The Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers (MABL) held its annual scholarship Gala dinner Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010. For the last several years, MABL has honored the memory of William E. (Billy) McGee by awarding a scholarship to a deserving minority law student. McGee was one of the MABL founders and was Chief Hennepin County Public Defender at the time of his death 10 years ago, at age 42. This year, MABL took a few extra minutes to remember Billy McGee, as the Gala fell on the 10th anniversary of his passing—November 13, 2000. McGee was a strong advocate for human rights and devoted much of his career to representing the poor. He was the first African American to serve as Chief Public Defender for any district in the state of Minnesota. During his career he also served as a Hennepin County prosecutor, a role that he described as being a “minister of justice”, and he served as Executive Director of the Legal Rights Center. He received many community and professional awards including the 1992 Hennepin County Bar Association Pro Bono award. After his death he was honored with MABL’s Profiles in Courage award.
In 1998, after McGee had been appointed Chief Public Defender in Hennepin County, the US State Department sent him to Ethiopia and Kenya to give presentations on criminal justice and our public defender system. McGee had always seen himself as a child of Africa, but had never traveled to Africa before. This trip was one of the highlights of his life. Separately, McGee’s wife, Rose McGee, had two opportunities to visit Ghana, in 1997 and 1999. Through his and Rose’s trips, McGee became connected with his African roots during the last three years of his life.
In 1998, Al McFarlane hosted a businessman and member of Parliament from Ghana, Kojo Yankah. He later told Rose that this gentleman looked just like McGee. When Rose was in Ghana in 1999, she attended Panfest, a cultural celebration for the African Diaspora. While there she met Kojo Yankah, as he was a director of the Pan-African festival. Upon returning home, Rose told her husband that McFarlane had been right. She had met his twin, and McGee’s ancestors had definitely been from Ghana!
In May 2000, Yankah returned to Minneapolis, this time for several meetings and events for Books For Africa, a St. Paul-based non-profit organization. During this visit Yankah stayed in the home of Books For Africa board member Lane Ayres who was a lawyer friend of Billy’s. One evening Billy and Rose attended a Books For Africa dinner with Kojo Yankah, where the photo accompanying this article was taken.
At the Gala it was announced that in honor of the 10th anniversary of the passing of Billy McGee, MABL had partnered with Books For Africa, Thomson Reuters and the Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi Foundation to send law and human rights books to Ghana. Books For Africa is sending a container of over 20,000 primary and secondary school books to be distributed to several schools in central Ghana. Also in that container Thomson Reuters will donate new latest edition West law and human rights books for the law school at Kwame Nkrumah University in Kumasi Ghana, and for their leading human rights program.
Books For Africa is the world’s largest shipper of school and library books to the continent of Africa, sending almost 2 million books to 31 African countries last year. Thomson Reuters is the world’s largest publisher of law books and has partnered with Books For Africa. Together they are sending new core law libraries to law schools, bar associations and human rights organizations across Africa. This Thomson Reuters program is led by their Vice President for Government Affairs and Community Relations, Sharon Sayles-Belton. The Robins Kaplan Miller and Ciresi law firm is a major supporter of the BFA Jack Mason Law & Democracy Initiative and its donation covers the shipping costs of the West law books being sent to Ghana in Billy’s memory.
The other scholarship MABL awarded at their Gala was a legal internship in the office of Chief Judge Michael Davis. Davis serves on the advisory board of the BFA Jack Mason Law & Democracy Initiative.
For more information: www.booksforafrica.org/law
