[1] In 1951, Governor G. Mennen Williams appointed Edwards as probate judge of the Wayne County Juvenile Court.

[1] Edwards resigned from the Michigan Supreme Court in 1962 when he was appointed Detroit Police commissioner by Mayor Jerome Cavanagh,[1] in hopes that he could help ease the racial troubles in the city.

[2] On September 9, 1963, Edwards was nominated by President John F. Kennedy to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit vacated by Judge Thomas Francis McAllister.

[1] His confirmation hearing in the United States Senate commenced the day before President Kennedy was assassinated.

[1] Edwards wrote Pioneer at Law: A Legacy in Pursuit of Justice, a biography of his father, George C. Edwards, a lawyer and activist on behalf of labor unions, the poor, and African Americans, in Dallas, Texas, during the first half of the 20th century, and an autobiographical account of his own early life; it was published in 1974.