George N. Leighton
George Neves Leighton (born George Neves Leitão; October 22, 1912 – June 6, 2018) was an American judge who served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He was known for taking cases related to housing, voting, and jury service, especially if these cases were directly impacted by injustice, particularly racism. Early life George Neves Leitão and his twin sister Georgina were born in New Bedford, Massachusetts on October 22, 1912, to Ana Silva Garcia and António Neves Leitão, immigrants from Brava, Cape Verde. At home, the family spoke Crioulo. His surname was anglicized to "Leighton" after a teacher claimed she could not pronounce his last name "Leitão." Leighton left school after sixth grade to work with his father picking cranberries, strawberries, and blueberries. He also worked on an oil tanker that sailed from Fall River, Massachusetts to Aruba. He read voraciously throughout his late childhood and began attending night school through the Works Progress Administration starting in 1934 to make up for his lack of diploma. Education and military In 1936, Leighton won $200 from the Cape Verdean Memorial Scholarship Fund and applied to Howard University. He was initially rejected, but F.D. Wilkinson, the school's registrar, agreed to let him enroll as a non-degree student, and that if he could prove he could succeed without a high school education, the university would change his status to degree-seeking. To further complicate matters, Leighton recalls having a poor grasp on the English language before attending Howard. Despite this, he made the Dean's List during his first semester and was made a candidate for degree. He remained on the Dean's List every semester until he graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's in history in 1940. While at Howard, one of his Kappa Alpha Psi brothers recommended him for the position of the Assistant to the Dean of Men, which gave him free housing and tuition. He was also inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and earned a commission from Howard's AROTC. James McCauley Landis, the Dean of Harvard Law School, granted him a first-year scholarship and admitted him. World War II began in his second year and he was sent to Fort Benning in Georgia in March 1942. At the end of basic, he was sent to Fort Huachuca in Arizona before shipping out to the Pacific Theater as part of the segregated 93rd Infantry Division. He became a military captain and earned a Bronze Star Medal, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Asiatic Pacific Service Metal, and the Combat Infantry Badge for his service. After the war ended in 1945, he returned to the Law School and earned his LL.B. degree the following year. Law career He passed the Massachusetts Bar in 1946; then, impressed that Black congressman William Dawson had been elected to public office, moved to Chicago and passed the Illinois Bar in 1947. His early years as a lawyer were spent in private practice, including with Christopher C.