A Man of Considerable Fortune
One of my readers bemoans the absence of stories about enterprising pioneer black lawyers. I share the reader’s lament. Earlier today, I was reading about how Black Lives Matter in the Classroom in Brooklyn teaches 4th graders Blackness is Oppression. Nothing else matters. My readers know better. Any thinking person free of dogma and slogan words would understand the strong strain of home ownership after the Civil War among some Black Americans, particularly pioneer black lawyers.
Why do some choose not to see what you and I have seen together this month? Why are young and impressionable 4th graders in Brooklyn not taught about pioneer Black lawyers? It is a national scandal in my opinion. Enough about misdirection in Brooklyn elementary schools.
Let’s live in reality. Let us remember the life of another pioneer black lawyer this evening.
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M.M. McLeod (1847 - 1895) was born free in Ohio. McLeod’s parents moved West for greater opportunity on the frontier like many Americans. Their son would grow up in St. Louis, Missouri before returning to Cincinnati . McLeod was a mulatto and literate.
Like his parents before him, McLeod moved in search of greater opportunity. He moved not to the West but down South to Mississippi. He arrived in 1871 and had the advantage of literacy behind him.
He found work as Chief Clerk for black sheriff W.H. Harney. McLeod excelled in the position and worked on making himself indispensable. His work beyond the call of duty paid off as he invented the duplicate tax receipt. This innovation is today now used in every collector’s office in the country. The idea was McLeod’s value added to the clerk’s office.
A clerk seized with the gift of intuition and vision will not go go unnoticed in any generation or time period. The Governor appointed McLeod to serve as Secretary of State for Mississippi for three weeks in 1873 (October to November).
Ambitious with a touch of genius, the next logical move was to become a lawyer. In 1875, McLeod was admitted to the Mississippi state bar. He practiced law in Jackson, the capital city, and developed a well-integrated stable of clients. His clients were black and white.
Prosperity and affluence came quickly to McLeod. People will pay for services rendered and valued added. Within a few years, he had built “a handsome residence in West Jackson.” Observers noted McLeod amassed “a considerable fortune.”
Why, oh, why are we thinking about reparations for American slavery? Excuse my slight digression.
Some cannot think of Black Americans as prosperous and secure. It is easier to perceive poverty and dysfunction as keeping it real. Curse these caricatures and stereotypes. McLeod encountered the same misperceptions as the Clarion Ledger commented on August 20, 1879 that McLeod “is in no sense a representative of the colored race.” Caricatures are so tired. Earlier today, I was communicating with a family member who resides on Martha’s Vineyard. She doesn’t need reparations for American slavery. She needs to be seen as she is, a European-appearing Black American woman who is an individual, not an avatar for her race but someone of comfort (blessed be her ancestors) living her life.
I’m sure McLeod felt the same way in life.
In 1884, McLeod returned to public life. He served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention. The voters elected him to the Mississippi state House of Representatives where McLeod served until 1886. At some point, he also served as a deputy in the office of the Internal Revenue Collector under Governor R.C. Powers.
Life was very, very good for M.M. McLeod. He married Caledonia, nicknamed Callie. Legal fees continued to roll in from clients of all races. McLeod was hitting his stride in life. One newspaper characterized McLeod as “the most prominent and intelligent colored citizen of the state” of Mississippi.
The 1890s
When Frederick Douglass passed away on February 20, 1895, the country was in shock. Black Americans and abolitionists of all colors felt the loss of a great soul. Down in Jackson, Mississippi, people looked to McLeod to give voice to the meaning of the moment. At a memorial service held on March 9, 1895, McLeod gave voice to the life of Frederick Douglass:
The Life of Douglass demonstrated the possibilities under our form of government. Douglass, like Lincoln and Grant and Garfield was a self-made man, but none of the them had traveled the distance Douglass did to reach the pinnacle of fame. He had started from the very lowest depths, and had accomplished a great and glorious work
Life is never promised to us which is why we should live every day to the fullest as McLeod did.
On December 4, 1895, McLeod dropped dead on the streets of Aberdeen. The sudden death of a great man shocked people. The colored public school was dismissed immediately out of respect. The papers remembered McLeod and his “lucrative law practice,” that he was “one of the most distinguished colored lawyers of the South…” He was 48 years old when he left this world.
8th grade students formed “The McLeod Reading Club” to honor McLeod’s memory.
Callie joined her husband in death in 1907. At the time of her passing, Callie was “one of the wealthiest Negro women of the South.”
Conclusion: When we teach little 4th graders about oppression and not the heights of black enterprise in the worst of times in a place like Mississippi, what are we doing as teachers and adults in the classrooms? I am so glad I grew up when I did and where I did. And I know others of my generation and place feel the same way.
When asked how could the black man come out from under the existing political oppression in Mississippi, M.M. McLeod replied “Well, there is but one way in my judgment, and that is by the accumulation of property and educating himself.”
Good evening!
M. M. McLeod (1847 - 1895)
To teach children the BLM BS should be consider abuse.
-Some cannot think of Black Americans as prosperous and secure. It is easier to perceive poverty and dysfunction as keeping it real. Curse these caricatures and stereotypes.
Every ethnic group in America is going through and has gone through tough times. Yet that is not their constant focus. With a focus on faith, family and education, anyone can make a great life for themselves. Your pioneer stories inspire and motivate me to continue what I'm doing with my family. We are not oppressed and if you feel you are, figure out a way to free yourself and stop listening to the lies being told. Black Americans have been through so much and yet here we are sharing our thoughts with others on Substack. Go figure...