cunningham, were sued for allegedly violating the

First Amendment rights The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion, or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the ...

of a Waukegan resident. The mayor allegedly threatened to revoke the resident's public housing voucher and potentially arrest the resident if he did not remove an altered image that depicted the two as

devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of ...

s. The lawsuit reached a settlement of $17,000, with the county paying $12,000 and the city paying $5,000. He lost the election to alderwoman Ann B. Taylor, by a margin of 11%.

Personal life

Cunningham has two daughters, Syerra and Samantha. Cunningham is a 2017 Jim Edgar Fellow, the U.S. Minority Contractors Association 2017 Municipal Administrator of the Year, and the recipient of the Illinois Black Chamber of Commerce Parren J. Mitchell Outstanding Service Award. He is a member of

Kappa Alpha Psi Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African American fraternity. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911 at Indiana University Bloomington, the fraternity has never restricted membership on the basis of color, creed ...

References

Sam Cunningham Waukegan Mayor {{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Sam 21st-century American politicians African-American mayors in Illinois Mayors of places in Illinois People from Waukegan, Illinois Central State University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century African-American politicians