Former Democratic South Bay Rep. Don Edwards dies at 100

U.S. Rep. Don Edwards U.S. Rep. Don Edwards Photo: Joe Pugliese, Associated Press Photo: Joe Pugliese, Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Former Democratic South Bay Rep. Don Edwards dies at 100 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

When San Jose’s Don Edwards first ran for Congress in 1962, he couldn’t get the primary election backing of the liberal California Democratic Council, then a powerful force in state politics.

“They figured since Don was a former FBI agent, he couldn’t really be a liberal,” said John Burton, a friend and colleague of Mr. Edwards for decades. “They were wrong.”

William Donlon Edwards, who died at his Carmel home Thursday night at the age of 100, was one of the liberal icons of the House, spending 32 years in Congress, much of it as chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights.

“He was a great, great man and one of the giants on constitutional rights,” said Burton, head of the California Democratic Party. “He was also a wonderful human being.”

Mr. Edwards won that election in 1962 and didn’t waste any time positioning himself as a man of the left who wouldn’t back away from a fight. Soon after arriving in Washington, he cast one of a handful of votes to abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee and then led the successful effort to kill the committee in 1975.

His years in Congress spanned a dramatic period of change in the United States and Mr. Edwards was in the middle of much of it. He voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He traveled to Mississippi and Alabama during the violent heart of the civil rights struggle, saying in a 1965 letter to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that his own trip to Selma, Ala., showed him “the absolute necessity for immediate passage” of the Civil Rights Act. He told the civil rights leader that “we stand ready to support your efforts here in Washington.”

Mr. Edwards broke with President Lyndon Johnson to oppose the war in Vietnam and pushed the Equal Rights Amendment through the House in 1972, only to see it fall three states short of approval. He also helped pull together the bipartisan majorities needed to pass legislation like the Fair Housing Amendments Act in 1988, the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 and the Civil Rights Act of 1991.

But for Mr. Edwards, civil liberties worked both ways, as he showed in votes against condemning hate speech and when he was one of fewer than two dozen lawmakers who voted against a 1968 law making flag burning a federal offense.

“America has lost a venerable civil rights champion who dedicated his life to promoting peace, defending liberty and securing justice for all people,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement marking Mr. Edward’s death. Pelosi called him the “conscience of the Congress” and “a consummate public servant and a proud American.”

There was little in Mr. Edwards’ early life to suggest he would become one of the most liberal members of Congress.

He was born in San Jose in 1915 to a well-off Republican family. A graduate of San Jose High Academy, Mr. Edwards received his bachelor of arts degree from Stanford University, where he was a top golfer, reaching the finals of the California State Amateur Championship in 1934. Years later, in 1950, he teamed with professional golfer Marty Furgol to win the Pro-Am title at what was then the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am golf tournament at Pebble Beach.

After graduating from Stanford Law School and passing the bar exam in 1940, Mr. Edwards spent two years as a special agent with the FBI before joining the Navy and spending World War II in naval intelligence. In 1951, he entered his family’s land title business.

Besides his record on civil rights, Mr. Edwards was also an early environmentalist.

“He was ahead of his time when it came to the environment,” said Larry Gerston, professor emeritus of political science at San Jose State University. “There are places up and down the Central Coast that bear his name,” including the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, a 30,000-acre oasis for migratory birds in Fremont.

A member of the First Amendment Center’s Hall of Fame, Mr. Edwards also received the American Bar Association’s Thurgood Marshall Award in 2002 for his “unswerving devotion to the Constitution and its values throughout his career.”

When Mr. Edwards retired from Congress in 1995, just short of his 80th birthday, he told the Los Angeles Times that he wanted a few years to do things with his grandchildren.

“We haven’t been able to have a dog for the last 25 years,” he said.

Mr. Edwards “probably would never have wanted anyone to talk about his legacy,” Gerston said. “He’d just say ‘I was only doing my job.’”

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth