Ex-Senate president and Obama mentor donates papers to UIC
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr., a mentor of Barack Obama when he was in the state Legislature, is donating his papers to the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The Chicago Democrat led the Senate from 2003 to 2009 as Obama rose to national prominence. Officials will formally announce the donation to the Special Collections and University Archives on Nov. 28, at the school's Richard J. Daley library.
Jones served in the Illinois House from 1973 until 1983, when he was elected to the Senate. He met Obama, then a community organizer, on Chicago's South Side in the 1980s and was Senate minority leader when Obama won a seat in 1996.
Jones says he decided to give his papers to UIC because it is Chicago's only public research university.