[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 11225-11226]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO JUDGE GEORGE LEIGHTON

  Mr. DURBIN. The Cook County Criminal Courts Building in Chicago is an 
imposing building at the intersection of 26th Street and California 
Avenue that has long been known by its address: 26th and Cal. Last 
month, the Criminal Courts Building was renamed the Honorable George N. 
Leighton Criminal Court Building in tribute to a remarkable man.
  Judge George Leighton, who turns 100 years old this October, has 
excelled as a lawyer and judge and has embodied the ideals of the 
American dream.
  George Leighton was born in 1912 in New Bedford, MA, to African 
immigrants. As a young boy, Judge Leighton picked fruit for several 
months each year to help support his family. Then just before he should 
have started seventh grade, he left school to take a job on an oil 
tanker in the Dutch West Indies.
  George Leighton never finished grade school or high school, but he 
heard that a scholarship fund was offering a $200 scholarship for the 
winner of an essay contest, and he submitted the winning essay. In 
1936, with his $200 scholarship, he hitchhiked to Washington, D.C., to 
attend college. He was granted conditional admittance to Howard 
University, where he graduated magna cum laude 4 years later.
  In 1940, George Leighton joined the United States Army's 93rd 
Infantry Division. When he returned to the United States after the war, 
he was accepted at Harvard Law School. He graduated from Harvard and 
passed the Illinois State Bar Examination.
  He then moved to Chicago because he was impressed that Chicago had 
elected an African American congressman, William Dawson. He set up a 
law practice next to the old Comiskey Park on Chicago's South Side. And 
he began fighting courageously to break down barriers of racial 
discrimination in voting, housing and education.
  In 1949, George Leighton became an Assistant Illinois Attorney 
General. When he advised one group of African-Americans that the law 
did not prohibit them from moving to the Cicero neighborhood, an all-
white neighborhood at the time, race riots erupted. Judge Leighton was 
indicted for inciting the riot. An up-and-coming lawyer named Thurgood 
Marshall came to the defense of Judge Leighton, argued the case, and 
the indictment was dismissed.
  In 1964, Mayor Daley asked Leighton to run for circuit court judge, 
and he won the election in a landslide. He then moved into his office 
at 26th and Cal, the Cook County Criminal Courts Building.
  In 1969, Judge Leighton was appointed to the First District Appellate 
Court of Illinois, where he served as the first African-American judge 
on the Illinois Court of Appeals. Six years later, he was nominated by 
President Gerald Ford to serve as U.S. District court judge for the 
Northern District of Illinois.
  George Leighton has been a life-long champion of civil rights and 
equality.

[[Page 11226]]

There is no more fitting a tribute than to name the building in which 
Judge Leighton first began practicing law some 66 years ago in his 
honor.
  Judge Leighton contributed to our understanding of justice. He stood 
up to powerful interests in defense of the truth and did not bend to 
pressure or prejudice in his pursuit of justice. He served the people 
of Illinois and the citizens of the United States proudly throughout 
his tenure on the bench.
  I thank Judge George Leighton for his service and join the Chicago 
community in congratulating him on this new honor.

                          ____________________