The day after one Chicagoan made history as the first Black U.S. president, another historic Chicagoan died. Cirilo McSween was more than a franchise owner of 11 McDonald’s restaurants–including the first Black-owned one downtown at 230 S. State St.
The day after one Chicagoan made history as the first Black U.S. president, another historic Chicagoan died.
Cirilo McSween was more than a franchise owner of 11 McDonald’s restaurants–including the first Black-owned one downtown at 230 S. State St. He was an icon for the business community and for all of Chicago, said Yolanda Travis, who owns three franchises in the fast food restaurant chain.
McSween, 82, an inaugural Chicago Defender Newsmaker recipient, died Nov. 5 after a long battle with cancer. Funeral services were held Monday at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition headquarters, 930 E. 50th St., where Father Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina church, officiated and the Rev. Jesse Jackson delivered the eulogy.
The president of Panama, Martin Torrijos, attended the funeral.
Cirilo McSween was born in 1926 in the Central American nation to a family of modest means. But he reportedly worked hard as a student and an athlete. His athleticism was first recognized in elementary school, and McSween went on to be a prized runner, competing for his country in world competitions. It was his track prowess that brought him to the U.S., where he received an athletic scholarship to the University of Illinois.
He majored in business, and shortly after graduating, began working in the insurance industry.
McSween first got into the insurance business with New York Life Insurance Co., no easy task for Blacks at the time. From a local office on East 35th Street, he built a clientele of policyholders by going door-to-door on the South Side.
By the late 1950s, he was selling more than $1 million in new insurance a year, qualifying him for the industry’s “Million Dollar Round Table,” a measure of a salesman’s success at the time. After establishing himself in the insurance industry he became a board member of the former Independence Bank, which is now ShoreBank.
And in 1979, he bought his first McDonald’s restaurant as part of the new State Street Mall. According to his family, his State Street restaurant was the first McDonald’s in America to generate $3 million in sales in one year.
The downtown restaurant remained his primary place of operations, even though he owned 10 other McDonald’s including restaurants at O’Hare International Airport.
He served as president of the Black McDonald’s Operators Association for a number of years before stepping down this year due to his health.
Never forgetting where he came from, McSween got involved with the Civil Rights Movement, serving as a board member and treasurer of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He was also a founding board member of Operation Breadbasket. He had become a close friend to Jackson and had been a vice chairman of Rainbow/PUSH.
He was also close to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and reportedly was a pallbearer at King’s 1968 funeral.
McSween is survived by his wife, Arlene; daughters, Esperanza Powell and Veronica McSween; a son, Cirilo Jr.; a sister, Anna Phillips; and two grandsons. His first wife, Gwendolyn, preceded him in death.
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