By Mike Kinney
As a local pharmacist, he paid visits to clients recovering in local hospitals and helped them to nail down doctors appointments.
As a councilmember, he fought against racism and excessive force by members of the Richmond Police Department during the 1970s and 1980s, leading to significant change within the department.
They are among the many accomplishments for which James McMillan is being remembered in the wake of his passing on Thanksgiving Day.
McMillan, who served three four-year terms on the Richmond City Council in the 1980s and early 1990s, died in his home in the city’s Panhandle District on Thanksgiving morning, Nov. 29. He was 96.
McMillan owned McMillan Pharmacy at 3601 Cutting Blvd. at S. 36th Street from 1962 until 1995. Not just a pharmacy, it was a place for the local African American community to congregate for nearly three decades and to discuss the issues that were important to them.
Former Richmond Mayor Nat Bates, a longtime friend and political ally of McMillan, said McMillan’s Pharmacy was one of the first Black-owned businesses in Richmond. The pharmacy “was a hub of activity in the neighborhood,” where discussions about instances of police abuse of power helped bring the issue to the forefront, Bates added. At the time, a group in the RPD known as the Cowboys were described as targeting people of color in the community.
“That was what made him decide to run for the Richmond City Council,” Bates said, “to expose and take on the renegade police officers.”
Political advocacy
McMillan was in part known for being politically active in the local community.
“He was very instrumental for getting many local black politicians elected back in the day such as Lesa McIntosh, Richard Griffin, George Livingston, Lonnie Washington and myself, (among others),” Bates said.
John Ziesenhenne, a local businessman who also served on City Council, noted McMillan set up Richmond’s first police commission in the mid-1980s that helped to force out bad cops. The commission provided oversight that could help retire or terminate members of the Cowboys squad.
“When Jim was on the Council, he was detailed into what these officers had done and he investigated them with a fine-tooth comb,” Bates said.
McMillan’s advocacy, borne in part from his own experiences of being racially targeted by police, is credited with ushering in significant change within the RPD, which in the 2010s became a national example of community policing. In an opinion piece posted to Radio Free Richmond, McMillan said change really started happening in the wake of a successful lawsuit against the RPD in the mid-1980s.
“Since then we have made some great improvements in terms of numbers of black officers and in terms of positions within the department,” McMillan wrote.
But he warned that “race in America is an ongoing conversation.”
“There is always some new aspect, and it isn’t going to go away,” he said. “Dynamics have changed enough so that many people tolerate being around different races, but it has a long way to go. I just thank God that it isn’t like how it was.”
A great neighbor
Beyond his advocacy, McMillan was heralded as a great neighbor who also happened to be quite fashionable.
“He was always fashionably well-dressed,” said Vanessa Revels, whose family moved next door to McMillan when she was a teenager. “When he would come to our family functions, like my mother’s birthday he was always dressed as sharp as a tack.”
Revels described the councilmember as “very kind.”
“He called me Van and I called him Mr. Mac,” she said. “I felt very safe and protected. I viewed him as my dad and as a protector.”
Revels recalled how McMillan would make it a point to pick up copies of the Richmond Post and deliver it to neighbors, hoping to keep them informed on local issues.
“I remember my mother would be waiting for her copy being dropped off to our house,” she said.
McMillan’s Pharmacy today
The Standard ventured out to the old McMillan Pharmacy location, which is now the home of the church Iglesia Uncion Profetica. The pastor, Alexander Valente, pointed to a banner bearing the church’s name. He said behind the banner was the original McMillan’s Pharmacy sign.
Pastor Valente told this reporter to return in a few days so that they could fix up the sign so that we could take photos of the original.