Charles E. Freeman was a justice on the Illinois Supreme Court from the first judicial district of Illinois. He was elected to his position on the court on November 6, 1990. He was the first African-American justice on the court. He served as chief justice from May 12, 1997, to January 1, 2000. Freeman became the senior member of the Illinois Supreme Court after winning retention in November of 2002. He was last retained in 2010 for a term that would have expired on December 6, 2020. He retired from the court on June 14, 2018. Freeman died on March 2, 2020.