George Lancelot Quilici papers

George Lancelot Quilici (24 July 1897-7 May 1969), a lawyer, judge, and author, was born in Chicago, Illinois. He attended public schools there, served in the United States Army Signal Corps in Europe during WWI (1918-1919), then obtained his law degree from DePaul University and began practice in the Chicago area. In 1935, he was appointed special prosecutor of election fraud cases and served in that capacity until 1938. In 1940, he was elected as a municipal court judge, was reelected until 1962, when he was elected to the Superior Court. He also made an unsuccessful bid for appointment to the federal bench in 1943. He was an early supporter of the National Lawyers Guild, civil rights for minorities, and antifascism. While serving on the bench, Quilici was involved in several controversial cases which earned him local notoriety and led to charges of political bias. adn lack of judicial temperament. Quilici was an early partisan of the National Lawyers Guild, civial rights for racial minorities, and became a leading spokesman of the anti-Fascist forces among Italian Americans prior to 1941. During WWII, he helped organize and lead the Italian American Victory Council to mobilize support for the war effort among Chicago Italians. He also participated in government sponsored radio broadcasts to Italy and supported the movement to erase the fascist General Italo Balbo's name from Chicago streets and parks. After his elevation to the Superior Court bench in 1962, Quilici devoted more time to personal pursuits such as travel and the publication of his pamphlet, "Italian-American Lawyers of Chicago." Quilici was survived by his wife, Virginia Iralson Quilici, whom he married in 1935.