Manus Anthony EdwardsMANUS ANTHONY EDWARDS is a lifetime resident of Chicago's Southside, born May 25, 1942 in the Bronzeville community at 4312 South Michigan Ave. He attended Bethel AME Church Nursery School, (Pre-school) at 4454 South Michigan Ave., St. Anselm Grammarand St. Elizabeth High Schools. He attended Roosevelt University studying Industrial Labor & Management Relations and Transactional Analysis for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, (IBEW) Local # 165. He also studied the Theory of Combustible Engines at Greer Tech Auto Shop. Manus has twice married and divorced and was blessed with 6 daughters and 2 sons, all grown and gone, doing their thing; and he has 18 grand-children and four great-grands. He worked several jobs all over Chicago, but served 8 years at US Steel, South Works Plant as an overhead crane and forklift operator and retired from AT&T as a Cable Installation & Maintenance Manager. Manus was thrust, by his family into two life-long, occupational modes, which were taking notes of events, circumstances and accountability in collecting gigs and distributing drawings for the local policy wheel in his pre-teen years. These, modes of conduct led to dispute resolution, in the workplace and grassroot politics. He learned how to write Grievances at US Steel and used his experiences to organize several successful walk-outs, while being a Shop Steward (IBEW) at Illinois Bell that brought about equal access and fairness for Black and Brown telephone men and women relative to the distribution of scheduled overtime, selection of training classes and dispatched assignments. Manus was the first African American telephone man/Shop Steward in Chicago to bill the Union for all of his time spent conducting Union business, while on or off the job. This was an unprecedented move by Manus, which ultimately exposed the sweetheart arrangement the Union had with the Company. He then made an unsuccessful run for President of IBEW, local #165. Manus believes to this day that the Union bosses got together with IBT officials to promote him into a management position, (which he accepted) in order to fire him, and it almost worked. Manus, at that point, had no representation; and as a consequence, was shifted around to all undesirable management positions and given unobtainable objectives to accomplish. He was finally assigned a position where he was (unbeknownst to the bosses who placed him there), the first and only African American to manage the prestigious Cable Locating Bureau (CLB), located in Room #1603 at 311 West Washington Street. It wasn't until the late 80's that his bosses were made to realize that an African American, namely Manus A. Edwards was and had been holding down this prestigious position and supervising an all-White crew to do it. Shortly thereafter, Manus opted to take advantage of the early retirement plan and went to work for himself; and he never looked back. Manus' lengthy involvements in politics range from grade school in 1954 when he went to work for Richard J. Daley to 2015 when he went to work for candidate, Ald. Gregory Mitchell of the 7th Ward. Over a span of sixty years, Manus has involved himself in various political campaigns in many different capacities for a litany of major Black candidates in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. Now, as a retiree, Manus has devoted full time to writing political speeches, songs, wild western, fiction novel Oscar & Willie and Memoirs of an Angry Black Chicago Telephone Man. Oscar & Willie: Wild Western Novel (Volume One) is Manus A. Edwards' first published book. Oscar & Willie: Wild Western Novel (Volume Two) will follow shortly. Read More Read Less