A historic life ends
Of the St. Louis American
The Honorable Theodore McMillian, the first African American to sit on the benches of the St. Louis City Circuit Court, 22nd Judicial District; the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District; and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, died Wednesday at the age of 86.
McMillian, when appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1978, became the first African American appointed to the federal bench in the seven states of the Eighth Circuit.
McMillian was born in 1919 at 901 South 14th Street, and he attended St. Louis Public Schools. He was a 1936 graduate of Vashon High School, where he was class president and a member of the National Honor Society.
He earned his undergraduate degree in 1941 from Lincoln University in Jefferson City, but World War II interrupted his education. He was a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
He graduated from Saint Louis University Law School in 1949, working his way through school as a janitor at night.
He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, graduated first in his class and was the first African American named to Alpha Sigma Nu, a Jesuit National Honor Society.
After graduating from law school, McMillian began his professional career by founding his own law firm, Lynch and McMillian.
From 1953 to 1956, he served as assistant circuit attorney for the city of St. Louis in the office of the Honorable Edward L. Dowd.
His historic firsts as a judge began in 1956, when he was appointed by Gov. Phil Donnelly to the St. Louis Circuit Court.
With that appointment, he became the first African American appointed to the Missouri Circuit Court. Judge McMillian sat on the Juvenile Court where he and his colleague, the late Judge Noah Weinstein, were the first Juvenile Court judges to allow blind persons and single persons to adopt children.
In 1972, under the non-partisan court plan, Judge McMillian was appointed to the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District of Missouri (Eastern Division) by Gov. Warren E. Hearnes, where he served until 1978. Judge McMillian became the first African American appointed to that court.
In a 1999 interview with the American, McMillian said he used the trials and tribulations he faced as a pioneering law student and jurists as inspiration.
“One thing you have to keep in mind is not to get too bitter or too angry. You may not like it, but when you become angry and you become bitter, you begin to kick. It’s like walking. You lose a step. As President John F. Kennedy said, ‘Some people see things as they are and say, why? Many people see things as they ought to be and say, why not?’”
Judge McMillian was active in a host of professional and civic activities. His professional associations included the American Judicature Society, Missouri Bar Association, St. Louis Lawyers’ Association and the National Bar Association. He served on the Advisory Board for National Legal Aid and the Executive Board of the St. Louis Crime Commission.
Judge McMillian also served as an Associate Professor at the University of Missouri beginning in 1970.
Judge McMillian was recipient of numerous honors and awards, including being named Lifetime Achiever during the 1997 Salute To Excellence in Education Scholarship and Awards Banquet.
Other awards include the Herbert Harley Award from the American Judicature Society, Foundation Award from the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, and Hall of Fame Award from the National Bar Association.
