Edgar C. Campbell; Philadelphia Politician

Edgar C. Campbell, a court clerk and former councilman who was one of the first blacks to wield political power in Philadelphia, died last week at 84. Campbell was nearly 65 when he first was elected to public office as an at-large member of the City Council. He was 72 when elected quarter sessions clerk, heading an agency that maintains criminal records for Municipal and Common Pleas courts. At 80, he became chairman of the city Democratic Committee, the first black ever to hold that title.