Nathan K. McGill
Nathan McGill was born on this date in 1888. He was a Black lawyer and businessman.
Born in Quincy, FL., Nathan Kellogg McGill was the son of Nathan and Agnes (Zeigler) McGill. He graduated from Cookman Institute in 1909, Boston University in 1912, and received his L.L.B. from Boston University in 1912. McGill began practicing law in 1912 and started his law practice in Jacksonville in 1913. McGill was the publisher of the Florida Sentinel in Jacksonville from 1916 to 1920.
Soon after, he married Idalee P. Thornton, but they were divorced in 1917. His second marriage was to Beatrice H. Stiles in 1933. McGill had three children: Nathan Kellogg, Jr., Simuel Decatur II, his first wife, and Winston Beecher, his second wife.
In 1925, he came to Chicago to assume the duties of general counsel and secretary with the Abbott Publishing Company. He was Assistant State's Attorney for Cook County from 1925 to 1926 and Assistant Illinois Attorney General from 1929 to 1933.
In 1930, McGill became the first Black appointee to the Chicago Library Board, where he remained for six years. He also owned McGill and Son's Real Estate from 1934 to 1935. McGill owned, edited, and published the Metropolitan News, a 16-page newspaper. McGill was also a member of the Superior Court of Illinois and Florida bench. He was a member of the Chicago Reconstruction Administration. Nathan McGill died in Chicago on May 7, 1946.
"Who's Who in Colored America":
A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Persons of African Descent in America. 1938, 1939, 1940 Fifth Edition
(Thomas Yenser, Editor and Publisher, Brooklyn, NY)
