Judge Ed Rogers: Making Life Better For Others

By Rashida Bartley

“I applied to the University of Miami and was accepted until I sent in my picture and they said they were not ready for me yet.”

Retired Judge Edward Rodgers always wanted to be a lawyer.

“I knew I wanted to be a lawyer but never had any intention of being a judge,” Rodgers said.

Growing up in the ‘30s and ‘40s, Rodgers said he never saw any black lawyers or judges in his hometown of Pittsburg, Penn. “I watched Thurgood Marshall and Belford Lawson and the work that they did, but that didn’t make me want to be a lawyer; it only heightened the desire to be a lawyer.”

Coming from a blue-collar family, Rodgers enlisted in the Navy after high school in 1944. After returning home, the WWII veteran began his undergraduate studies at Howard University.

“The GI Bill paid for my whole undergraduate work,” Rodgers said. “If it weren’t for the GI Bill, I would have never gone to college because my family had no money nor did they have the desire to send me.”

Rodgers choose political science as a major after being advised that it was the best major if one wanted to become a lawyer. He graduated from Howard in 1949.

On the road to becoming a lawyer, Rodgers said he met a young lady, Gwendolyn Baker.

“I got married, started a family, had to pay some bills, so I had to get to work,” Rodgers said.

In 1950, Rodgers relocated to West Palm Beach, his wife’s hometown. Notably Gwendolyn Baker Rodgers and Frankie Drayton Thomas, founded The Charmettes, Inc., a national organization designed to bring women together around civic-minded ideas and projects. 

Rodgers embarked on a career as a teacher at Roosevelt High School. He taught there until 1960, when he revisited his aspirations to be a lawyer. “I was getting up in age and got to thinking, ‘I’ve got to do something (pursue law school),’” Rodgers said.

He sent applications to several law schools. “I applied to the University of Miami and was accepted until I sent in my picture and they said they were not ready for me yet,” Rodgers said.  

After being denied entry by other segregated institutions in Florida, he was accepted at Florida A&M University in 1960, and obtained his Juris Doctor in 1963.

Subjected to segregation, Rodgers and his five black classmates, including the now Congressman Alcee Hastings persevered.  “We studied for the bar review courses and took the bar at the DuPont, but we couldn’t stay there or eat there,” he said.

After passing the bar, time and history set Rodgers on a path to become a pioneer. He was in private practice from 1967-1973. He was named the first black prosecutor in Palm Beach County. In 1973, then-Gov. Reubin Askew appointed Rodgers the first black judge in Palm Beach County. By 1977, Rodgers was moved from County Court judge to the Circuit Court, again an appointment by Askew. During his time as Circuit Court judge, Rodgers served as Chief Judge from 1984-1985, again another first for blacks.

“Law has been a very satisfying career,” Rodgers said. “I enjoyed being a lawyer and I enjoyed being a judge.” 

Being a lawyer gave Rodgers the opportunity to make right some wrongs and make the world a better place.

When Rogers first arrived in West Palm Beach (1950), the city was steeped in segregation. Blacks could not try on clothing in any downtown department stores, but were allowed to buy. If the clothing purchased was the wrong size, the purchase could not be returned.

Blacks could not travel freely after dark in any white areas, swim in the city pool or play on the municipal golf course or have a meal in any West Palm Beach restaurant.

“I remember filing a lawsuit against Good Samaritan Hospital, they didn’t [treat or] admit black people,” Rodgers, whose law and judicial career spanned 22 years, said. “Not even black employees who worked in the hospital couldn’t be seen in the hospital if they got hurt.”

Blacks were sent to St. Mary’s Hospital in West Palm Beach.

“The guys that I filed for didn’t want me to file the lawsuit; they just wanted me to talk to the hospital to make them do what’s right. I said no, you have to take it courts to make changes.”  

One of Rodgers most outstanding achievements occurred in 1991 with his creation of the Drug Court. The purpose of the court was to place Palm Beach County citizens in need of help into treatment under the Marchman Act (FSS Chapter 397). Located at the Port Center in Rivera Beach, Rodgers said the Saturday morning court was a tremendous help to people who were struggling with addiction. He could see them in one day and get them into a recovery.

“I got so much pleasure from it, I don’t know whether I was doing it for them or for myself,” Rodgers said. “You don’t know how many times people would stop me on the street and say ‘Judge, you saved my life.’”

The Drug Court is still in existence today. After his retirement in 1995, Rodgers would still volunteer his time. Following retirement and the death of his wife, Gwendolyn Baker Rodgers, the previous year, the judge ran for and won a Rivera Beach City Council seat. He maintained that position from 1999-2002.

In 1992, Rodgers was awarded the Jefferson Award For Public Service, a national recognition. Created by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, U.S. Sen. Robert Taft, Jr. and Sam Beard, the Jefferson Award honors public and community service. There are five categories of the award.  The category in which Rodgers was honored was the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award Outstanding Public Service Benefiting the Local Community.

Rodgers also received honors a little closer to home. In 2004, the Post Office at 1905 W. Blue Heron Blvd. in West Palm Beach was renamed for him. This was the first Post Office to be named after a retired Palm Beach County judge. The legislation to name the Post Office after Rodgers was ushered in by his law school classmate, Alcee Hastings.