Masterful manipulator
Willis Edwards has insinuated himself into the highest levels of American black power circles. He has worked for Jesse Jackson, Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks. Will history acknowledge his talent for making coast-to-coast connections? (CLARENCE WILLIAMS / LAT)
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)
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)