[3][2] He was one of six children, the son of Mary Foushee Edwards, and William Gaston Snipes; his mother was Black, and his father was White.

[6] After graduation, Edwards established the mechanical department at the Institution for Education of the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind (later known as Governor Morehead School) in Raleigh, North Carolina.

[3] He later took a role at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he started as a teacher of natural sciences, and the superintendent of the men's industrial department.

[3] In 1912, Edwards was appointed by the state governor to serve as a delegate for the third annual Negro National Educational Congress.

[5] On March 25, 1915, Edwards became a licensed architect in the state of North Carolina, and was the first African American to hold this title.