Aid
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Title: Wade H. McCree, Jr. Collection Genre: Papers, Dates: 1937-1987 (Predominantly, 1954-1987) Size : 75 linear feet ID #: 822 OCLC:
©Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor &
Urban Affairs HEFA.01b.update |
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Subjects Ø
Transfer |
The
papers of Wade H. McCree, Jr. were placed in the Archives of Labor and Urban
Affairs between 1977 and 1989 by Judge McCree and his wife, Dores McCrary
McCree, and were opened for research in July of 1998.
Wade
Hampton McCree, Jr. was born in Des Moines on July 3, 1920, the second child of
the first black proprietors of a pharmacy in the state of Iowa. In the 1920s, his father went to work
for the federal government as a narcotics inspector. His assignments took the family first to Hilo, Hawaii, then to
Chicago, and finally to Boston, where Wade, Jr. attended Boston Latin School,
America’s oldest public school.
He worked his way through Fisk University, his parents’ alma
mater, but his studies at Harvard Law School, which he had entered on
scholarship after graduating from Fisk in 1941, were interrupted by World War
II. During the war he served with
the 92nd Infantry Division in Italy and after his discharge as a captain in
1946, he married Dores McCrary, a library science student at Simmons College in
Boston and a native of Ecorse, Michigan.
Two years later he earned his law degree and moved his family to Detroit
to join the firm of Harold E. Bledsoe and Hobart Taylor.
In 1952,
Wade McCree was appointed by Michigan Governor G. Mennen Williams to the
state’s Workmen’s Compensation Commission and in 1954 to a vacancy
on the Wayne County Circuit Court.
He won election to the unexpired term in 1955, the first African
American elected to a court of record in Michigan, and to a full six-year term
in 1959. In 1961 President Kennedy
appointed Judge McCree to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of
Michigan, where he served until his appointment in 1966 to the U.S. Sixth
Circuit Court of Appeals. He
resigned from that court in 1977 to accept appointment as U.S. Solicitor
General in the Carter administration.
As an
appeals court judge, McCree took part in a number of school desegregation cases
in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, the states in his circuit, and
issued important opinions in Stifel v. Hopkins (1973), Environmental Defense
Fund v. Tennessee Valley Authority (1972) and U.S. v. Griffin (1970). As the government’s lawyer, he
argued a number of significant cases before the Supreme Court, most notably the
Bakke reverse discrimination lawsuit against the University of California at
Davis. In 1981 he accepted
appointment as Lewis M. Simes Professor of Law at the University of Michigan,
where he taught until his death on August 30, 1987. During these years he also consulted on various cases and
served as Special Master for the U.S. Supreme Court in cases in which it
exercised original jurisdiction.
Judge
McCree’s professional, educational, civic and charitable activities were
legion. To name a few: He was a Trustee of Fisk University and
a Harvard University Overseer, Chairman and co-founder of the Higher Education
Opportunities Committee for financially-disadvantaged Michigan high school
students, a founding Trustee of the Friends School in Detroit, a founding
member of the UAW Public Review Board, Vice Moderator of the Unitarian
Universalist Association, Board member of the Community Health Association of
Detroit, founding member of the Federal Judicial Center Board, member of the
American Bar Association Advisory Council on Appellate Justice, Fellow of the
American Bar Foundation and Director of the American Judicature Society. He was the recipient of numerous honors
and awards, including the Fordham-Stein Award for his “talent, professionalism
and nobility of spirit” and honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Harvard,
the University of Pennsylvania and Howard University, among many others.
The Wade
H. McCree, Jr. Collection contains his personal and professional
correspondence, speeches and writings, voluminous case files, including his
notes and opinions, meeting minutes, publications and other material relating
to Judge McCree’s service on the bench and as the federal
government’s chief lawyer as well as his work on professional committees
and his involvement with a wide range of civic and charitable organizations.
Afro-American
judges
Afro-American
law students
Afro-American
lawyers
Afro-American
Unitarian Universalists
Afro-Americans--Education--Michigan--Detroit
Appellate
procedure--United States
Bakke,
Allan Paul--Trials, litigation, etc.
Bradley,
et al. v. Milliken
Carter,
Billy
Chavis,
et al. v. North Carolina (Wilmington 10)
Court
administration--United States
Davis et
al. v. School District of the City of Pontiac (Michigan)
Federal
Judicial Center
Fisk
University
Free
press and fair trial--United States
Harris v.
McRae, et al.
Harvard
University Afro-American Studies Department
Higher
Education Opportunities Committee
Kelley,
et al. v. Nashville and Davidson County Board of Education
Mapp, et
al. v. Chattanooga Board of Education
Massachusetts
v. Feeney
National
Bar Association
Newburg
Area Council, et al. v. Board of Education of Jefferson County (Kentucky)
Nixon v.
GSA (Nixon tapes)
Race
relations--United States
Reverse
discrimination--Law and legislation--United States
School
integration--Law and legislation--United States
United
States. Circuit Court (6th Circuit)
United
States. District Court (Michigan: Eastern District)
United
States. Solicitor General
United
States. Supreme Court
U.S. v. Feodor Fedorenko
Alexander,
Raymond Pace
Baker,
Oscar and James
Bell,
Griffin
Bok,
Derek C.
Brown,
Bailey
Burger,
Warren E.
Buttenwieser,
Benjamin
Coleman,
William T., Jr.
Diggs,
Charles C., Jr.
Edwards,
George C., Jr.
Edwards,
Harry T.
Ford,
Geraldine Bledsoe
Gilmore,
Horace
Gould,
William B. IV
Kaplan,
Kivie
Kelman,
Maurice
Kennedy,
Cornelia
Lawson,
James R.
Levin,
Theodore
Lively,
Pierce
McAllister,
Thomas
Meador,
Daniel
Neef,
Arthur
Norris,
Harold
Peck,
John W.
Phillips,
Harry T.
Reed, A.
Lachlan
Richardson,
Scovel
Smith,
Otis M.
Tate,
Albert, Jr.
Vanderbilt,
Helen C.
Webster,
William H.
Weick,
Paul
Williams,
G. Mennen
Several
photographs, Judge McCree’s Goodfellows badge, a videotape of his 1985
Northern Michigan University commencement address and audio tapes of a
symposium on the Bakke case in which he participated have been placed in the
Archives Audiovisual Collection. A
3-volume work by Harold Norris, Some Reflections on Law, Lawyers, and the
Bill of Rights,
has been transferred to the Archives Library.
Contents
75 storage boxes
Series
I, Wayne County
Circuit Court, 1954-1959, Box 1, Series I
Series
II, U.S. District
Court, Eastern District of Michigan, 1960-1968, Boxes 1-6, Series II,
Series
III, U.S. Sixth
Circuit Court of Appeals, 1965-1978, Boxes 7-23, Series III,
Series
IV, U.S.
Solicitor General’s Office, 1975-1981, Boxes 24-34, Series IV,
Series
V, Special
Master/Consulting, 1981-1987, Boxes 35-40, Series V, VI
Series
VI,
Professional/Civic/Charitable Organizations, 1952-1987, Boxes 41-51, Series V, VI
Series
VII, Subject
Files, 1937-1986, Boxes 52-54, p. 35
Series
includes files related to his tenure as a University of Michigan law professor.
Series VII,
VII, IX,
Series
VIII,
Correspondence, 1953-1987, Boxes 54-63,
Official
correspondence is in Series I-IV. Series VII,
VII, IX,
Series
IX,
Speeches/Articles, 1954-1987, Boxes 63-68, p. 39
In
addition to Judge McCree’s speeches and articles, series includes
limericks he wrote, magazine profiles and newspaper clippings about him,
honorary degrees and other awards he
received, memorial tributes and obituaries. Series VII,
VII, IX,
Series
X, Invitations
Accepted, 1952-1987, Boxes 68-71, p. 50
Series
includes correspondence, programs, etc. related to speaking engagements, but
not texts of speeches. Series X, XI
Series
XI, Appointment
Calendars, 1955-1977, Boxes 71-75, p. 54
Series
includes correspondence, programs, etc. related to the events attended. Series X, XI
Index
Series I, Series II, Series III, Series IV, Series V, VI, Series VII, VII, IX, Series X, XI Index Anchor
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PLEASE
NOTE: Folders are computer-arranged
alphabetically within each series in this finding aid, but may actually be
dispersed throughout several boxes in the collection. Note carefully the box number for each folder heading.
1-8
thru 9 Appointment;
congratulations, 1954
1-16 Clippings, 1954-59
1-15 Election campaign, 1959
1-10 Election campaign;
clippings, 1955
1-13
thru 14 Election
campaign; corres., 1954-55
1-12 Election campaign;
misc., 1954-55
1-11 Election campaign;
publicity, 1955
1-7 Election;
congratulations, 1959
1-6 Election;
contributions, 1959
1-1
thru 5 Judges'
meetings and reports, 1954-58