Judge George N. Leighton (Ret)

George N. Leighton served as a U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois from 1976 until he retired in 1987. Prior to that, he was Judge of the Circuit court of Cook County from 1964 to 1969, on the Appellate Court for the First District from 1969 to 1970, and Justice of the Illinois Appellate Court from 1970 to 1975.

Born on October 22, 1912 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the son of immigrants from the African Cape Verde Islands, Mr. Leighton never entered high school because he had to work to help support his family. After winning a college scholarship through a writing contest, he graduated magna cum laude from Howard University in 1940 and entered Harvard Law School, serving midway through his law studies as an Infantry officer in WW II in the Pacific Theatre. Moving to Chicago in October of 1946, he became active in civic affairs, and served the Chicago National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as president and general counsel, handling many landmark cases.

He teaches law as an adjunct professor at John Marshall Law School.