An african-American of many firsts.
EDWARD ORVAL GOURDIN (1897 – 1966)
Edward Orval Gourdin was a great Harvard scholar, athlete, lawyer, soldier, judge, and Olympian.
Edward Orval Gourdin was born in Jacksonville, Florida on August 10, 1897. In 1916, Edward was class valedictorian at the Stanton High School established in 1868 after the Civil War for African Americans in Florida. The family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to place Edward in the Cambridge & Latin High School.
Edward entered Harvard College in 1918. Ned, as his classmates called him, became the NCAA long jump champion in 1920 by setting the record of 24′ 6″. One "first." On July 23, 1921, Edward set the world record in the long jump of 25′ 3″ in a dual meet between Harvard/Yale and Oxford/Cambridge held at Harvard Stadium. e became the first man in the world to long jump over 25 feet. His world record remains the oldest track and field record at Harvard University.
He went on to be the National Pentathlon Champion in 1921 and 1922. After finishing his final Harvard Law School examinations (and not having trained for several years), Edward qualified for the 1924 Paris Olympic Games. Ned finished with a leap of 23′ 8″, second to the first African American to win an individual gold medal, William DeHart Hubbard, who leaped 24′ 6″.
While at Harvard Law School and in the early years of establishing his law practice, Edward worked as a postal clerk until 1927. In 1936, Edward secured a position in the U.S. Attorney's Office for Massachusetts. He became Chief of the Civil Division: another "first."
During World War II, Colonel Edward Orval Gourdin became the Commanding Officer of the 372nd Infantry Regiment. Members of the 272nd Field Artillery Battalion, Massachusetts National Guard, the last segregated unit of the U.S. Army, who served with the 372nd Infantry Regiment were activated for Federal Service during the Korean War. Gourdin became their Commanding Officer. Gourdin became the first African American Brigadier General in the State of Massachusetts.
In 1952, Edward was appointed special justice in the Roxbury District, becoming the third African American to serve on the state bench. In 1958, Governor Furcola appointed Edward to become the first African American on the Superior Court of Massachusetts.In 1965, the National Olympics Athletes Association elected Edward its first African American President. He also remained an active member of the NAACP, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and many other civic and community organizations.
In 1974, a Colonel Edward O. Gourdin Post 5298 was established in Queens, New York, one of many posthumous honors. On May l, 1997, Law Day in Massachusetts, a portrait of Edward Orval Gourdin was placed in the Old Suffolk County Court House ,paying homage to the 100th year of his birth. Scholar and artist Robert Freeman painted the portrait.