Edward J. Jeffries Jr. (April 3, 1900 – April 2, 1950) was an American politician, councilman, and

mayor of Detroit This is a list of mayors of Detroit, Michigan. See History of Detroit, Michigan, for more information about the history of the incorporation of the city. The current mayor is Mike Duggan, who was sworn into office on January 1, 2014. History ...

Early life

Edward Jeffries was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, on April 3, 1900, the son of Judge Edward J. Jeffries and Minnie Stott Jeffries. The elder Jeffries was an alderman, a police justice, and a long-serving judge on the Recorder's Court. He had run unsuccessfully for mayor multiple times, seeing himself as a representative of the underclass, and instilled in the younger Jeffries a sense of civic responsibility. The younger Jeffries attended the

Detroit Public Schools Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) is a school district that covers all of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States and high school students in the insular city of Highland Park. The district, which replaced the original Detr ...

and the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, receiving a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree from the University of Michigan in 1920 and a law degree from the

University of Michigan Law School The University of Michigan Law School (Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparative Law (MCL ...

in 1923. He then continued his education at Lincoln's Inn in

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in 1923 and 1924, studying Roman and British

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...

. After his tour in Europe, Jeffries returned to Detroit to take up law practice. In 1929, he became general counsel for

Royal Maccabees Insurance Knights of the Maccabees was a fraternal organization formed in 1878 in London, Ontario, Canada. Most active in the U.S. state of Michigan, the group's fraternal aspects took a backseat to providing low-cost insurance to members. In the societ ...

, a position he held until his death in 1950. In 1930, Jeffries married Florence O. Bell.

Politics

Jeffries ran for

Detroit City Council The Detroit City Council is the legislative body of Detroit, Michigan, United States. The full-time council is required to meet every business day for at least 10 months of the year, with at least eight of these meetings occurring at a location ...

in 1932, and served on that body for four terms, from 1932 until 1940, serving the last two as City Council president. While serving on the Council, Jeffries came under the influence of long-time councilman John C. Lodge. Jeffries was already more moderate in stance than his radical father, eager to work within the existing power structure, and Lodge, who shared a similar outlook, was a natural ally. In 1939, Jeffries ran for mayor of Detroit against

Richard Reading Richard W. Reading (February 7, 1882 – December 9, 1952) was a Republican mayor of Detroit, Michigan from 1938 to 1940. Biography Richard William Reading was born in Detroit on February 7, 1882, the son of Richard W. and Louise M. Reading ...

as an economically conservative, socially responsible reformer. Reading, enmeshed in an enormous corruption scandal that eventually sent him to jail, lost the election by more than two-to-one. He ran for election as mayor four more times, winning the next three to serve as mayor from 1940 to 1948. Jeffries bid for a fifth term was unsuccessful because of his unpopularity in the wake of the 1943 race riot, and he lost to councilman

Eugene Van Antwerp Eugene Ignatius Van Antwerp (July 26, 1889 – August 5, 1962) was the mayor of Detroit, Michigan. Biography He was born on July 26, 1889, the son of Eugene C. Van Antwerp and Cecelia Renaud. His father was of Flemish descent and his mother ...

. Jeffries was elected once more to serve on the City Council, beginning in 1950, but died in office. Edward Jeffries suffered a heart attack on March 18, 1950, while on vacation in Miami Beach, Florida. He died shortly thereafter on April 2, 1950, a day short of his 50th birthday. The section of I-96 in Livonia and Detroit is named in Jeffries' honor.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeffries, Edward 1900 births 1950 deaths Mayors of Detroit Detroit City Council members University of Michigan Law School alumni Michigan lawyers 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American politicians