The Biography of the Honorable Jesse White.

Jesse Clark White was born in Alton, Illinois, on June 23, 1934. He moved to Chicago with his parents and attended Schiller Elementary School In 1943. He attended Waller High School, where he was active in school athletics, being named All-City in basketball and baseball. He also excelled at tumbling and hoped to play professional baseball after graduation, fielding offers from the St. Louis Browns and the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, White's father insisted that he first go to college. White enrolled at Alabama State College, majoring in physical education. He played baseball and basketball, earning All-Conference honors in both sports. 

Upon graduation, White signed with the Chicago Cubs organization. However, four days before leaving for spring training, he was drafted by the United States Army, where he attended jump school and was trained as a paratrooper. White was soon assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. After his discharge in 1959, White returned to Chicago, where he finally began his professional baseball career, playing for several seasons with the Chicago Cubs organization. 

When Secretary of State Jesse White was a young Chicago Cubs prospect in the early 1960s, legendary slugger Ernie Banks would hold court at spring training dinners with other black players. White says Banks was "our godfather," a player "who we rallied around. And we would meet at this restaurant, and we'd talk baseball. And he'd give us guidance about how to conduct ourselves." The Cubs' playoff run means a little more to the 24-year government officeholder, who played from 1959 to 1966 in the Cubs' farm system. He made it close to the major leagues but never got that coveted call. Still, the advice White says Banks relayed about hard work and moving up in the world could apply as neatly to politics as to baseball. "You cannot just expect a promotion from the sky," White said.

He says the only time he played at Wrigley Field besides a softball game among lawmakers was at a tryout in 1956, 11 years after the team's last World Series appearance. After that tryout, he was signed by the Cubs organization but would be drafted by the Army shortly afterward. "Instead of going to spring training, I went to basic training," White said. White started playing for the low-level Potashers of Carlsbad, New Mexico, in 1959. He eventually made it to the highest levels of the minor leagues, playing a couple of years for the AAA Salt Lake City Bees in the early 1960s.

Jesse White played for the Cubs' AAA team, the Salt Lake City Bees, in the early 1960s. 

He finished with a lifetime .291 batting average, but the game is different now. "I think there's more enthusiasm for the game today, especially here in Chicago, than ever before," he said. "I cannot ever remember this enthusiasm for the Cubs. The players are a lot younger. They're a lot faster. And they pitch the ball a lot faster. "But we played... for the love of the game and not so much for the money involved because we didn't get paid that much."

Off-season, White also worked as a physical education instructor at Schiller Elementary School, the school he attended as a child, and the Chicago Park District. In December 1959, White was asked to organize a gym show at the Rockwell Garden Housing Project. This show laid the foundation for what would become known worldwide as the "Jesse White Tumblers." Team members must stay away from gangs, drugs, and alcohol, stay in school, and maintain a minimum "C" average. The team consists of male and female participants as young as age 6.

With 7 units, the team gives more than 1,500 performances each year at major sporting events and community, business, and charity functions. The Jesse White Tumblers attract national and international attention and have performed throughout the United States in all 50 states and the Countries of Belize, Bermuda, Canada, China, Croatia, Israel, Japan, and others. The team has also been featured in commercials, national television shows, and motion pictures.

Because the organization requires its student-athletes to maintain at least a "C" average, team members and trainees who fall below this standard must attend tutoring classes or show proof that they are enrolled in a tutoring program. Our program assists with homework, encourages independent reading, improves writing skills, spelling and handwriting, and practices basic math facts. The program also helps improve science and social studies grades through study skills and develops higher thinking skills through group and individual work. So far, the Tumblers have served as a positive alternative for over 16,500 underprivileged Chicago children. 

As White continued to juggle teaching and tumbling, he was approached to run for a seat in the state legislature, replacing Robert Thompson, who was retiring. In 1974, he was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives, where he served on the Committees on Aging, Elementary & Secondary Education, and Public Utilities and chaired the Committee on Children and Human Services. Among the bills proposed by White in the House was the Good Samaritan Bill, which allowed hotels to offer leftover food to soup kitchens without threat of liability. 

Except for the 1977-79 term, White served in the Illinois General Assembly until 1992, when he was elected Cook County Recorder of Deeds. In 1996, he was reelected to the same office and served until 1998, when he made history by being the first Black elected Secretary of State for Illinois.

Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White. 

The Secretary of State's office is responsible for issuing license plates and titles, maintaining driver records, and overseeing the State Library, State Archives, and the organ and tissue donor program.

In May 1995, White was inducted into the Southwestern Athletic Conference Hall of Fame. He was an all-city baseball and basketball star at Chicago's Waller High School (now Lincoln Park Academy). He was inducted into the Chicago Public League Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in June 1995.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.