title: Charles E. Freeman
text: Charles E. Freeman (December 12, 1933 – March 2, 2020) was an American attorney who served as a justice of the Illinois Supreme Court. He was elected to the position on November 6, 1990, becoming its first African-American justice. He served as chief justice from May 12, 1997, to January 1, 2000. He retired from the court on June 14, 2018.
  
  Early life, family and education
  Freeman was born in Richmond, Virginia. Freeman received his undergraduate degree from Virginia Union University in 1954 and J.D. degree from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago in 1962.
  
  Career
  Illinois Governor Otto Kerner appointed Freeman to the Illinois Industrial Commission in January 1965 as an arbitrator. Freeman heard thousands of work-related injury cases. In September 1973 Governor Dan Walker named Freeman to the Illinois Commerce Commission, a rate regulatory agency with power over telephone, electricity and gas companies. Freeman worked on the commission until December 1976.
  
  Freeman also conducted a general law practice from 1962 until 1976, when he was elected to the Cook County Circuit Court. He served ten years on the court and swore in Harold Washington, a personal friend, as Mayor of Chicago. Freeman was a member of several bar associations and professional judiciary societies, and has won a number of awards throughout his career.
  
  From his re-election in 2002, Freeman ranked as the senior member of the Illinois Supreme Court until his retirement in 2018. While on the court he showed particular interest in administrative reform and prosecutorial misconduct cases.
  
  Personal life
  Freeman was married to his wife, Marylee, until her death in 2013. They have one son, an attorney, and two grandchildren. Freeman died on March 2, 2020, in Chicago. He was 86.
  
  See also
  List of African-American jurists
  
  References
  
  External links
  Charles E. Freeman at Illinois Supreme Court
  
  1933 births
  2020 deaths
  Illinois state court judges
  Justices of the Illinois Supreme Court
  African-American judges
  African-American people in Illinois politics
  University of Illinois Chicago School of Law alumni
  Virginia Union University alumni
  Illinois Democrats
  Lawyers from Chicago
  Lawyers from Richmond, Virginia
  20th-century American judges
  21st-century American judges
  20th-century African-American people
  21st-century African-American people