He never stopped fighting. From his service as a Tuskegee Airman, to his law degree at Yale and his eventual move to Detroit where he earned the title “the black defender,” Henry drew the line of justice in the sand and challenged anyone who stepped over the mark. His younger colleague, Attorney Godfrey Dillard, who considered Henry to be his mentor and “the father I never had,” told me that Henry was a formidable defender who would both “weep and rage” in the courtroom. Dillard and Henry won the University of Michigan affirmative action U.S. Supreme Court case (Gratz v. Bollinger) in 2003. His antics and social activism went far beyond the courtroom. Henry, his brother Richard, and pastor Robert Cleage were the drivers behind the Walk for Freedom on June 23, 1963. It preceded the famous August 26, 1963 March on Washington. The Walk for Freedom was the first mass demonstration for civil rights on the streets of the United States. On this occasion, before an estimated crowd of 125,000-200,000, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the precursor to the “I Have a Dream” speech. Henry recorded all the speeches and gave the tape to Motown’s Berry Gordy. Henry became a noted black-nationalist and separatist. He died on April 9, 2006. Five days after his death, Pan-African Newswire credited Henry with helping to lay the groundwork for the Black Power movement. He and his brother Richard formed the Republic of New Africa (RNA). They sought financial reparations from the U.S. government and the complete economic and political control of five southern states (see Paul Lee’s “Firing Line with W.F. Buckley” video on You Tube). Henry and his brother acquired the African names of Gaidi Obadele and Imari Obadele, respectively. A shoot-out between the RNA and police in 1969 outside the Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit resulted in the death of an officer. This mess was more than Henry could handle. He states in an April 18, 1982 interview with the Detroit Free Press that he knew “spiritual change had to come.”
While continuing to practice law, at the age of 64 he completed his seminary degree at Ashland Theological School in Ohio and then served the Christ Presbyterian Church in Detroit for nearly twenty years. The Rev. Milton Henry, Esq. died on April 6, 2006. Henry’s family proudly acknowledged his close friendship with Malcolm X. He was pallbearer at Malcolm’s funeral. The family has postcards Malcolm sent to Henry. Two years prior to Henry’s graduation, another Milton, a history major, arrived at Lincoln. According to his 1945 classmates, Milton A. Galamison “came and saw and took Lincoln by storm.” They described him as an “apostle of ‘spiritual pugnacity’ and ‘militant determination’…gifted, articulate…luminous.” He challenged his classmates during his 1947 Lincoln Seminary commencement speech to be “adamant about your pronouncements against individual and collective social sins.” This outspoken orator was soon to become the pastor of the prestigious Siloam Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, New York. He was just 25 years old.