- Fredrick L. McGhee
Fredrick L. McGhee (
October 28 1861 –September 9 1912 ), a blackcivil rights activist and one of America’s firstAfrican American lawyers. McGhee, born as aslave but who later was able to achieve a substantial career as an attorney and become one of the civil rights pioneers, was a contemporary ofBooker T. Washington andW. E. B. DuBois .McGhee was born in
Aberdeen ,Mississippi , to Abraham McGhee and Sarah Walker, who were slaves. His father, fromBlount County ,Tennessee , was aliterate black slave who learned how to read and write without being formally educated, and later became aBaptist preacher . Abraham McGhee taught his three children, Mathew, Barclay and Fredrick, how to read and write. Abraham McGhee died in 1873 and soon Fredrick’s mother died leaving her three sons orphans.McGhee was able to attend
Knoxville College in Tennessee, and graduated with a degree in law in 1885. Although he began his legal career inChicago , McGhee settled inSt. Paul, Minnesota , where he became the first black lawyer admitted to the bar in that state. With a much smaller black population from which to attract clients, McGhee primarily represented whites, gaining a reputation for competence and oratory. He was also the became the first African American lawyer admitted to the bar in Tennesse andIllinois . He was one of the most highly skilled criminal lawyers of the Old Northwest.In his law practice, McGhee once won a clemency from President
Benjamin Harrison for a client who was a black soldier falsely accused of a crime.In 1886, he married Mattie B. Crane. The couple had one daughter.
Despite his success as a criminal lawyer, he was primarily a race relations advocate. By the early 1900s, McGhee became interested in the national discussion concerning
racial discrimination andsocial equality . In 1905, McGhee with Du Bois and others formed one of the first national civil rights organizations, theNiagara Movement , which was an attempt by more radical blacks to directly and honestly oppose the conservative actions and views of Booker T. Washington. The Niagara Movement was the forerunner of theNAACP . In September 1905, Du Bois went so far as to give McGhee full credit for creating the more radical entity, stating, "The honor of founding the organization belongs to F. L. McGhee, who first suggested it."McGhee was very active politically. He was chosen to be a presidential elector by the Minnesota Republican party in the spring of 1892, but after protests by white Republicans, he was replaced before the start of the
1892 Republican National Convention , which was held inMinneapolis in June. McGhee remained a party member until the spring of 1893, when party bosses reneged on another political promise. Frustrated, McGhee changed his allegiance to theDemocratic Party (United States) , becoming one of the first nationally prominent black Democrats at a time when nearly all blacks were Republicans.McGhee converted from the Baptist denomination to
Catholicism at a time when the vast majority of African Americans were Baptists. He was very active in Saint Peter Claver Church, a Roman Catholic church in St. Paul,Minnesota .McGhee died in 1912, at age 50, of
pleurisy , three years after the founding of the NCAAP.References
* Nelson, Paul D. (2002). "Fredrick L. McGhee: a life on the color line, 1861-1912". Minnesota Historical Society Press. ISBN 0873514254.
* [http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1955/Fredrick_McGhee_lawyer_and_activist "The African American Registry: Fredrick McGhee, lawyer and activist"] [link accessed 2007-04-16]
* [http://www.nathanielturner.com/frederickmcghee.htm "ChickenBones: A Journal for Literary & artistic African-American Themes: Fredrick McGhee (1861-1912), Lawyer and Social Critic"] [link accessed 2007-04-16]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3812/is_200207/ai_n9089429 "Find Articles: Fredrick L. McGhee, who remains a relatively unknown civil rights pioneer, was courted by both Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois"] [link accessed 2007-04-16]
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