Retired Judge A. Leo Adderly dies at 84; he helped push for social justice, leaves legacy of public service in Miami

Alfonso Leo Adderly, a retired Miami-Dade County Court judge and member of one of Miami’s pioneer Black families, died July 4, at the University of Miami Medical center. He was 84.

A quiet and unassuming man, Adderly once said that he knew from age 6 that he would be a lawyer. He knew, too, that he would have big boots to fill: His late uncle John Johnson was Miami’s second Black judge, appointed after the late Judge L. E. Thomas, Miami’s first Black judge, resigned in the late 1960s.

Adderly was born in what was known then as Miami’s Colored Town, or the Central Negro District. Today the area is known as Overtown, so dubbed by Blacks as they moved northward to the outskirts of Miami’s downtown area to places like Liberty City, also known back then as “The Sticks,” and to other unincorporated areas of Dade County.

The only child of the late Alfonso and Elaine Johnson Adderly, he spent his early childhood living carefree on Northwest 10th Street under the watchful eyes of his doting grandparents Samuel D. and Ida Ellen Johnson. He was not short of playmates because most of the Johnson clan lived close by and he had a host of cousins to play with. Among them was Dr. Dorothy Jenkins Fields, who would go on to become founder and chief curator of the Black Archives, History and Research Foundation of South Florida.

“Our mothers were sisters, and we grew up as brother and sister,” Fields said. “From childhood and throughout his life, my cousin enjoyed giving the correct answers to questions and correcting others. In retirement he, and his devoted wife Wilda, traveled around the world and often shared their adventures with family and friends. He will be greatly missed.”

1956 Booker T. Washington grad

Adderly attended Miami’s segregated public schools and graduated in 1956 from Booker T. Washington Junior/Senior High School, where he was a member of the school’s marching band.

A stellar student, he later enrolled in Morehouse College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1960. Adderly then was a teacher in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools system before moving on to attend Howard University, where he received his law degree in 1964.

It was during his college years that his decision to become a lawyer and take an active role in his community was cemented. He once said that it was while he was at Morehouse, and later at Howard, that he became “… an eyewitness to history — the Civil Rights Movement.”

After law school, he joined the movement as Miami Project Director of Voter Education for the National Urban League. Years later, he wrote these words in his “Living Legend” award application to the Booker T. Washington Alumni Association: “With an assistant director and 10 workers in the field, we registered 10,000 new voters prior to the 1964 presidential election. My entire adult life has been dedicated to community service.”

Adderly was admitted to practice law in Florida, the District of Columbia and before the United States Supreme Court. And in 1966, he became one of the original nine attorneys on staff at Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc., serving until 1969. That year, he was appointed to Legal Services’ Board of Directors and was its president 1971-1972.

He also worked for the Greater Miami Urban League as staff attorney, served as a public defender for the city of Miami, and was an associate in the Miami law firm of Britton, Cohen, Kaufman, Benson & Schantz.

Adderly had practiced law for 16 years when he was appointed to the judiciary in 1981, serving as a Miami-Dade County Court judge, and he was elected in 1986 and re-elected in 1990. He retired from the bench in 2003.

He gave generously every year to charities such as The Carter Center, Doctors Without Borders, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and many others.

He was active in many organizations, including the Alpha Phi Alpha, Inc. fraternity; the Florida Bar Association; the District of Columbia Bar; the National Bar Association; the Miami Dade County Bar; the Florida Conference of County Court Judges; the Judicial Council of the National Bar Association; and the Catholic Lawyers Guild.

And he served on the boards of several other organizations, including the South Florida Council of Boy Scouts of America, the James E. Scott Community Association, and the Northwest Miami Jaycees. He also served as a judge in the category of speech for The Miami Herald Silver Knight Awards.

‘Beautiful memories’

Somewhere between building his career and serving his community, Adderly found the time to fall in love. In 1979, he married his beloved Wilda.

“He was my love and my best friend for more than 44 years,” said his wife, Wilda J. Burnett Adderly. “He was loving and protective of me, and we did everything together... “We traveled the world, visiting every continent except Antarctica.

“I will always miss him, but I will always think of the wonderful times we had together. I have beautiful memories to sustain me.”

Their last trip together was several months ago when they traveled to Dubai. Back home, Adderly’s health began to fail, and his wife became a loving and diligent caregiver.

In addition to his wife Wilda and cousin Dorothy, Adderly is mourned by a son, Samuel Adderly; daughters Elaine Adderly-Breedlove and Kimberly Brusch (Aaron); grandchildren Tyauna Adderly, Tatiana Streeter, Hannah Brusch, Noah Brusch and Rachel Brusch,; cousins Jewel Johnson Wilson, Betty Johnson Jones, Joyce Silver, George Johnson, Richard Johnson, Mercai McKenzie, Juanita Greene and Theodore Owens; goddaughter Yvonne Farrington-Russell and godson Victor Fields; and a host of other relatives and friends.

A celebration of his life will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, 1835 NW 54th St. in Miami. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, 1475 NW 12th Ave., Miami.

The writer can be reached at bea.hines@gmail.com.