The Red-Hot Crucible - Part 1

On a sweltering July 9th day in 1902, the absolute titans of the national civil rights movement, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Booker T. Washington, descended on St. Paul. We look inside the House of Representatives chamber of the Old Minnesota State Capitol, where local legal pioneer Fredrick McGhee fought a high-stakes legislative battle for the political soul of Black America. Meanwhile, J.Q. Adams covered the event with his newspaper, the Appeal, a megaphone for black rights in the Midwest, which we covered in Episode 31. This is Part 1 of a two-part series uncovering how Minnesota became the unexpected tactical laboratory for national civil rights litigation.