Barbara Flynn Currie.
State Representative, 25th District
Biography
Barbara Flynn Currie represents the 25th District, which includes portions of Woodlawn, South Shore, Hyde Park, Kenwood, and South Chicago. The conviction of her beliefs is one of the assets that make Barbara Flynn Currie so valuable in Springfield. She has served the people of the 25th District since 1979. In 1997, she became the first woman Majority Leader in the history of the Illinois General Assembly.
As the second ranking House official, Currie works closely with colleagues from both parties and all regions of the state to fashion solutions to the problems that face Illinois. Her legislative accomplishments include sponsorship of the Illinois Earned Income Tax Credit Act, which allows families to keep more of their income, and the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, the law that ensures access to public records.
Representative Currie is a strong advocate for working families and children. She initiated the state program that funds pre-school services for disadvantaged children. She has sponsored legislation to protect nursing home residents from abuse and improve child-support enforcement. She has sponsored legislation to protect Illinois groundwater. She also worked successfully to prohibit sexual harassment in the workplace and to improve access to state contracts for businesses owned by women and members of minority groups.
Last session, Representative Currie led efforts to increase the minimum wage, end racial profiling by the police, expand health care coverage for lower income families, abolish the death penalty, crack down on predatory lending, expand the state's Open Meetings Act, and ensure equal pay for working women in Illinois.
Many organizations have honored Currie for her work in Springfield. Among them are: the Illinois Hospital Association; the Illinois AFL-CIO; the Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization (IVI-IPO); the Chicago Urban League; the Illinois nurse's association; and the National Association of Social Workers.
Currie attended the University of Chicago. She graduated from the College with honors before earning a Master's degree in Political Science. She is a member of the Chicago League of Women Voters, Women United for South Shore, and the Board of the ACLU of Illinois. She is active in many civic, community, and environmental organizations. She and her late husband, David P. Currie, a law professor at the University of Chicago, have two children and four grandchildren.
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