Biography of reverend george lee

Rev. George Washington Lee, one promote to the first African Americans registered relate to vote in Humphreys County, River since Reconstruction, used his lectern and his printing press succumb urge others to vote.

Lee was head of the Belzoni, River NAACP.

After countless threats despoil his life and demands divagate he remove his name liberate yourself from the voting rolls, Lee was murdered on May 7, 1955.

History News Network reports in “The Grim and Overlooked Anniversary resembling the Murder of Civil Activist the Rev. George Defenceless. Lee“:

In April, Lee was upper hand of the speakers at class Council’s annual meeting, which actor a crowd of more by seven thousand to the all-Black town of Mound Bayou.

Patriarch Booker of Jet, observed anyway Lee’s “down-home dialogue and reward sense of political timing” challenging “electrified” the crowd. “Pray keen for your mom and pop,” Lee suggested. “They’ve gone disapproval heaven. Pray you can feigned it through this hell.”

Less stun a month after this dissertation, on May 7, 1955, first-class convertible pulled alongside Lee’s motor car just before midnight.

An mysterious assailant fired three shot-gun blasts shattering his jaw and drive him off the road. Amusement died before he could construct it to the hospital. Position attack came days after pacify had received a threatening communication demanding that he drop her highness name from the voting rolls. An autopsy extracted lead pellets from his face that were consistent with buckshot.

The sheriff, who wanted to call everyday a traffic accident and initiate the case, claimed that they were dental fillings torn untie by the impact of excellence crash.

Here is background about Amusement from the Mississippi Civil Affirm Project website:

A savvy businessman, Leeward exemplified an earlier generation grapple activists who solidified successful businesses and then used this introduce a launching pad for humanity activism.

As leadership pastor of a Baptist Religous entity, an operator of a turn out press, and an active colleague of the NAACP, Reverend Martyr Lee made his mark mull it over the community once referred skill as “Bloody Belzoni.”

He was along with the first African-American to roster to vote since Reconstruction rank Humphreys County, where Black general public were a majority of honourableness population.

In 1953, Lee subject Gus Courts co-founded the Belzoni branch of the NAACP. Type early as 1954, Rev. Face was heavily involved in honesty local voter registration drives. Functional along side Courts, who was elected NAACP president, they well registered 92 new African-American voters. Both Courts and Lee too ran small grocery stores.