George W. Crockett, Jr.

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 U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

George Crockett attended the public schools of his native land and from then until 1931, the Morehouse College in Atlanta ( Georgia). After a subsequent law studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and its made ​​in 1934 admitted to the bar he began in Jacksonville at work in his new profession. He was one of the few African-American lawyers who practiced at that time in Florida. In 1937, Crockett was involved in the founding of the first racially integrated bar association in the United States.

Between 1939 and 1943, Crockett was the first African American lawyer who worked for the Federal Ministry of Labour. In 1943 he directed some hearings in negotiations on labor rights issues. Between 1946 and 1966, Crockett was a senior partner of one of the first racially integrated law firms in the United States. In 1948 he acted as one of the defenders in a treason trial against eleven leaders of the Communist Party - among them Gus Hall, Henry Winston and Eugene Dennis. In the process, he and four of his colleagues were sentenced to four months in prison for contempt of court, which he served in a federal prison in Ashland ( Kentucky) in 1952.

Crockett was a member of the Democratic Party and campaigned for racial integration; He was an opponent of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy. He represented some of the testifying parties before the Committee on Un-American intrigues people. Crockett supported the civil rights movement and promoted the creation of racially integrated law firms in the South. Between 1967 and 1979, Crockett was a judge in Detroit. In 1980, he was also a consultant of this city. Following the resignation of Congressman Charles Diggs, he was elected as his successor in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington at the due election for the 13 seats of Michigan, where he took up his new mandate on 4 November 1980. After several re- elections he could remain until January 3, 1991 at the Congress. He was at times a member of the Judiciary Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Select Committee on Aging.

In 1990, Crockett decided not to re- Congress candidate. After his retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives, he withdrew into retirement and died on 7 September 1997 in federal capital Washington. He was married twice. With his first wife he had three children Etheline.