Libonati was admitted to the bar in 1924 and commenced law practice in Chicago. He was the founder and owner of the American Boys' Camp for indigent children at Coloma, Wisconsin, and, infamously, was also lawyer to Al Capone.
He married Jeannette Van Hanxleden in 1942, and they had one son, Michael.[2]
He served as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1930 to 1934 from 1940 to 1942, and the Illinois Senate from 1942 to 1947. He served as delegate to every state Democratic convention from 1942 to 1987.
According to Todd S. Purdum's An Idea Whose Time Has Come, Libonati's political career ended as a result of his votes during the drafting of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Libonati had been a reliable ally of Richard J. Daley's Cook County Democratic Partypolitical machine. During the House Judiciary Committee markup on the civil rights bill, he reneged on agreements with Chairman Emanuel Celler and President John F. Kennedy, who had asked him to help weaken the bill in order to ensure it could win Republican support and pass a Senate filibuster. Libonati instead voted with liberal colleagues who wanted to maintain the bill's stronger provisions, even though Kennedy had spoken to Daley directly to complain about his behavior. In a private conversation with a colleague shortly after the vote, Libonati said he had received a call from the Daley machine indicating that his political career was over.[3]
Libonati was not a candidate for renomination to the Eighty-ninth Congress in 1964.
Following his political career, he resumed the practice of law. He was a resident of Chicago until his death on May 30, 1991. He was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Evanston, Illinois.
References
^"Libonati". Chicago Tribune. May 21, 1935. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
^"Libonati Wins in Congress Race by 8 to 1". Chicago Tribune. January 1, 1958. p.1, 4.
^Purdum, Todd (2014). An idea whose time has come : two presidents, two parties, and the battle for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. New York, New York: Henry Holt and Company. pp. 144–145. ISBN978-0-8050-9672-9. OCLC858353760.
