Elliott H. Levitas

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Elliott H. Levitas
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Georgia's 4th district
In office
January 3, 1975 – January 3, 1985
Preceded byBenjamin B. Blackburn
Succeeded byPat Swindall
Member of the Georgia House of Representatives
In office
1965 – January 1975
Preceded bymulti-member district
Succeeded byJohn Hawkins
Constituency118th district, Post 4 (1965-1969)
77th district, Post 4 (1969-1973)
50th district (1973-1975)
Personal details
Born
Elliott Harris Levitas

(1930-12-26)December 26, 1930
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
DiedDecember 16, 2022(2022-12-16) (aged 91)
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Residence(s)Atlanta, Georgia
EducationEmory University (BA, JD)
University of Oxford (LLM)
ProfessionAttorney
Military service
Branch/serviceUnited States Air Force
Years of service1955-1958

Elliott Harris Levitas (December 26, 1930 – December 16, 2022)

U.S. Representative from Georgia's 4th congressional district, serving five consecutive terms from 1975 to 1985. He was the first Jewish congressman elected in Georgia.[1]

Early life

Born in

Rhodes scholar, he received a Master of Laws degree in 1958 from University of Oxford in England.[1] He conducted additional study in law at the University of Michigan
from 1954 to 1955. He was admitted to the Georgia bar in 1955 and commenced practice in Atlanta.

Levitas was active in the local Jewish community in Atlanta and with the Anti-Defamation League.[1] He was in the United States Air Force from 1955 to 1958.

Political career

Levitas was a delegate to the

Reconstruction era
.

State legislature

Levitas was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1964 and served from 1965 to 1974. Early in his first term, he gained notoriety for voting in support of civil rights activist Julian Bond, who was in a contested battle to be assume his seat following his election to the legislature. Levitas was one of only five white legislators to vote in support of seating Bond.[1]

In his second term in the state House, he was one of thirty Democrats who voted for the

Howard Callaway, rather than the Democratic nominee, Lester Maddox, a segregationist from Atlanta, in the disputed 1966 gubernatorial race. The legislature, however, chose Maddox to resolve the deadlock though Callaway had led the balloting in the general election by some three thousand votes.[2] In all, Levitas served five terms in the legislature.[1]

Tenure in Congress

Levitas was elected as a Democrat to the

Watergate class of 1974, he quickly established himself as a champion of causes related to the environment, eventually rising to the chairmanship of the committee with oversight on such matters.[1] He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Ninety-ninth Congress in 1984, losing to Republican Pat Swindall amid Ronald Reagan
carrying the district in a landslide.

Later life

After Congress, Levitas was a partner with

Cobell v. Norton, involved a lawsuit of the Blackfeet tribe against the U.S. Government over the amount owed to the tribe for land that had been taken and used for various industrial purposes. The successful $3.4 billion verdict was at the time the largest ever class-action award against the U.S. government.[1]

Death

Levitas died on December 16, 2022, at the age of 91. He is buried at Arlington Memorial Park near Atlanta. Each year, his alma mater, Emory University, issues an award in Levitas’s honor to the outstanding graduating senior political science major.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^
    Atlanta Journal-Constitution
    .
  2. Atlanta History: A Journal of Georgia and the South
    , XXI (Winter 1987-1988), p. 47
  3. ^ Elliott H. Levitas - Retired

External links

U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Georgia's 4th congressional district
January 3, 1975 – January 3, 1985 		Succeeded by

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

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