McCants Stewart (July 11, 1877April 14, 1919) was an American lawyer. Born to a prominent attorney in New York, Stewart studied law in Minnesota and became the first African American lawyer in the state of Oregon. His lack of financial success in Oregon led him to eventually move to San Francisco, where failing vision led him to commit suicide. Living in the era of Plessy v. Ferguson and "separate but equal" doctrine, his life was said to "reflect an unyielding commitment to the principle of justice for all powerless people in the northwest."
Biography
Early years
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Stewart was the eldest son of T. McCants Stewart (1853–1923), a noted black lawyer, civil rights leader and confidant of Booker T. Washington, whose career took him from South Carolina to New York City, Hawaii, London to serving as an Associate Justice of the Liberian Supreme Court, and Charlotte L. Harris Stewart, herself a graduate of Wilberforce University. His father's friendship with Washington began before the latter rose to national prominence with the 1895 Atlanta Compromise speech, and the elder Stewart embraced Washington's principles of thrift, self-help and moral reform, instilling those values on his three children at an early age. His brother, Gilchrist, would also become and attorney and his sister, Carlotta Stewart Lai, would help develop Hawaii's public education system. Stewart attended public schools in New York.
At age sixteen, and at their father's request, Stewart and his brother enrolled at Washington's Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in 1893. In its twelfth year, the black college stressed industrial education with strong principles of self-reliance in a strict environment. Stewart did not immediately accept the school's rigid structure, and rebelled in ways that brought the increasing displeasure of Washington. The conflict came to a head in July 1894, as the school council voted to expel Stewart from the institution. In October 1894, and with Margaret Murray Washington's intervention, he was readmitted. Back at school, he studied piano and voice, but his main interest became debate, where he became known for his considerable skill. He graduated in 1896.
Immediately after finishing at Tuskegee, Stewart moved to New York and enrolled at New York University, where he earned a law certificate in 1896 and worked as a legal assistant in his father's law office. A strong follower of Washington's principles, Stewart's father operated his office and his business relationship with his son under strict guidelines. He required that his son sign a contract which specified his employment and compensation in detail, noting that "my intention is to pay you $3 per week to cover your fare, lunches; allow you 5% of all my fees; at 21, I shall make you Notary Public and put your name on the door."
Minnesota
After a year of working under his father, Stewart grew tired of the strict arrangement and moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota to attend the University of Minnesota Law School. His reason for choosing a northern school in a state with a small black population was never revealed, however the change in environment gave Stewart a new sense of purpose and maturity. Unlike his years at Tuskegee, he was a model graduate student in Minnesota: he excelled academically, wrote from the school newspaper and was an active member of a literary society. He again participated in a debate society, and was elected secretary of the senior class and sheriff of the moot court, officiating all moot court sessions at the school. During his senior year, his fellow Tuskegee alumnus and University of Minnesota Law student Jay Moses Griffin recruited him to work as business manager of a local newspaper, the Twin-City American. He later served in the same position for the Afro-American Advance, becoming a visible figure in the black community.
During his time at the Law School, Stewart challenged discrimination from a Minneapolis restaurant that refused to serve him a meal because of his race. Several other patrons observed the incident and left their names with Stewart, who filed an administrative complaint with the Minneapolis City Attorney's Office under the recently passed 1897 state civil rights law. After an investigation, the office filed the first prosecution under the law, charging the owner with violating Stewart's civil rights. The owner had previously served black patrons, but once their numbers had risen his white customers dropped off; once he made objections to the black patrons, they also left him. The trial was well attended, and the jury needed only fifteen minutes of deliberation to convict the owner on the charges.