George Clifton Edwards, Jr.
Biography Notes
 
1. George C. Edwards, Sr. practiced law in Texas for half a century and   was considered a "radical." He saw his first criminal client lynched, in 1910, and once was kidnapped by the Ku Klux Klan with two defendants, who were tarred and feathered. Donald Dale Jackson, Judges. (New York: Athenaeum, 1974), 315-316; George C. Edwards, Jr.,  Pioneer-at-Law: A Legacy in the Pursuit of Justice. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1974), 30, 107-121.
2. "Edwards Confirmed for Appeals Court Post." Lansing State Journal, December 17, 1963; "Presentation of the Portrait of the Honorable George C. Edwards, Jr." 803 F.2d. 7 (1987)[Pagination here comes from the West-published booklet not F.2d.].
3. Edwards said he saw "at least, a hundred thousand miles of America--hitchhiking" working for the LID. He spent a few days in the Fort Smith, Ark., jail in 1935, for leading demonstrations by WPA workers. "Remembrances - George Clifton Edwards, Jr.," 27-28. [An unpublished booklet containing the tributes and recollections from family and friends at the memorial services held for Judge Edwards. Located in Sixth Circuit Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio.]
4. As a full-time union worker, Edwards became a close associate of Walter Reuther. Jackson, Judges, 317; Ben L. Kaufman, "Judge George Edwards made historic decisions: Social activist left legacy of product liability laws." The Cincinnati Enquirer, April 9, 1995.
5. He spent 30 days in the Detroit jail, at age 23, for leading the Yale & Towne sit-down strike in defiance of a court order. Mary M. Stolberg, Bridging the River of Hatred: The Pioneering Efforts of Detroit Police Commissioner George Edwards. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998), 55.
6. In 1951, Michigan Gov. G. Mennen Williams appointed Edwards as probate judge of Wayne County. Under Michigan law, a judge of probate in Michigan is also the person in charge of juvenile court affairs, and from 1951 to 1954, Edwards was in charge of the Juvenile Court of Wayne County with a jurisdiction over a territory of 3 million people where they were dealing with 10,000 cases of children in trouble each year. Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, October 1 and November 21, 1963. (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1963), 9.
7. Stolberg, Bridging the River of Hatred, 63.
8. Harry Phillips, ed. History of the Sixth Circuit. (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1977), 131.
9. The army sent Edwards to Camp Wheeler, Georgia, for basic infantry training. If he had graduated with his unit, he would have been sent to Europe, but during his seventh week at Camp Wheeler, he broke his wrist playing touch football. He was assigned to "gofer" duties as a file clerk and instructor for the next eleven months, gaining a promotion to corporal and drawing the attention of superiors who recommended him for officer candidate school. He attended officer's school at Fort Benning, Georgia and graduated as a second lieutenant on March 19, 1945. From there, Edwards went to Camp Maxey, Texas, to receive advanced infantry training for the invasion of Japan scheduled for that November. Since Japan surrendered in August, 1945, after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Edwards was sent to the Philippines. Stolberg, Bridging the River of Hatred, 79. See also, Dominic Capeci, Detroit and the "Good War": The War-Time Letters of Mayor Edward Jeffries and Friends (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1996).
10. He took a leave of absence from the city council to join the army and while he was away, his wife Peg ran his 1945 absentee campaign, and he won by a huge margin. As the top vote getter, he became president of the city council. Ibid., 80.
11. "Hats In: Edwards in Race for Mayor." Detroit News, April 6, 1949; "Edwards Files $100 Fee to Establish Candidacy." Detroit News, June 22, 1949.
12. Edwards' defeat by Albert E. Cobo was his only loss in 20 years of political campaigning. Stolberg, Bridging the River of Hatred, 95.
13. While serving on the Wayne County Juvenile Court, Edwards served on the advisory council of judges for the National Probation and Parole Association. Judge Edwards, Harvard Law School Dean Roscoe Pound, and other NPPA members were critical of the "model penal code" drafted by the American Law Institute and supported by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. A resolution critical of Hoover in the 1950s and co-authored by Judge Edwards attracted the wrath of Hoover and he became a lifelong enemy of Judge Edwards. In 1963, Hoover tried to block Edwards' nomination to the Sixth Circuit bench. Ibid., 99-103.
14. Ibid., 108; "Remembrances - George Clifton Edwards, Jr.," 36-37.
15. Stolberg, Bridging the River of Hatred, 125.
16. Transcripts of FBI electronic surveillance of reputed mob leaders in Detroit during 1963-1964 revealed that Edwards name was mentioned as a possible police target for elimination. Charles Durfey and Richard Gibeau, "Judge here was marked for murder: Mafia discussed killing ex-Detroit police official." The Cincinnati Post, August 3, 1976.
17. Stolberg, Bridging the River of Hatred, 260.
18. Bruce A. Ragsdale to Rita Wallace, July 14, 1998. See attached judicial database created by Federal Judicial History Office in 1998. [Located in the Sixth Circuit Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio.]
19. Judge Edwards ruled that wiretapping without court authorization was unconstitutional. The ruling upheld Judge Keith's decision in favor of a White Panther Party member awaiting trial on a charge that he and two others had bombed an office of the Central Intelligence Agency in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1969. The proffered justification for the wiretap without court authorization and, again solely upon the authorization of the Attorney General of the United States, was that it involved domestic national security. The opinion survived a Supreme Court challenge and later was used as a basis for the Watergate proceedings that led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon. 444 F.2d 651 (6th Cir.1971) (NO. 71-1105); aff'd 407 U.S. 297, 92 S.Ct. 2125, 32 L.Ed.2d 752 (U.S.Mich. Jun 19, 1972) (NO. 70-153).
20. The case became a landmark in determining the effects of publicity as bearing upon a fair trial. Sheppard v. Maxwell, 231 F.Supp. 37 (SD Ohio 1964), rev'd 346 F.2d 707 (6th Cir. 1965), rev'd 384 U.S. 333, 86 S.Ct. 1507, 16 L.ED.2d 600 (1966).
21. The case involved two pregnant school teachers and the Cleveland School Board's decision that a female teacher had to take maternity leave five months before her expected date of delivery and could not return to work until three months after delivery. The School Board justified this decision on the basis of administrative convenience and necessity, to insure continuity of instruction, to protect the health of the mother and child and to avoid embarrassment to students. Judge Edwards responded, writing that "at the present time pregnant students are allowed to continue in the Cleveland schools without any apparent ill effects upon the education system." 465 F.2d 1184 (6th Cir. 1972), aff'd 414 U.S. 632, 94 S.Ct. 791, 30 L.Ed.2d 52 (1974).
22. Bradley v. Milliken, 519 F.2d 679 (6th Cir.(Mich.), Jun 19, 1975) (NO. 75-1668); 484 F.2d 959(6th Cir.(Mich.), Jun 19, 1975)(No.72-2008.);   438 F.2d 945 (6th Cir.(Mich.), Feb 22, 1971) (NO. 21036).
23. Phillips, ed. History of the Sixth Circuit, 132.
24. Peg received recognition for her efforts as head of the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity. Among other things, she escorted African-American couple to all-white churches in an attempt to open racial dialogues. Stolberg, Bridging the River of Hatred, 239, 243.
25. Judges of the United States. 2d. ed. (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1983), 146.
26. Ibid.; New York Times, April 10, 1995.
27. "Remembrances - George Clifton Edwards, Jr.," 38.