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judge George
Andrews, and passed the bar in 1872. That same year, he was elected to Knoxville's Board of Aldermen, serving one term. As an attorney, Yardley primarily handled criminal cases for black clients, although he also represented the Continental Insurance Company. From 1876 until 1882, he
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In 1885, he is believed to have become the first
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family who gave him his name and raised him. During the 1850s, he attended a school for colored children taught by
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Maurice Mays, who had been accused of murdering a white woman. The murder had sparked the
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for Knox County. In 1878, Yardley began publishing
Knoxville's first black newspaper, the
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gubernatorial candidate, and is believed to have been the first
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121:(January 8, 1844 – May 20, 1924) was an American attorney, politician and
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by birth. His mother left him on the doorstep of the
Yardley family, a
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Appletons' Annual
Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events, Vol. 17
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The French Broad-Holston
Country: A History of Knox County, Tennessee
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391:(Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1976), p. 41.
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American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law
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East
Tennessee Historical Society, Lucile Deaderick (ed.),
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List of first minority male lawyers and judges in Tennessee
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East Tennessee Historical Society, Mary Rothrock (ed.),
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Heart of the Valley: A History of Knoxville, Tennessee
405:(New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1877), p. 710.
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358:Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
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127:Knoxville, Tennessee
75:Knoxville, Tennessee
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281:Oliver Perry Temple
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261:Charles W. Cansler
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103:Republican
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183:Civil War
153:Biography
133:'s first
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241:mulatto
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