Antonio de Jesus Cardozo papers (MSS-0080)

Biographical/Historical Note

Antonio de Jesus (Tony) Cardozo was born in Fogo, Cape Verde, in 1903. Cardozo emigrated to the United States at the age of 17 to work on his uncle’s ranch in California. He then moved to Boston, where he attended high school and worked nights in a factory. Cardozo went on to earn a law degree at Suffolk Law School in June 1929 and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar the same month. Cardozo then studied at Harvard University as a Special Student under the Faculty of Arts and Science, where he received an associate’s degree in arts in June 1933. However, Cardozo had a particular interest in international law, and was interested in attending the soon to be established Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He was the first student to enroll at Fletcher and was among its first graduating class.

Cardozo practiced law in Boston, specializing in cases involving laws of foreign countries. Additionally, he handled legal work for various consulates as he was fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, English, and Italian. He also was a secretary of the Middlesex Bar Association and a member of the American Bar Association. In 1961, Cardozo was presented with the Distinguished Service Award by the Tufts University Alumni Association—the first given to a Fletcher graduate. He also was a representative on the Tufts’ board of trustees. He died in 1984.