Plenary 12: Stories in Courage: Fredrick McGhee and Civil Rights Advocacy in Minnesota

Session Title: Stories in Courage: Fredrick McGhee and Civil Rights Advocacy in Minnesota

Session Description: Local historians tell the story of Minnesota’s first African American attorney, Fredrick McGhee, who was born into slavery during the Civil War and rose to become a pioneer in early desegregation, anti-lynching, and civil rights cases, as well as other stories of the development of civil rights advocacy in Minnesota.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn about the history of the civil rights movement in Minnesota
• Discover the story of Minnesota’s first African American attorney
• Enrich knowledge with audio/visual historical resources from Minnesota Historical Society

Marketing: Come learn the story of Fredrick McGhee, who went from being born enslaved in Mississippi to becoming Minnesota’s first Black attorney, and ultimately a leading figure in the national civil rights movement, from some of the preeminent historians on this subject.

Prof. William D. Green, Professor of History Emeritus, Augsburg University – William D. Green was the M. Anita Gaye Hawthorne Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies and Professor of History at Augsburg University until 2022. Devoting his career to writing about race and Minnesota, he has published four books—A Peculiar Imbalance: The Fall and Rise of Racial Equality in Early Minnesota, Degrees of Freedom: The Origins of Civil Rights in Minnesota, The Children of Lincoln: White Paternalism and the Limits on Black Opportunity, and Nellie Francis: Fighting for Racial Justice and Women’s Equality in Minnesota.

Degrees of Freedom and The Children of Lincoln won the Hognander-Minnesota Book Awards in 2016 and 2020, respectively. He holds an MA, a PhD, and a JD from the University of Minnesota, and a B.A. in History from Gustavus Adolphus College.  He served as Superintendent of Minneapolis Schools and vice president of the executive council of the Minnesota Historical Society. He has published articles, op-ed pieces, and book chapters on history, law, and education, and has spoken widely at such places as the Ramsey County Bar Association; Friends of the Ramsey County Library; Unity Unitarian Universalist Church in St. Paul, and William Mitchell Law School. He has also lectured at Peabody College-Vanderbilt University, St. John’s University, and Lincoln College-Oxford University. While serving as Superintendent of Minneapolis Public Schools, he studied school reform at Harvard University.

Duchess Harris, Ph.D., Special Assistant to the Provost for Strategic Initiatives, Professor of American Studies, Affiliated with Political Science – Macalester College – Professor Harris arrived at Macalester as an instructor and a visiting assistant professor in 1994, teaching courses in women’s and gender studies. In 1998 she joined the tenure-track faculty in political science and African American studies. She was tenured in 2004, earned a Juris Doctorate in 2011, and was promoted to full professor in 2013. Dr. Harris was also a founding member of the American Studies department and served as chair for eight years, including as its inaugural chair.

The breadth of courses Dr. Harris has taught is wide-ranging, and includes Foundations of U.S. Politics, Policy Analysis: Health Care in the United States, Black Political Thought, Race and the Law, and “The Obama Presidency.” Among the things she’s most proud of during her time at Macalester are the lifelong bonds she builds with her students in the classroom.

Professor Harris was a Mellon Mays Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated with a degree in American History. In 1990, she was elected Student Body President, which made her the first Black woman to serve in this role at an Ivy League institution. She earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota. While in graduate school, she worked for the late U.S. Senator Paul D. Wellstone. She did a Policy Fellowship at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and also completed Postdoctoral Fellowships at the University of Minnesota Law School and the University of Georgia.

Harris has advocated on the national level at the Congressional Black Caucus., Locally, she was appointed as a Minneapolis Civil Rights Commissioner by Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton, appointed to the Governor’s Council on Black Minnesotans by Governor Jesse Ventura, appointed to Co-Chair the Statewide Marin Luther King Holiday (twice) by Governor Mark Dayton; and appointed to the Board of Public Defense by Governor Tim Walz.

Her academic books include, Racially Writing the Republic: Racists, Race Rebels, and Transformations of American Identity, (2009), Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton, (2009), Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Obama, (2011),Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Trump, (2018) and “Black Girl Magic Beyond the Hashtag: Twenty-First Century Acts of Self-Definition” (2019). She is also the proud curator of the Duchess Harris Collection, which has 120 written for 4-12 graders.

Paul Nelson, Historian & Author – Paul Nelson was born and raised in the historic Connecticut Western Reserve region of northern Ohio – a distinction he shares with Thomas Edison, Paul Newman, Toni Morrison, DEVO, and LeBron James, to name only a few.

He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School and has worked as a lawyer, teacher, elementary school aide, stay-at-home parent, and college administrator. His true calling is as an amateur chronicler of Minnesota history. He is the author of Fredrick L. McGhee, a Life on the Color Line, 1861-1912 (winner of the 2002 Scribes Award for writing on legal subjects); Rocky Roots, Building and Decorative Stone in Downtown St. Paul, and nearly one hundred articles of local history published in Minnesota History, Ramsey County History, Minnesota Medicine, and other publications, and the Minnesota Historical Society’s MNopedia project. He is the only historian you know of to have been published in Advances in Chromatography. His most recent article is “That Great Good Place: The Hungry Mind,” in the Spring 2025 issue of Minnesota History.