People St. When Paul’s visited Ujamaa Place, CEO Chris Crutchfield told them the magic of the organization is love.

Ujamaa Place, which provides housing, education and employment services to black men ages 18 to 30, gives men something they haven’t always had, said Michael Belton, interim president and CEO of Ujamaa Place.

“And when they come to Ujamaa Place, he said, we treat them with a high degree of respect and often provide them with the brotherly love that they can’t get and reach anywhere else, and that’s the magic sauce of Ujamaa Place. So he was a very inspirational leader and a visionary as well,” Belton said.

St. Crutchfield, of St. Paul, died of aortic dissection on Nov. 4. He was 54 years old.

education, career

Born in 1970, Crutchfield came to St. Louis, where his family was one of the first black families. He grew up in St. Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood and in Minnetonka. He played baseball in high school and attended Morehouse College, where he studied political science and African American studies. He later earned a law degree from the University of Minnesota and worked as a law associate.

At different points in his career, Crutchfield served as a research assistant at the University of Minnesota Law School’s Institute on Race and Poverty, a multicultural education specialist at the Wilder Foundation, and a board member of Osprey Wilds (then the Northern Forest Audubon Center). and Friends of the Mississippi River.

He also founded the Restorative Justice Task Force for the Summit University Planning Council, served as director of the Minnesota Underground Railroad program, and was named a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow in 2001. Crutchfield also served as lead counsel on one of the largest gender-based discrimination settlements. in the history of the state.

Crutchfield was a founding member of the Capitol Heights Law Group and in 2006 became deputy director of community relations for the Ramsey County Community Corrections Department. Adjunct professor at Inver Hills Community College.

‘A true civil rights worker’

Crutchfield’s stepfather, Robert Mitsch, said Crutchfield had a certain genius for generating interest in the projects he was involved in, especially Ujamaa Place.

Chris Crutchfield’s father, Dr. “He was a true civil rights worker in many ways,” Charles Crutchfield Sr. said.

Crutchfield began working at Ujamaa Place in early 2023. Ujamaa means “family unity” and “cooperative economy” in Swahili. Ujamaa Place website. Friend Brooke Blakey said Crutchfield’s work in corrections gave her insight into the gaps in needed support.

“I know that going to Ujamaa was an opportunity for him to take it to the next level and see and support men, especially Black men, who fall into the gaps that corrections can’t fill, and I think that’s what led to this.” “I want him to take his position at Ujamaa and really focus on helping and giving second chances,” Blakey said.

Crutchfield, who is in his second year leading Ujamaa Place, has an uncanny love for what is right, his father said. Belton said one of Crutchfield’s accomplishments was helping make it possible for Ujamaa Place to have its own property. The organization is scheduled to move into its own office and program space in the Rondo area next month.

Her friend Andrea Jepsen said she made justice accessible to others.

“And if we want to honor Chris, the most important thing we can do is continue Ujamaa’s work, and that’s hard because he was such an enthusiastic ringleader. He was a ‘yes’ man. And when I said ‘yes’, if he was good, he did everything he could to make it possible,” Jepsen said.

Avid fisherman who loves sports

Crutchfield was also an avid fisherman and even enjoyed reading about it and watching it on television, Crutchfield Sr. said. Crutchfield’s favorite lakes were Lake of the Woods and Lake Minnetonka, and he often invited others to the family cabin to fish with him.

He also enjoyed grilling and playing sports, especially baseball, and participated in many of his five children’s extracurricular activities. Friends and family described him as a generous and kind family man with a strong sense of humor.

Crutchfield was preceded in death by his mother, Dr. Susan Ellis Crutchfield and her brother, Dr. Charles Crutchfield III is dead. Crutchfield is survived by his wife, Thu-Mai Ho-Kim, and their five children.

Services will be on Saturday, November 16, at 1 p.m. in St. Paul, 1265 Snelling Ave. It will be held at the North End Event Center on N. and will be open to the public.