Edward Harold Bledsoe (1896 - 1974)

Born 29 Aug 1896 in Marshall, Harrison, Texas, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Mamie Geraldine (Neale) Bledsoe — married 14 Jun 1924 in Alexandria, Virginia, United States

Died 29 Mar 1974 at age 77 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, United States

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Biography

Edward Bledsoe is Notable.

Mr. Bledsoe became the first African-American to serve the appointed position of State of Michigan Attorney General.

EDWARD HAROLD BLEDSOE is the son of Mrs. Mattie L. Smith Bledsoe and Reverend William Felga Bledsoe Sr.

He is the husband of Mrs. Mamie Geraldine Neale Bledsoe whom he married on June 14, 1924, at Alexandria, Virginia. To their union, three children were born -- William Felga III, Geraldine and Cornelia.

He earned a bachelor's degree at Howard University and a law degree from Detroit College of Law.

He enlisted and served with the U.S. Army during World War I from 1918-1919. Upon his honorable discharge, he held the rank of Sergeant.

In 1991, The Detroit Press published a retrospective article in which it was written that "...Mr. Bledsoe, a native of Marshall, Texas, was the grandson of emancipated slaves who founded Bishop College, in Marshall, where he began his studies. He graduated from Howard University in 1922, and he earned a law degree in 1925 from he University of Detroit. After working summers in Michigan, he settled in Detroit in 1924. He and his wife, Geraldine, began political organizing almost immediately, believing that the Republican Party took black voters for granted. They and other black organizers crisscrossed the state by car, registering voters for the Democrats. By the time he died in 1974 at the age of 78, Mr. Bledsoe had committed a near-lifetime to political organizing across Michigian, and he is considered a linchpin in Democratizing Detroit's overwhelming Republican black voters."

In 1936, Harold E. Bledsoe, a prominent Detroit attorney, was the only African-American to cast an electoral college vote for Franklin Delano President.

Sources ~ History of Detroit, Michigan; Michigan Death Certificate 13532; U.S. Social Security Death Indexes; and the 1900-1940 census records of Harrison County, Texas and Wayne County, Michigan

Note: During his elder years, he went by the name Harold Edward Bledsoe. Further, on December 26, 2019, I communicated with Mrs. Michelle Mills Faison, the granddaughter of Judge Edward Harold Bledsoe and his wife, Mrs. Mamie Geraldine Neale Bledsoe, and she shared with me that her grandparents are buried together at Detroit Memorial Park Cemetery in Warren, Michigan.

Sources

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 05 March 2021), memorial page for Edward Harold Bledsoe (29 Aug 1896–26 Mar 1974), Find a Grave Memorial no. 180668524, citing Detroit Memorial Park West, Redford, Wayne County, Michigan, USA ; Maintained by FindingOurLott (contributor 48513572) Unknown.
• "Virginia, Bureau of Vital Statistics, County Marriage Registers, 1853-1935," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:DCY3-MRT2 : 19 October 2020), Harold E Bledsow, 14 Jun 1924; citing Marriage Registration, Alexandria, Virginia, United States, Virginia State Library and Archives, Richmond.
• "Texas, World War I Records, 1917-1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV18-D9V9 : 15 January 2021), Edward H Bledsoe, 07 Oct 1918; citing Military Service, Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, United States, Texas Military Forces Museum, Austin.