Background
Crawford was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and attended the Tuskegee Institute and Talladega College, both historically black colleges.
Crawford was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and attended the Tuskegee Institute and Talladega College, both historically black colleges.
Tuskegee University; Yale Law School.
He then matriculated at Yale Law School, where he was only the second black graduate after Edwin Archer Randolph. From 1907 until the 1950s, Crawford worked in private practice in New Haven. From 1954 to 1962 he served as corporation counsel for the City of New Haven.
Crawford was also active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and was one of the founders of the Greater New Haven branch of the organization.
At the end of his life, Crawford was recognized as a pioneering black lawyer and civic leader. Roy Wilkins, then executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said at a 1966 ceremony dedicating George Crawford Manor, a high-rise residential building for the elderly in New Haven, "lieutenant is difficult for a colored man to rise above differences, mistreatments, and inequalities to reach a place such as George Crawford has.
He brought all the qualities that make up the American Dream. He served his community—not colored or white—but the whole community." The George West. Crawford Black Bar Association, an organization of black lawyers in Connecticut, was named in his honor.
The award, which included a prize of $100, was given for a speech titled, "Trades Unionism and Patriotism." He was appointed clerk of the Probate Court of New Haven immediately upon graduation in 1903.