From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)
McGee, Milton B.
Milton B. McGee was involved in a number of activities. He was a politician, a community leader, a slick talker, and he would sometimes not do the right thing. McGee was a newspaper man who started a number of unsuccessful newspapers in Missouri and one in Kentucky. In 1887, he was living in Kansas City, MO, and was the Republican president of the Young Men's Benevolent Association. The following year, he was also president of the Brotherhood of Railway Porters. He addressed the Adelphi Club to dissuade members from talk of the Negroes exodus to South America. McGee was also president of the Benjamin Harrison Republican Club in Kansas City [renamed the Harrison and Morton Club], and president and an organizer of the Bellene Republican Club.In April of 1889, McGee visited Kentucky in the interest of the colored people. He was editor of the Richmond Critic newspaper in Richmond, MO. In July of 1889, there was news that McGee was appointed a post office inspector in Kansas City, MO. In 1890, McGee started another newspaper in Kansas City with Dr. James E. Henderson. The newspaper was called Western Blade. The year 1891 was the beginning of public notice in the newspapers of McGee's more unsavory activities. In October, he was arrested in Kansas City for selling newspaper subscriptions to Negro World, where he no longer worked. McGee was keeping the money. There were several other warrants for his arrest.
In March of 1892, McGee was out of jail and had started yet another newspaper, The National Agitator. The paper was published in Sedalia, MO, with special departments for Springfield, Kansas City, and St. Louis. George Shulz from Springfield was the associate editor. It was a Democratic newspaper that included articles about the race problem and the imbalanced Republican relationship with African Americans. Milton B. McGee had become a Democrat. He traveled around Missouri and other states selling newspaper subscriptions. In December of 1892, McGee was arrested in Lancaster, OH, for selling newspaper subscriptions to a newspaper that no longer existed.
When he got out of jail in Ohio, McGee continued his support of the Democratic Party. He attended the 1893 National Negro Democratic Association Conference in Washington, D.C. He then came to Louisville, KY, for a fresh start. In 1894, Milton B. McGee was editor of The Blade, an African American Democratic newspaper in Louisville, KY. McGee married Lena Bullock in Louisville, KY, on June 26, 1894. Lena was underage and had just graduated from high school in Louisville. McGee was appointed Bullock's guardian, and the marriage bond was assured by Albert S. White, an African American attorney. Two years later, in 1896, Lena Bullock sued Milton B. McGee for divorce on the grounds of abandonment. The divorce was granted in October of 1898.
In spite of his marriage difficulties, Milton B. McGee continued his support for the Democratic Party. He organized the Negro Democratic Club in Georgetown, KY. In October of 1894, W. D. Johnson of the Kentucky Standard denounced the report published in The Morning Transcript, a Georgetown, KY, newspaper that stated Clifton Prewitt was a member of the Negro Democratic Club. Johnson claimed Prewitt was not a Democrat and the entire newspaper report was a fake. Johson's complaint was published as a letter to the editor of The Weekly Kentucky Leader in Lexington, KY.
In the spring of 1895, Milton B. McGee was the chairperson of the Louisville Division of the Campaign Committee of the National Negro Democratic Association. The national meeting was scheduled to meet in Louisville in March of 1895. The goal of the organization was to sway African Americans away from the Republican Party and McGee hoped to gain support for his political aspirations.
Milton B. McGee was running as a Democrat to become the Kentucky Legislator of the 5th District. William Claiborne Owens came to the 5th District to stump for McGee. It was a returned favor for McGee's efforts to get African Americans in the 5th District to vote for Owens (D) in the fall of 1894. William C. Owens was from Georgetown, KY. He was elected to the 54th U.S. Congress in 1895. He switched to the Republican Party in 1896. He was a major in the Spanish-American War, 1898. After the war, he moved to Louisville, KY.
Owen's influence did not help Milton B. McGee, who was unsuccessful in his bid for the Kentucky Legislature. McGee would return to Missouri where the newspapers referred to him as "the most noted negro democrat in the United States." It was said that McGee had bought a piece of land in Westport and intended to build a home. At this time, it is not known where Milton B. McGee was born, where he died, or where he is buried.
Sources: "Young Men's Benevolent Association," Kansas City Daily Journal, 12/28/1887, p.4; "City summary," The Kansas City Times, 03/18/1888, p.3; "Colored men organize for Harrison," The Kansas City Star, 07/12/1888, front page; "Some thirty colored men ...," The Kansas City Star, 09/14/1888, front page; "Mr. Milton B. McGee ...," The Lexington News (Missouri), 04/25/1889, p.3; "Milton B. McGee," The Sun (Fulton, MO), 07/01/1889, front page; "What the "Western Blade" says." The Kansas City Times, 06/08/1890, p.5; "Didn't go to Ohio," The Kansas City Times, 10/22/1891, p.3; "The National Agitator," The Sedalia Weekly Bazoo, 03/01/1892, p.4; "Milton B. McGee ...," Columbia Missouri Herald, 12/08/1892, front page; "Colored Democrats," The Courier-Journal, 08/25/1893, p.2; "Colored newspaper man married," The Courier-Journal, 06/27/1894, p.8; see Milton B. McGee and Lena Bullock in the Kentucky Marriage Records in Ancestry; "He is not a bolter: the Democratic Negro Organization mistake," The Weekly Kentucky Leader, 10/18/1894, p.2; "Negro Democrats," The Courier-Journal, 02/18/1895, p.6; "Milton B. McGee: the Colored Democrat has designs on the Kentucky Legislature," The Kentucky Leader, 03/16/1895, p.5; "Hon. Milton B. McGee ...," The Fulton Daily Sun (Missouri), 10/26/1895, p.2; "Court paragraphs," The Courier-Journal, 06/18/1896, p.8; "Decrees of divorce," The Courier-Journal, 10/23/1898, p.17.