Hawkins was born in Elora in Lincoln County in south Tennessee and established a law practice in Gadsden in Etowah County north of Birmingham . He was a member of the American Bar Association and the Association of Trial Lawyers . He was an alternate delegate to the 1948 Democratic National Convention , which meeting in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , adopted a civil rights platform plank opposed by many of the delegates from the then segregated American South . Some of the Alabamians staged a walkout in protest
1948 Democratic National Convention
1948 Democratic National Convention
George C. Hawkins