George Washington Lee
George Washington Lee was a prominent African American figure born on January 4, 1894, in Indianola, Mississippi. He grew up in a challenging environment, as his parents separated shortly after his birth, but his mother worked hard to improve their circumstances by relocating to the city. Lee was an avid reader and excelled in school, eventually working various jobs to fund his education at Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College. He served in World War I, where he gained recognition for his bravery and was awarded the French Croix de Guerre.
After the war, Lee built a successful career in the business sector, rising to vice president of the Mississippi Life Insurance Company. He was a trailblazer in advocating for African American self-determination and financial independence, believing that hard work within the community could lead to greater respect and progress than dependence on integration efforts. Lee played a significant role in promoting Beale Street in Memphis as a thriving commercial center and is known for his literary contributions that showcased the lives of African Americans, blending the experiences of middle-class individuals with those from less privileged backgrounds. He was honored for his community service and died on August 1, 1976, leaving a legacy that continues to be recognized today, including a street named in his honor in Memphis.
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George Washington Lee
Writer
- Born: January 4, 1894
- Birthplace: Indianola, Mississippi
- Died: August 1, 1976
Biography
George Washington Lee was born on January 4, 1894, near Indianola, Mississippi, to Reverend George Lee and Hattie Lee, who separated shortly after his birth.His mother was the daughter of house servants on a cotton plantation. She moved her children to the city to spare them from lives as sharecroppers.
Young Lee was an inveterate reader, consuming all the Buffalo Bill and Horatio Alger books he could find, and he did well in the public schools. He began saving for college by getting odd jobs as a houseboy, grocery boy, dray driver, and cotton planter and picker. From 1912 until 1917, he worked as a bellhop at an exclusive hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, to help pay his way through Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College.
In 1917, he was one of twenty-seven Tennesseans to be accepted into the army’s Officer Candidate School, and on October 15, 1917, he was commissioned to serve in France as a second lieutenant. He was cited for bravery in the Argonne offensive during World War I and was awarded the French Croix de Guerre.
In 1919, Lee returned to Memphis to begin a long and successful career in the business world, rising from district manager to vice president of the Mississippi Life Insurance Company. In 1952, he attended the Republican National Convention and put forward the name of Senator Robert Taft as a presidential candidate; this marked the first time since Reconstruction that a black person gave a nominating speech at a national convention.
Lee was a strong advocate of self-determination and did not believe African Americans should rely on the largess of white patrons. He maintained that to gain respect, African Americans must become financially independent, and his rising influence in banking and insurance enabled him to support black entrepreneurs and to urge other members of his race to do likewise. He did not support integration, maintaining that hard work and support within the race would accomplish more for black people than reliance on interracial endeavors. He was instrumental in establishing Memphis’ Beale Street, informally known as the musical main street of Negro America, into a leading commercial center.
As a writer, Lee is best known for his fictional and nonfictional accounts of black life on Beale Street. He populated his novels with African American middle-class men and women who were bankers, lawyers, doctors, executives, ministers, real estate brokers, artists, and intellectuals. His characters overcame oppression and deprivation by being black and proud, having faith in their own ability to succeed. His first published work, Beale Street: Where the Blues Began, with its foreword by W. E. B. Du Bois, brought him acclaim and a wide readership among both blacks and whites. Lee was the first black author to have a book advertised by the Book-of-the-Month Club. He was accused by one critic of writing more about businesspeople than those who lived in the Beale Street community, although he tried to balance his narrative by including the stories of prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers, drug users, and crooks. A subsequent work exposed the tenant farmer system, but his later writings were more artistic and less intended to serve as social tracts.
As the national grand commissioner of education for the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Lee was instrumental in providing youth scholarships and helping hungry families. In 1973, he was honored by state and city leaders for his service to the community. As further recognition of his accomplishments, a major street in Memphis was renamed Lieutenant George W. Lee Avenue, and his portrait hangs in the Tennessee Capitol at Nashville, along with that of musician W. C. Handy. Lee died on August 1, 1976.