Fredrick L. McGhee: A Life on the Color Line, 1861-1912 - Softcover

Nelson, Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1681340240 ISBN 13: 9781681340241

Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2017

Synopsis

Distinguished by his hawk-like gaze and shock of silver hair, his forceful oratory and fierce advocacy, Fredrick L. McGhee was Minnesota's first African American attorney and an intelligent, tireless civil rights organizer. He moved onto the national stage when he helped found the Niagara Movement—the forerunner of today's NAACP, which McGhee later helped spread across the Midwest. Years later, NAACP chairman Roy Wilkins would remember of McGhee that "it was through him that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People reached St. Paul and [our house at] 906 Galtier Street."

Despite McGhee's crucial role in early civil rights organizing, until now there has been no serious study of his life and work. Paul D. Nelson has meticulously reconstructed McGhee's life—from his birth into slavery during the Civil War, through his education and early career as a lawyer, to his eventual insight into the power the courts held as a force for political and social change. Nelson analyzes McGhee's legal strategies in important cases, such as the Hardy v. East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railway Co. case of 1891, the first attempt at desegregation in the United States, whose failed outcome led five years later to Plessy v. Ferguson and the doctrine of "separate but equal."

The succession of incremental advances and devastating setbacks in McGhee's remarkable and accomplished life deserve to be remembered alongside the victories won by the civil rights leaders he influenced and whose breakthroughs he made possible. Nelson's biography illuminates one of the darkest periods in American history and recognizes the role of one man who helped lead his people into the light.

About this title

About the Author:

Paul D. Nelson is an attorney-at-law and former managing editor of the Minnesota Law Review. For the last ten years, he has served as the executive director of Centro de Estudios Multiculturales in St. Paul.

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* McGhee, born a slave but later able to achieve a substantial career as an attorney and civil rights activist, was a contemporary of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois, but he is nonetheless a fairly obscure historical figure. Nelson explores the life of this extraordinary man and the reasons for his obscurity--partly attributable to geography--despite his achievements. Although he began his legal career in Chicago, McGhee settled in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he became the first black lawyer admitted to the bar. With a much smaller black population from which to attract clients, McGhee primarily represented whites, gaining a reputation for competence and oratory. McGhee's conversion from the Baptist faith to the Catholic faith put him in position to work with Archbishop John Ireland to use the church as a positive vehicle for racial equality. Politically, McGhee converted from Republican to Democrat at a time when the latter party was dominated by segregationists. Although initially allied with Washington, McGhee later sided with DuBois when the two giants in the struggle for racial equality clashed on tactics and philosophy. A very fascinating read. Vernon Ford
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About this edition

• Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1681340240
• ISBN 13: 9781681340241
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 262