When people visited St. Paul’s Ujamaa Place, CEO Chris Crutchfield told them that the magic to the organization was love.

Ujamaa Place, which provides housing, education and employment services to Black men ages 18 to 30, gave the men something they didn’t always have, said Michael Belton, interim president and CEO of Ujamaa Place.

Chris Crutchfield, CEO of Ujamaa Place and longtime attorney and advocate died Nov. 4 at the age of 54. (Ujamaa Place)

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

Crutchfield, of St. Paul, died Nov. 4 of an aortic dissection. He was 54.

Education, career

Born in 1970, Crutchfield grew up in St. Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood – where his family was one of the first Black households – and Minnetonka. He played baseball in high school and went on to attend Morehouse College where he studied political science and African American studies. He later received a law degree from the University of Minnesota and worked as a legal associate.

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

He also formed the Restorative Justice Task Force for the Summit University Planning Council, was director of Minnesota’s 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 state history.

Crutchfield was a founding member of the Capitol Heights Law Group and became deputy director of community relations for Ramsey County Community Corrections in 2006. And, he worked as an adjunct professor in media law and ethics at St. Cloud State University and taught litigation as an adjunct professor at Inver Hills Community College.

‘A real civil rights worker’

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

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

Crutchfield began working at Ujamaa Place in early 2023. Ujamaa means “familyhood” and “cooperative economics” in Swahili, according to the Ujamaa Place website. Crutchfield’s work in corrections gave him a view of the gaps in needed support, said friend Brooke Blakey.

“I know him going to Ujamaa was an opportunity for him to take it to the next level and see and support those men, especially Black men, that were falling into those gaps that corrections couldn’t fill, and so I think that’s what led him to take the position at Ujamaa and to really focus on helping and giving that second chance,” Blakey said.

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

He made justice accessible for others, said his friend Andrea Jepsen.

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

Avid fisherman, who loved sports

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

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

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

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

Related Articles

Obituary: Jay Alberio, longtime Woodbury police detective, devoted his retirement to finding Jodi Huisentruit

Family of 83-year-old St. Paul man killed in hit-and-run: ‘We will forgive you. … Please turn yourself in’

Rocker Paul Di’Anno, Iron Maiden’s original vocalist, dies at 66

Rick Nolan, former Minnesota congressman who represented two districts, dies at 80

Former Forest Lake band director and wife killed in Carver County crash