Charles Arthur Hayes

Congressman Charles Hayes represented Illinois’s 1st Congressional District from 1983 to 1993 (98th-102nd Congresses). Hayes was the first trade unionist ever elected to Congress. Hayes was on the Education and Labor and Small Business committees, sponsoring bills to reduce high unemployment rates, provide disadvantaged youth with job training, and create public works programs to improve the infrastructure of the nation’s cities. He consistently supported legislation to protect American workers through higher wages, restrictions on imports, and more-comprehensive benefits for children and health care. He was known for urging his colleagues in Congress to spare federal job training and anti-poverty programs. Before and after his tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives, Hayes was active in civil rights and community affairs. He was a civil rights leader who worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during the 1960s. Hayes was also one of the founding members of Rainbow/PUSH, along with Jesse Jackson. Hayes was the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists’ (CBTU) first executive vice president, serving until 1986. He was also was one of the labor leaders arrested during the 1980s anti-apartheid protests that eventually won the freedom of Nelson Mandela. Hayes remained active in labor and community affairs until his death.