SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Members of the House and Senate Black Caucuses will host a press conference immediately following Gov. JB Pritzker’s State of State and Budget Address on Wednesday, Feb. 21 on the second-floor staircase of the Illinois Capitol Building to address budget priorities for the upcoming year.

WHO:              Illinois Legislative Black Caucus

WHAT:            Budget Address and State of the State reaction

WHERE:          Illinois State Capitol 2nd floor staircase

WHEN:            Wednesday, Feb. 21 at 1 p.m. (or immediately following the Governor’s address)

CHICAGO – House Judiciary Criminal Committee Chairman Justin Slaughter issued the following statement after the Illinois Supreme Court upheld commonsense gun control measures: 

“The Illinois Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Protect Illinois Communities Act is a victory not just for lawmakers and advocates but for everyday Illinoisans in cities, towns, and villages across the state who have raised voices to say “enough is enough”.

“Assault rifles were developed by our military to be used by our troops in conflict zones, not on our streets or in our schools, malls, concert venues, stores, and parades – where mass shooters have all too often claimed too many lives with the help of these dangerous weapons and attachments.

“I am proud to have played a role in helping to pass this legislation in the statehouse and advocate for other commonsense public safety measures. While this is a clear victory for Illinoisans’ safety, more work remains to be done.

“We must continue to examine and address the root causes of crime, and respond with innovative and holistic solutions that attack crime from all angles. I personally want to thank my colleagues in the House and Senate, Gov. Pritzker and the Illinois Supreme Court for holding steady in the fight to secure our vision for safety throughout Illinois.”

CHICAGO – House Judiciary Criminal Committee Chairman Justin Slaughter issued the following statement after the Illinois Supreme Court upheld the smart bail reforms Slaughter championed in the Pretrial Fairness Act: 

“The Illinois Supreme Court’s decision to uphold bail reform marks a significant achievement in our efforts to make our justice system smarter, make our communities safer, and address decades of racial and economic disparities.

“We should all celebrate the end of a fundamentally unfair and irrational system that used wealth to determine whether someone facing criminal charges would be jailed or released pending the outcome of their case. The money bond system caused deep harm to individuals, families, and entire communities. It disproportionately impacted Black and Brown Illinoisans.

“I’m proud to have played a pivotal role in passing the SAFE-T Act and the Pretrial Fairness Act, and I’m grateful for the work of my colleagues in the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus. Now, we welcome the opportunity to implement the pretrial reforms that will increase both public safety and fairness for all residents, no matter their economic status.”

CHICAGO – The Illinois Legislative House Black Caucus issued this statement following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision blocking efforts to expand equity and opportunity in college admissions:

“Our radical Supreme Court’s tragic decision to sever equitable opportunities and curtail human rights for countless Black Americans will exact a devastating toll on our communities. Opportunities for higher education, which were growing thanks to effective affirmative admissions policies, will once again be denied to Black students who have often had to overcome major obstacles to achieve academic excellence.

“This move serves only to meet a partisan agenda while propping up a deeply-racist power structure that has haunted the Black community for generations. Affirmative action was undertaken to overcome the lingering effects of slavery and Jim Crow policies and provide the promise of opportunity to Black children suffering under those effects. Now that promise has been broken.

“The Illinois House Legislative Black Caucus is eager to work with Governor Pritzker to take immediate action to continue expanding access to college education for all, and to continue pursuing equity-based reforms. Recent steps to substantially expand MAP grants and other education programs that benefit the Black community are a good start.  All students deserve better than a Supreme Court that embraces fundamentalism over fairness and acts consistently to preserve a system of oppression. Illinois will take every step we can to combat the racial injustice the court favors.”

SPRINGFIELD, ILL. – To address the HIV and AIDS epidemic that disproportionately affects the Black community with greater support for Black-led frontline organizations, state Rep. Justin Slaughter, D-Chicago, is calling on our state and federal governments to increase funding levels for programs in Illinois this upcoming Black HIV/AIDS Advocacy Day.

“Although much of the public rhetoric surrounding our approach to HIV and AIDS is focused on the downward trend of new cases, it has also ignored the crisis facing the Black community, which makes up over half of all new cases while comprising only 14 percent of the state’s population,” said Slaughter. “The data makes it painfully clear that the Black community has been deeply failed by the current arrangement put in place by our health care system. We saw this with the Black infection and death rate during the pandemic, and we’ll keep seeing this repeat unless we make a strong commitment to fund the organizations that save Black lives today.”

Slaughter will join Rep. La Shawn Ford and Sen. Mike Simmons alongside members of the Black Leadership Advocacy Coalition for Healthcare Equity (BLACHE) to demand funding for Black-led organizations that do the work of combatting the epidemic in the Black community. In 2022, Black-led organizations directly received only $1.2 million of the $103 million dollars in federal spending allocated to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) despite the preponderance of both new and existing cases in the Black community.

In 2005, the governor signed the African-American HIV/AIDS Response Act (AAHARA) into law. The bill, as introduced, intended for $15 million dollars to be set aside from general revenue funds annually to help fund Black-led HIV and AIDS solutions. The Act has sparsely been fully funded. As a result, many Black-led organizations have languished and withered away while White-led organizations prospered and even sub-contract Black-led organizations to do the brunt of the work in the Black community. Slaughter is calling on our state and federal government to pledge greater support to treat HIV and AIDS in the Black community.

“$15M from federal pandemic funding was allocated to the AAHARA fund in 2020.These funds remain bottle-necked in the Department of Public Health due to administrative setbacks, although they must be spent by the end of next year or be returned to the federal government. Even when Black legislators are successful in securing funding, systemic barriers rear their head and stand in the way of making progress,” said Slaughter. “More funding, more testing, more healthcare, with Black led-organizations at the head of the response to the Black community are the only solutions to this epidemic. I urge President Biden and Gov. Pritzker to fund the essential care that is needed to reverse the growing rates of HIV and AIDS in the Black community.”

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — In response to the release of police body camera footage showing the killing of Tyre Nichols at the hands of five Memphis officers, the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus (ILBC) released the following statement:

“The release of police body camera footage makes clear what we already knew: the murder of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols was brutal and unjustified. Our deepest condolences are with his family and all those who knew and loved him. The police officers who beat this young man to death have no place in law enforcement, and were rightly dismissed. Still, this is not enough. These officers callously and viciously killed another human being and Mr. Nichols’ family deserves justice.

“For the people who are angry, for the people who are sick of living in fear, we will always stand with you in the fight for justice. We are proud of the steps we’ve taken in Illinois, including passing major criminal justice reforms as part of our four-pillar agenda two years ago, but there is still much more work to do.”