Barbara Flynn Curriethe first woman to serve as majority leader in the Illinois House of Representatives and the state's longest serving woman in the Illinois General Assemblywill not run for re-election next year, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
"I'm looking for new challenges, new opportunities," Currie ( a Democrat who was first elected in 1979 and served the South Side's 25th District ) told the Sun-Times. "For example, working with advocacy groups to try to make sure the public agenda that they are about has a voice."
In 1997, she became the first female majority leader in the history of the Illinois General Assembly.
In 2015, almost 1,000 individuals gathered at the Hilton Chicago to honor Barbara Flynn Currie as a longtime champion of human rights as the ACLU honored her with the Roger Baldwin Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Currie's district includes portions of the Chicago communities of Woodlawn, South Shore, Hyde Park, Kenwood and South Chicago.
In a statement, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said, in part, "Barbara Flynn Currie is one of a kind, and someone whose intelligence and command of a wide range of public policy issues is matched only by her decency. Throughout her career she has been a passionate advocate for the people of Chicago and the state of Illinois."
The Sun-Times article is at chicago.suntimes.com/news/powerhouse-barbara-flynn-currie-says-she-is-not-seeking-re-election/ .