Ed Tarver, trailblazing Black attorney and civic leader from Augusta, dies at age 64
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Edward J. Tarver, the Augusta attorney who became the first Black U.S. attorney for the federal Southern District of Georgia, has died.
Tarver, 64, also represented the Augusta area’s District 22 in the Georgia Senate from 2005 to 2009, helping round out a full life of public service. His death was announced Friday after developing complications from a December surgery.
A 2017 Savannah Morning News editorial called Tarver “one of the best U.S. attorneys in a long line of professional prosecutors who have held this important appointed post."
The Texas-born Tarver arrived in Augusta, like many before him, as a U.S. Army brat. He finished high school at Glenn Hills High in 1977 and earned a political science degree from the former Augusta College in 1981. In 1982 he joined the Army but left on a medical discharge in 1989 as a field artillery captain.
Tarver enrolled in law school at the University of Georgia, graduating in 1991, then clerking for U.S. District Court Judge Dudley Bowen. Tarver later rose to partner at Augusta law firm Hull Barrett, and after resigning his federal post in 2017 cofounded a new law firm with Augusta attorney Ed Enoch.
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Bowen swore Tarver into office as U.S. attorney in 2009, praising his former clerk’s integrity.
"The U.S. attorney can break a man either by convicting him or by ruining him financially," Bowen said. "So those who serve in that capacity must and always should be principled individuals."
In civic roles, Tarver served either as president of chairman of the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce; the Leadership Georgia Foundation’s Board of Trustees; Leadership Augusta; the Academy of Richmond County Boosters Club; the St. Johns’ Towers Advisory Board; the Augusta Technical College Board of Directors; and the East Georgia Easter Seals Society.
His survivors include his wife, pediatrician Dr. Carol Thompson Tarver; and their four children, attorneys Edward Tarver Jr. and Beverly Tarver; Riley Armant, morning anchorwoman for WALB-TV in Albany; and Howard University graduate Ryan Armant.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Former Black U.S. Attorney Ed Tarver marked historic first for Georgia
