SOUTH SHORE — Henry English, the president and CEO of the Black United Fund, died Saturday morning in a car accident.
English, 73, suffered a heart attack when the van he was driving was rear-ended near 63rd Street on the way to a get-out-the-vote event for Hillary Clinton.
English had run the Black United Fund, a nonprofit that invested in economic development in African American communities, since 1985.
English spent most of his life as a community organizer.
He rose to become treasurer of the Black Panther Party after joining the movement to advocate for naming Crane Junior College after Malcolm X.
He later returned to school to get a master’s degree at Cornell University, but would spend evenings after his job as a healthcare administrator organizing his neighbors around community issues.
English left health care in 1983 to found the Black United Fund and help voter registration efforts for Harold Washington’s run for mayor.
He is survived by his wife, Denise; sons, Nkrumah and Jummane; and daughters Kenya and Kamillah.
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