Edwards helped Diane Watson win a seat in Congress, but the lawmaker did not offer Edwards a congressional staff job after her victory. She describes her longtime friend as a free spirit who wouldn’t work well in a structured environment. (CLARENCE WILLIAMS / LAT)
Edwards, says one lawmaker, “has a gift of making the deal.” Talk show host Arsenio Hall has called him an “extortionist” and a “tennis-shoe pimp.” (CLARENCE WILLIAMS / LAT)
Edwards and Rosa Parks. Exercising his influence, Edwards placed the civil-rights leader next to Hillary Clinton at the 1999 State of the Union address, arranged her to meet the pope and negotiated a six-figure payment to Parks for her televised life story. (CLARENCE WILLIAMS / LAT)
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Edwards with former President Clinton, actress Cicely Tyson, former Vice President Al Gore, and Coretta Scott King, wife of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (CLARENCE WILLIAMS / LAT)
Edwards, at far right, watching former L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley present Nelson Mandela with a key to the city. (CLARENCE WILLIAMS / LAT)
Edwards, in dark shirt with finger pointing, attending Robert F. Kennedy’s California Democratic primary victory celebration at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in June 1968. The senator was assassinated a short time after this photo was taken. (CLARENCE WILLIAMS / LAT)
