"Frederick L.McGhee"(October 28,1861-September 9,1912)

An African American civil rights activists and one of America's first African American lawyers.He born as a slave but later was able to achieve a substantial career as an an attorney and became one of the civil rights pioneers, was a contemporary of Booker T.Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois.He was born in Aberdeen,Mississippi,to Abraham Mcghee & Sarah Walker,who were slaves.His

father was from Blount County,Tennessee,was a literate slave who learned to read and write without being formally educated,and later became a Baptist preacher.Abraham taught his three children Mathew,Barclay and Frederick,how to read and write.Abraham died in 1873 and soon Frederick's mama leaving her sons orphan.Frederick was able to attend Knoxville College in Tennessee,and graduated with a degree in law in 1855.He began his legal career in Chicago,Frederick settled in St.Paul,Minnesota,where he became the first African American lawyer admitted to the bar in that state.With a much smaller African American population from which to attract clients,Frederick primarily represented whites,gaining a reputation for competence and oratory.He also became the first African American lawyer admitted to the bar in Tennessee and Illinois.Frederick was one of the most highly skilled criminal lawyers of the Old Northwest.In his law practice,Frederick once won a clemency from President Benjamin Harrison for a client was an African American soldier falsely accused of a crime.In 1886,he Married Mattie B.Crane.They had one daughter.Despite Frederick success as criminal he was primarily a race relations advocate.By the early 1900s,Frederick became interested in the national discussion concerning racial discrimination and social equality.In 1905,Frederick along with W.E.B. and other formed one of the first national civil rights organizations,the Niagara Movement,which was an attempt by more radical African Americans to directly and honestly oppose the conservative actions and views of Booker T.Washington The Niagara Movement was the forerunner of the NAACP.In September 1905,W.E.B. went so far as to give Frederick full credit of creating the more radical entity,stating,"The honor of founding the organization belongs to F.L. McGhee,who first suggested it."Frederick was very active politically.He was chosen to be presidential elector by the Minnesota Republican party in the spring of 1892,after protest by white Republicans,he was replaced before the start of the 1892 Republican National Convention,which was held in Minneapolis in June.He remained a party member until the spring of 1893,when part bosses reneged on another political promise.Frustered,Frederick changed his allegiance to the Democratic Party (United States),becoming one of the first nationally prominent African American Democrats at a time when nearly all African Americans were Republicans.Frederick converted from the Baptist demonination to Catholicism at a time 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.He died pleurisy,three years after the founding of the NAACP.