Bernard Ades | |
|---|---|
 Ades in 1933 | |
| Born | (1903-07-03)July 3, 1903 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| Died | May 27, 1986(1986-05-27) (aged 82) |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Spouses | Mary Ethel Hechler Dora Rubinfine Ziebel |
| Children | 2 |
| Military Career | |
| Allegiance |  Spanish Republic |
| Service |  International Brigades |
| Rank | First Lieutenant |
| Unit | The "Abraham Lincoln" XV International Brigade |
| Battles / wars | Spanish Civil War |
Bernard Ades (July 3, 1903 – May 27, 1986) was an AmericanCommunist who is most known for his defense of Euel Lee, anAfrican American accused of murdering a white family inMaryland in 1931. During a murder trial which was still heavily influenced by "Jim Crow" laws, Ades set precedents that allowed achange of venue outside a highly prejudiced environment, and he fought for the right to have African Americans serve on jury panels.
Bernard Ades was born inBaltimore, Maryland, the second child of Harry and Fanny Levine Ades. His father, a Russian born and devout traditionalistJew, moved toAmerica and started an umbrella manufacturing business with his brother, Simon Ades.[1] This would later be of significance during theMcCarthy Era when Bernard Ades would be put under special surveillance for his ties toRussia and his Communist beliefs.
Ades graduated fromBaltimore City College (a secondary school). Afterward, he attended theUniversity of Maryland Law School for his LLB and later earned a bachelor's degree in economics atJohns Hopkins University.[2]
Ades was a part of theCommunist Party which influenced the types of legal cases he took. For the Euel Lee, “Orphan Jones” Case in 1931, Ades was employed by theInternational Labor Defense (affiliated with the Communist Party) in a campaign againstlynching. Among others he represented Euel Lee (aka Orphan Jones) whose capital case captured national attention.
Euel Lee, an African American farmhand, was accused of murdering a white family of four for refusing to pay his full wages. The case took place in the Eastern Shore of Maryland, still heavily influenced byJim Crow Laws withinstitutionalized discrimination. The tactics that Ades used to ensure a fair trial brought him infamy in Maryland and resulted in one instance of being mobbed and beaten.[3][4]
Though Ades won his client a change of venue, two new trials and the right to have African Americans on jury panels,[5] Ades lost the trial and Lee was soon after executed byhanging on October 28, 1933. However, his defense of Lee set precedents that would be used throughout thecivil rights movement.[6]
A fight ensued over the body where Ades demanded the right to bury Euel Lee inNew York as he was granted the right to his client's body in Lee'slast will and testament. Fearing riots and further racial unrest, Ades was denied the right to bury the body in New York and is currently interred in an unmarked grave inBrooklyn, Maryland.[7]
Charges of unprofessional conduct were lodged in Maryland and before the USBar for his handling of the case, and the ensuing social unrest which the coverage of the case caused.[8] Ades were defended by Charles Houston ofHoward University Law School and by“Young Thurgood” Marshall of theNAACP. This also set a precedent as the first case of a white man being defended in court by an African American.[9]
The Maryland Bar publicly reprimanded Ades for his conduct while also praising his defense of Lee: "It does not seem to the court that the extreme punishment of disbarment should be inflicted. Much that *482 is blameworthy in the respondent's conduct carries its own antidote, for no one can succeed at the bar who comports himself as he has done. Taking into consideration the unquestioned service rendered in the Lee case, the injuries which the respondent suffered at the hands of lawless men while acting as counsel in that case, and the fact that he has already suffered a suspension from the bar of this court for approximately five months, it is believed that a public reprimand will suffice. This will be the judgment of the court." (RE Ades Court Case)
Re Ades sets the precedent that organizations could provide counsel to individuals, thus setting up the later defense for the NAACP in the school desegregation cases of the 1960s.
In 1934, Adesran for Governor of Maryland on theCommunist Party ticket and received less than 8,000 votes.[10] Despite the support of the African American community,[11] he lost by a significant margin.
On February 20, 1937 Ades sailed toSpain on theSS Île de France to join in theSpanish Civil War on the side of theLoyalists. Later he was commissioned as aFirst Lieutenant and served as CompanyCommissar in theLincoln Brigade which was part of a volunteer based military organization known as theInternational Brigades who were dedicated to fightingfascism. He fought in the battles ofBrunete, Villanueva, Pardillo and at Fuentes de Ebro. He returned to the United States on September 30, 1937 aboard theSS Normandie.[12]
After returning to the United States, Ades was employed as an auditor with theFederal Housing Authority by 1940. Following his exposure byCongressman Del’Assandro of Baltimore for being a Communist, he was forced to resign in 1941 and was placed onJ. Edgar Hoover’s list for security detention in case of war.
In 1941 New York State certified Ades as a Public Accountant[13] and he practiced out of offices at 505 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. His clients includedOur World magazine (published by his best friendJohn P. Davis),United Electrical Workers, the American Soviet Trading Organization (AMTORG), and theCommunist Party of the United States of America as well as a slew of smaller left wing organizations.
Active in the Bronx Reform Democrats Ades served as a delegate to theNew York State Constitutional Convention. He opposed the war inVietnam, participated in the marches on Washington against it and helped start theDump Johnson movement in the Bronx.
In 1940, the FBI began their surveillance of Ades which only ceased when he entered Isabella House, a nursing home, in 1979. He died there and was buried in Baltimore Hebrew Congregation Cemetery, 2100 Belair Road, Maryland.
An early marriage was dissolved by divorce. In 1935 Ades married Mary Ethel Hechler, also a Communist Party devotee and had two daughters, Janet and Judith. Widowed in 1959 he married Dora Rubinfine Ziebel who predeceased him by four years.
“Red Father” is a documentary directed byTova Beck-Friedman which explores the life of Ades through the eyes of his daughter Janet. She admires his wisdom, his generosity and his world outlook, and though as a child she thought him larger than life, as an adult she questions his ideology, its implementation and her father'sCommunist involvement. Throughout his trial and later tribulations, Ades remained true to his ideals.
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