Summary: | Political activist and government employee Josie Childs was born on October 13, 1926, in Clarksdale, Mississippi. She attended elementary school and high school in Memphis, Tennessee, and Vicksburg, Mississippi. Childs went on to study at LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis, Cortez W. Peters Business College in Chicago and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She worked for the City of Chicago, first under sponsorship from Bob Miller in the Sixth Ward, and later under Colonel Jack Riley as an events coordinator. Childs worked with Harold Washington on both of his Chicago mayoral campaigns in 1977 and 1983. She also worked as an administrator in the special events and cultural affairs department in the City of Chicago from 1983 until 1990. Childs became the founder of the 2013 Harold Washington Tribute Committee, and worked for the continued legacy of Chicago's first African American Mayor Harold Washington. She received the Georgia Palmer Award in 2013.
|