Politics / Law
Edward Jeffries
1900–1950 · lawyer, mayor of Detroit
Detroit-born lawyer and son of a crusading judge who was mayor through World War II (1940–1948), including the deadly 1943 race riot; the Jeffries Freeway honors him.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Miami Beach, Florida
aged 49- Birth name
- Edward J. Jeffries Jr.
- Also known as
- Edward J. Jeffries Jr.
- Detroit years
- 1900–1950
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Edward Jeffries Jr. was born in Detroit in 1900, the son of Edward Jeffries Sr., an alderman and long-serving Recorder's Court judge who saw himself as a champion of the poor. The son graduated from Detroit public schools and the University of Michigan and its law school, studied law at Lincoln's Inn in London and returned to practice in Detroit, becoming general counsel of Royal Maccabees Insurance. More moderate than his father, he joined the City Council in 1932 under the wing of John C. Lodge and served two terms as its president. In 1939 he routed the corrupt Richard Reading and went on to four terms as mayor, from 1940 to 1948, as Detroit became the 'Arsenal of Democracy' and war workers crowded into the city. His handling of the June 1943 race riot, in which 34 people died, and his stance on public housing cost him Black support, and he lost in 1947. He died in 1950; the I-96 Jeffries Freeway bears his name.
Highlights
- Mayor of Detroit, 1940–1948
- Led the city during the 1943 Detroit race riot
- President of the Detroit City Council in the late 1930s
- The Jeffries Freeway (I-96) is named after him
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Memorial
Jeffries Freeway (I-96)
The section of Interstate 96 through Detroit and Livonia is named in his honor.