As a child, she was exposed to art, craft, and museums by her adoptive mother, a schoolteacher named Annie Lee Jones.
The two married in 1969, and after Dr. Magee completed his residency in Philadelphia, the couple moved to Jackson, Mississippi, where they established careers and raised their two daughters, Kamili and Aliya.
[5] Looking back at that time, Magee recounted: "After I really became interested in quilting, I started looking for information about other African American quilters, and at first, the only references I could find highlighted us from the 'folk art' or 'outside artist' perspectives, and put forth all kinds of theories that stopped just barely short of saying that we were not capable of matching points and putting together intricate and 'well-made' quilts.
"[5] She quickly excelled at her craft and transitioned from traditional block patterns to more ambitious abstract and narrative designs recounting African-American history and culture.
From 2000 to 2004, Magee worked on a series of 12 quilts inspired by the song "Lift Every Voice and Sing" by James Weldon Johnson.
In response to the state of Mississippi voting to keep the Confederate battle cross in their state flag, she created Southern Heritage/Southern Shame in 2001, with layered images of the Confederate flag, bodies hanging from nooses, and the hood of a Ku Klux Klan robe.