Edward was born in Rockford, Alabama in 1933.

On life in the Jim Crow era: “Basically, my life was about the same as it is here. I didn’t suffer any of the strong biases that many people did. I can’t say I had a lot of hardship. The first time I ran into bold segregation was not in Alabama; it was in Cincinnati. That was the first time I was told to go around to the side window to get a sandwich from a White Castle restaurant. That was 1958 when I was on my way to Cleveland [from Alabama]. I was shocked. I was looking forward to getting over the Ohio River. You made an assumption that you would not have that kind of problem in Ohio. We found the same problem once when we visited Detroit. It wasn’t a restaurant; it was a hotel. Must have been about 1960. They had a sign that said ‘Vacancy’ and when we got inside, the sign went off and there were no vacancies. When we backed out leaving, the sign came back on.”