George W. Crockett

George W. Crockett

George William Crockett Jr. (born August 10, 1909 in Jacksonville , Florida , †  September 7, 1997 in Washington, DC ) was an American politician . Between 1980 and 1991 he represented the state of Michigan in the US House of Representatives .

Career

George Crockett attended the common schools and then to 1931, the Morehouse College in Atlanta ( Georgia ). After a subsequent law degree at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and his admission as a lawyer in 1934, he began to work in Jacksonville in his new profession. That made him one of the few African American lawyers practicing in Florida at the time. In 1937, Crockett helped found the first racially integrated bar in the United States.

Between 1939 and 1943, Crockett was the first African American attorney to work for the Federal Department of Labor . In 1943 he presided over several hearings in negotiations on labor law issues. Between 1946 and 1966, Crockett was a senior partner in one of the first racially integrated law firms in the United States. In 1948 he served as one of the defense counsel in a high treason trial of 11 Communist Party leaders - including Gus Hall , Henry Winston and Eugene Dennis . In the process, he and sentenced four of his colleagues for contempt of court to four months in prison, which he in 1952 in a federal prison in Ashland ( Kentucky dismounted).

Crockett was a member of the Democratic Party and campaigned for racial integration; he was an opponent of US Senator Joseph McCarthy . He also represented some of the people who testified before the Un-American Activities Committee . Crockett supported the civil rights movement and promoted the establishment of racially integrated law firms in the southern states . Between 1967 and 1979, Crockett was a judge in Detroit . In 1980 he was also an advisor to this city. After the resignation of Congressman Charles Diggs , he was elected as his successor to the US House of Representatives in Washington, where he took up his new mandate on November 4, 1980, when the by-election was due for the 13th seat of Michigan. After a few re-elections, he could remain in Congress until January 3, 1991 . He was temporarily a member of the Justice Committee , the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Select Committee on Aging .

In 1990, Crockett declined to run again for Congress. After leaving the US House of Representatives, he retired and died on September 7, 1997 in the federal capital, Washington. He was married twice. He had three children with his first wife, Etheline.

Web links

• George W. Crockett in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• George W. Crockett in the database of Find a Grave (English)