Frederick McGhee
The short but full life of Frederick McGhee gave him the broadest national impact of any member of St. Peter Claver parish. He spent only 21 of his 51 years as a member of the Catholic Church, but left an indelible mark.
Born in Mississippi as a slave on October 28, 1861, he was educated at Knoxville College in Tennessee. He received his law degree and practiced briefly in Chicago, moving to St. Paul with his wife in 1889. Parish records show that he was baptized in the mission congregation which preceded St. Peter Claver parish on February 15, 1891. One writer attributes McGhee's conversion "partly in response to the forthright stand of Archbishop Ireland on behalf of African-Americans."
As an African-American lawyer, McGhee was a skilled practitioner as well as a powerful civil rights advocate. He was widely regarded as the leading criminal defense lawyer in the state. He devoted his organizational and rhetorical skills to the Niagara Movement, the seed from which grew the NAACP. In fact, he led its legal arm, and thus founded one of the most effective tools of the civil rights movement. When he was refused a seat as a delegate at the 1896 Republican National Convention, he switched his allegiance to the Democratic Party, becoming one of the first nationally prominent black Democrats.
As an African-American Catholic, McGhee devoted himself to his own parish as well as to the broader Church. He was one of the incorporators of the parish in 1892, and he and his wife sponsored many children and adults for baptism. Nationally, he served as a conscience and energizer for the lay leadership movement among black Catholics. Three months after his baptism he was already addressing the national Colored Catholic Congress in Chicago. He was featured prominently in the last three of the five national Congresses held during his lifetime. In a 1900 letter, he challenged a prominent organizer of the apostolate to black Catholics, noting that "the Catholic Church is looked upon by most non-Catholics of our race as distinctly white."
His funeral took place at St. Peter Claver Church four days after his death, which occurred on September 19, 1912. He was buried by Father Stephen Theobald, an African-American priest whose studies, ordination and pastorate were all promoted by McGhee and his hero, Archbishop John Ireland.