George B. McKibbin

George Baldwin McKibbin (1888–September 14, 1960) was an American lawyer, government official, and politician who held various appointed roles in the state government of Illinois, federal government of the United States, and the military government of Allied-occupied Germany between the early 1940s until his death in 1960. A Republican, and regarded to be a prominent Chicagoan, he also unsuccessfully ran several times as a candidate for elected offices in Chicago. He first ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for the 1930 Sanitary District of Chicago election. He was the Republican nominee for mayor of Chicago in 1943 and for Illinois's 2nd congressional district in 1956. He also served as a delegate to the Republican National Conventions held in 1952 and 1960, having been selected by a vote of fellow Republicans in his district of Illinois.

McKibbin was involved in the management of Republican presidential nominee Thomas E. Dewey's campaigns in both 1944 and 1948. In 1944, McKibbin was an assistant manager of Dewey's campaign and was tasked with leading its outreach to African-American voters. He proved to be a poor choice for this role, as (separate from the campaign) he had simultaneously led an effort in Chicago supporting continued local enforcement of anti-Black racially-restrictive housing covenants. Newspaper reports during the 1944 campaign brought McKibbin's support of covenants to light, which was detrimental to the campaign's African American voter outreach. In the final months before the 1948 election (after returning to the United States following a year of working in Allied-occupied Germany), McKibbin headed the Dewey campaign's Midwestern operations.

From 1953 until his death, McKibbin served on the Government Contract Committee, which was tasked with making anti-discrimination clauses in government contracts more effective. This resulted in him earning positive regard among many African Americans, despite his previous support of housing discrimination in the 1940s. He also served on the executive board of numerous civic organizations and institutions, including spending decades on the board of trustees for his undergraduate alma mater, Iowa Wesleyan University.