Page 28 - Juneteenth Booklet 2022 Finale

GEORGE W. CROCKETT, JR.
George Crockett was born
in Jacksonville, Florida to George
William Crockett, Sr. (1883–
1975) and Minnie Amelia Jenkins
(1884–1983), who had two other
children: Alzeda Crockett and
John Frazier Crockett.

Crockett graduated from Stanton
High School in Jacksonville. In
1931, he received a Bachelor of
Arts degree from Morehouse.

Crockett received a law degree from the University of Michigan Law
School in 1934 and returned to Jacksonville to practice law that year
as one of very few African American attorneys in the state of Florida.

In November 1980, as the candidate of the Democratic Party from
Michigan's 13th congressional district, Crockett was elected in a spe-
cial election to the 96th Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the
resignation of Charles C. Diggs Jr. from the U.S. House of Represent-
atives. Dennis W. Archer ran Crockett's successful election campaign.

Crockett was simultaneously elected to a full term in the 97th Con-
gress and was subsequently re-elected to the next four Congresses,
serving from November 4, 1980, to January 3, 1991.

On Wednesday, March 28, 1990 Crockett, who was affectionately
called "Judge" by his House colleagues, announced on the House
Floor: "Mr. Speaker, a few days ago the press carried the story on the
death of the Honorable Harold Medina, who was the judge who pre-
sided over the famous communist trials in New York back in 1949 and
1950.
In the course of that trial, Judge Medina sentenced the five defense
lawyers to prison. I'm the only living survivor of those five defense
lawyers.
"During the four months that I served in a federal prison, it never oc-
curred to me that one day I would also serve in the United States
Congress and be a member of the committee having oversight juris-
diction over all federal judges and all federal prisons.”

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