St. Petersburg leaders recall legacy of Fred G. Minnis, ‘the dean of Black attorneys’

When attorney Fred G. Minnis Sr. opened his St. Petersburg law firm in 1956, he was the first Black lawyer to practice full time in Pinellas County.

Minnis had an impressive resume: He had four degrees, served as one of the original Black officers at the Tuskegee Army Air Base in Alabama and had taught at Florida A&M University.

“I chose St. Petersburg because it is one of the fastest-growing cities in Florida and there exists a dire need for a full-time practitioner,” he told the then-St. Petersburg Times in 1956.

During his 35 years in the Sunshine City, Minnis would represent members of the local civil rights movement, connect students to his alma mater and mentor future leaders such as Florida state senator Darryl Rouson and James Sanderlin, another leading civil rights attorney and Pinellas County’s first Black judge. He came to be known as the “grandfather” or “dean” of Black attorneys in Pinellas.

Minnis died of cancer in 1991 but his legacy continues today. The Pinellas law library was named after him in 2021 and a local Bar association also carries his name. He is remembered as a both a trailblazer in Pinellas County and a down-to-earth, approachable pillar of the community.

“He was a passionate man, very modest and humble in his own right,” said Rouson, who met Minnis as a young attorney and later became Pinellas County’s first Black prosecutor.

Legal work

Minnis was raised in Miami, according to his grandson, Jason Minnis.

For college, Fred Minnis made his way to Washington, D.C., where he graduated from Howard University with a bachelor’s degree in 1932 and a master’s in 1934, both in political science, according to Tampa Bay Times archives. Soon after earning his master’s, Minnis joined the military, serving in the Army and the Army Air Forces during World War II.

Fred G. Minnis Sr. served in the military during World War II. [ Courtesy of Jason Minnis ]

In 1950, Minnis earned a law degree from Howard and later, a master’s of law degree from Georgetown University, according to his Times’ obituary. According to family members, Minnis had struggled to pay for law school at Howard, and professors had taken up a collection to help him afford schooling.

His wife, Frankie Minnis, was from Bradenton and wanted to move back to Florida, so he opened a law firm there, before later moving to St. Petersburg, according to family members. Frankie Minnis was a well-known educator, eventually serving as the dean at Bay Point Middle School. Fred and Frankie Minnis had two sons, Fred Jr. and Charles.

From his law firm on 22nd Street South, Fred Minnis, Sr. practiced everything from criminal defense law to family and civil law, providing legal aid in an underserved community.

“Some people would come in, and they didn’t have money,” Charles Minnis said. “But they would bring him a chicken dinner.”

Fred G. Minnis, Sr., shown in a 1976 photo, was the first Black lawyer to establish a full-time practice in Pinellas County. [ NORMAN ZEISLOFT | Times files ]

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An active member of the local civil rights movement, Minnis represented the NAACP and its youth council, according to the Weekly Challenger.

Minnis was one of the original members of the Community Alliance — an interracial group focused on addressing racial inequities in St. Petersburg, following a 1968 strike in which sanitation workers, all of whom were Black except one, demanded better conditions.

Minnis helped represent students who conducted sit-ins at the Webb’s City lunch counter and took on a case to desegregate county golf courses, according to his obituary. Minnis also represented 10 Black students who were fined after demonstrating at a segregated theater and worked alongside other prominent Black attorneys like his law firm partner, I. W. “Ike” Williams, and Sanderlin.

“In the community, when we think about that era, we can’t think of it or any of the progress that we made without thinking of Fred Minnis and those other attorneys,” said Gwendolyn Reese, president of the African American Heritage Association.

Legacy

Beyond his legal work, Minnis was known for his passion for his alma mater, helping send more than 500 students to Howard University.

Lou Brown Jr., who owns a realty company in St. Petersburg, was one of them. Brown’s father was friends with Minnis and both men were a part of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. Brown said that knowing Minnis helped him form connections at Howard.

“Once somebody knew that you knew him or that he was looking out for you, opportunities just opened up,” Brown said.

In 2021, Pinellas County commissioners voted unanimously to rename the county’s law library after Minnis. At the library’s dedication ceremony, Commissioner René Flowers recalled how Minnis hired her one summer to help her afford to attend Howard.

“All he asked was I did the very best that I could,” Flowers recalled at the ceremony. “He didn’t say ‘Make straight A’s.” He just said ‘Study hard and learn everything you that you can possibly get from this historic university. Come home and give back.’”

Pinellas County Sheriff’s deputy Penny Vaughan tends to her duty at the entrance to the Old Pinellas Courthouse, which houses the Fred G. Minnis Law Library on a recent day in downtown Clearwater. The Pinellas Law Library was dedicated to Minnis in 2021. [ DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times ]

The Fred G. Minnis Bar Association, which is the “only predominately African-American voluntary bar association in Pinellas,” according to its website, is also named for the attorney. Members said they help to carry on Minnis’ legacy by focusing on civil rights, giving back to the community and providing mentorship.

Antoine Daniels, a member at large in the bar association, said growing up in St. Petersburg, he doesn’t remember meeting a Black attorney until he was in high school or college. Daniels said speaking to kids is an important part of the group’s work.

“It should be that when they see an attorney, they see themselves,” he said. “Because I’m from south St. Pete, so if I can do it, you can do it.”

Fred Minnis Sr., right, with his son, Charles Minnis, left, and grandson, Jason Minnis. [ Courtesy of Jason Minnis ]

Jason Minnis, Fred Minnis’ grandson, also grew up in St. Petersburg and spent some of his formative childhood years with his grandfather. But it wasn’t until he was older that he realized the impact his grandfather had. Civil rights leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers made “the ultimate sacrifice,” Jason Minnis said, but local leaders also played an important role.

“I feel like it’s people like my grandfather, on the local level, who were doing the work before the cameras came in,” Jason Minnis, 41, said. “Those are kind of like the unsung heroes of the civil rights movement.”

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