He married Anna Lee Mason of Sparta, Illinois in 1900 and they had four daughters: Mildred, Edythe, Katherine, and Georgeanna.
Thrusting himself into the national spotlight as a civil rights activist working towards gains in equal access to quality neighborhoods, more modernly recognized as Fair Housing Archived 2017-04-19 at the Wayback Machine, the McMechen family, in May 1910, took up residence there by leasing the property from his partner Hawkins.
Despite constant threats, harassment, violence and repeated acts of vandalism perpetrated by some of their intolerant neighbors, which included forming a neighborhood improvement association, the McMechen family, and four others of African ancestry, refused to cower or leave their residences.
[1] McMechen's own words in a December 1910 New York Times Sunday Magazine article entitled, Baltimore Tries Drastic plan Of Race Segregation: "As for property deteriorating on account of our advent into that neighborhood, I know it cannot be so, because all of us are paying higher rentals than the white occupants who immediately preceded us, and there is no better criterion of value than the rent a property brings.
"As to the ordinance in question, it is my opinion as a lawyer that it is clearly unconstitutional, unjust and discriminating against the negro, although on its face it appears equally fair to white and black.
[3] Hawkins sued the city of Baltimore and won, and eventually in 1917 the Supreme Court ruled the Segregation Ordinance to be illegal.