Professor Henry W. McGee Jr.: In Memoriam

Henry W. “Hank” McGee, Jr. was a professor emeritus at Seattle University School of Law, where he became the institution’s first tenured professor of color in 1994 and taught until his retirement in 2015. A graduate of Northwestern University, DePaul University College of Law, and Columbia University School of Law, McGee served as a prosecutor and civil rights attorney, representing members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), including civil rights activist and scholar Angela Davis, during the 1960s. Before joining Seattle University, he taught at UCLA and directed its Center for Afro-American Studies. A Fulbright Scholar, McGee taught and conducted research internationally and published extensively on housing law, community development, land use, gentrification, and racial and economic justice. His contributions were recognized with numerous honors, including the Association of American Law Schools’ Clyde Ferguson Award. Outside academia, he was an accomplished violinist who performed with the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra and served on several Seattle civic and cultural boards.