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Key local figure

Howard N. Lee

Howard N. Lee came to Chapel Hill from Georgia in 1964 to study at UNC. On May 6, 1969, he was elected mayor of Chapel Hill, the first African American mayor elected in a predominantly white southern town since Reconstruction, and served three terms. He later served in the state senate and chaired the State Board of Education.

Source: NCpedia: Lee, Howard

Also found in catalogs as Howard Lee, Howard Nathaniel Lee.

1934– as the Library of Congress records it · On the Friends’ Local Authors roster → · Library of Congress authority record ↗

15 indexed works are connected with this person, and the index includes one work by Howard N. Lee. 1 held at OCPL →

Indexed works

Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.

By Howard N. Lee

The Courage to Lead: One Man's Journey in Public Service

Lee, Howard N. · 2008 · Cotton Patch Press

Howard N. Lee (born 1934) tells his own story, from a farm childhood in Lithonia, Georgia, through college, army service in Korea at Camp Casey and the move from Savannah that planted him in Chapel Hill, to his election as mayor of Chapel Hill in 1969 and his later run for Congress and years in the state legislature. Published by Cotton Patch Press of Chapel Hill in 2008, 199 pages with plates.

About Howard N. Lee

Oral history interview with Edwin Caldwell, March 2, 2001: interview K-0202, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Caldwell, Edwin · 2006 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Edwin Caldwell, Jr. reviews a life in Chapel Hill politics in a three-hour Southern Oral History Program interview recorded March 2, 2001, by Oliver White. A skilled organizer, Caldwell worked in the campaign that made Howard Lee the town's first Black mayor in 1969, ran for office more than once without winning, and became a local political power. The conversation also covers race relations, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board and the Church of Reconciliation. Published online in 2006 in Documenting the American South.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Lee, Howard, 1934-.

Oral history interview with Rebecca Clark, June 21, 2000: interview K-0536, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Clark, Rebecca · 2006 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Interview recorded June 21, 2000 with Rebecca Clark (1915-2009), a Black Chapel Hill resident, for the Southern Oral History Program at UNC. Clark, educated in Chapel Hill's segregated schools, describes working life under segregation and the economic discrimination she met in it. Topics also include Lincoln High School, school integration, and Howard Lee, elected mayor of Chapel Hill in 1969. Interview K-0536 in collection #4007.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Lee, Howard, 1934-.

The mayor who kept his promise : Howard Lee of Chapel Hill, N.C., makes inroads on his town's employment, housing, utilities, and transportation problems during tenure

Poinsett, Alex, 1926-2015 · 1973 · Johnson Pub. Co.

Alex Poinsett's profile of Howard Lee, elected mayor of Chapel Hill in 1969 as the first Black mayor of a predominantly white town in the South, detached from the November 1973 issue of Ebony. The subtitle credits Lee with progress on employment, housing, utilities and transportation. About six magazine pages with illustrations and portraits, published in Chicago by Johnson Publishing.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Lee, Howard, 1934-.

UNC

My life of breaking barriers, building bridges, and making history

Lee, Howard, 1934- · 2021 · North Caroliniana Society

Howard N. Lee's account of his own career, published in 2021 by the North Caroliniana Society with the society award given to him that year, together with tributes from Angela Lee, Valerie Foushee and others. Lee became mayor of Chapel Hill in 1969, the town's first Black mayor.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Lee, Howard, 1934-.

UNC

Oral history interview with Anne Barnes, January 30, 1989

Barnes, Anne Craig · 2006

Oral history interview with Anne Craig Barnes recorded on January 30, 1989 and issued in 2006. Barnes represented Orange County in the North Carolina House of Representatives, and topics include women in politics, the National Women's Political Caucus, the state Democratic Party, Terry Sanford and Howard Lee of Chapel Hill.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Lee, Howard, 1934-.

[Request for financial support of Howard Lee's campaign for Congress]

Campus Howard Lee Fundraising Committee (Chapel Hill, N.C.) · 1972 · Campus Howard Lee Fundraising Committee

Fundraising appeal dated May 1, 1972 from the Campus Howard Lee Fundraising Committee in Chapel Hill, asking for money for Howard Lee's run for Congress. Lee had been elected mayor of Chapel Hill in 1969.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Lee, Howard, 1934-.

UNC
Show 5 more about Howard N. Lee

[Howard Nathaniel Lee]

Material concerning Howard Lee, born in 1934 and elected mayor of Chapel Hill in 1969.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Lee, Howard, 1934-.

The Black experience : social, cultural and economic considerations : proceedings of the First Workshop on the Black Experience

Workshop on the Black Experience (1st : 1980 : University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) · 1981 · UNC School of Social Work

Proceedings of the first Workshop on the Black Experience, convened at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1980 and published the next year by the UNC School of Social Work. The papers take up social, cultural and economic questions, and the volume includes 'The Black experience in politics' by Howard N. Lee, who was elected mayor of Chapel Hill in 1969.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Lee, Howard, 1934-.

Environmental Education Series Part 1: Recycling Solid Waste, A Community Action Model

1972

Black and white film from the Environmental Education Series, made between 1972 and 1975, presenting a Chapel Hill recycling effort as a model for community action. A panel of local participants talks it over, among them Chapel Hill mayor Howard Lee, C. Ritchie Bell, Peggy Cohn, Kenneth McIntyre, Mary Turnbull and Alice Welsh. Part of North Carolina Sights and Sounds.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Lee, Howard Nathaniel.

Mayor Howard Lee

Barnes, Deborah H. · 1972

Howard Lee, mayor of Chapel Hill, speaks in the Pit on the UNC campus in 1972. Lee, elected in 1969, was among the first Black mayors of a mostly white Southern town. From the Deborah H. Barnes Collection.

Why this is here: Its title names this person.

Papers,

Lee, Howard Nathaniel · 1969

Papers from the political career of Howard Nathaniel Lee, who won the 1969 race for mayor of Chapel Hill and became the town's first Black mayor. The 45 items include addresses, biographical sketches, his proposed platform for that race, and campaign material from it and from his 1972 run for the Second Congressional District seat.

Why this is here: Listed as its creator.

Search all 15 indexed works →

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 14 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Realtors steer Howard and Lillian Lee away from white subdivisions After moving to Chapel Hill for graduate study, Howard and Lillian Lee searched for about six months while realtors hesitated to show them houses in white subdivisions. They bought in Colony Woods, then received threatening calls and had a cross burned on their lawn. People: Howard N. LeeUNC Libraries, North Carolina Miscellany: May 1969: Howard Lee
  2. Howard Lee and Roland Giduz meet in an open forum at the Newman Center About 100 people heard the two mayoral candidates differ on the Mitchell Lane open storm drain, a local option sales tax, the Inter-Church Council low-income housing project and developers' seats on the Planning Board. Lee called the drain the town's responsibility; Giduz, twelve years an alderman, was asked why it had not been covered. People: Howard N. Lee, Roland GiduzDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, April 25, 1969, page 1 (OCR text)
  3. Mayoral and aldermanic candidates answer questions at the Institute of Government Lee, Giduz and all seven candidates for the Board of Aldermen took questions at an open forum. Sharp exchanges came over a police review board, which Lee said he had never favored, and over whether the town should pay to cover the Mitchell Lane drain, on which Giduz cited county health tests and Steve Bernholz answered that 'the ditch stinks'. People: Howard N. Lee, Roland GiduzDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, May 2, 1969, page 1 (OCR text)
  4. Howard Lee is elected mayor of Chapel Hill Howard N. Lee defeated Roland Giduz by about 400 votes on May 6, 1969, in the largest turnout for a Chapel Hill election to that date, becoming the town's first Black mayor. He was the first African American elected mayor of a predominantly white Southern town since Reconstruction. People: Howard N. LeeDaily Tar Heel, May 7, 1969, p. 1: Howard Lee Elected Chapel Hill Mayor
  5. Rebecca Clark carries voters to the polls in Howard Lee's mayoral campaign Clark worked on Howard Lee's campaign for mayor, sending her son's Greyhound bus street to street to take voters to the polls, and helped count ballots by hand on election night. Lee won the May 6, 1969 election. People: Howard N. LeeSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Howard Lee: A Historical Mayoral Election
  6. Howard Lee takes the oath as mayor of Chapel Hill at Town Hall More than 140 people packed the second-floor room of Town Hall for the 7:30 p.m. meeting at which town clerk Roberts swore in Lee after outgoing mayor Sandy McClamroch reviewed his ten years in office. New aldermen Joe Nassif, Mary Prothro, George Coxhead and Ross Scroggs were sworn in, and Lee's first board elected David Ethridge mayor pro tem. People: Howard N. Lee, Sandy McClamrochDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, May 14, 1969, page 1 (OCR text)
  7. Fiber Industries withdraws its New Hope Creek rezoning request; commissioners chairman Carl Smith blames opponents Fiber Industries withdrew its request to rezone 450 acres near New Hope Creek for a plant after opposition from UNC, Duke and Mayor Howard Lee. County commissioners chairman Carl Smith blamed 'unintelligent intellectuals' and a town political 'machine', and said Lee, the town's Black mayor, was not serving Black residents by opposing the plant. People: Howard N. LeeSearch the index · Daily Tar Heel (DigitalNC): Fiber Industries withdraws request, August 7, 1969, p. 1
  8. Police charge pickets at Lenoir Hall; nine are arrested and four hurt About 25 police charged a group of pickets and sympathizers at the north end of Lenoir Hall when they did not disperse. Nine people were arrested, including AFSCME official Gene Gore and graduate student John Wheeler, and four were treated at Memorial Hospital. The next day Mayor Howard Lee announced that town police were being withdrawn from the strike scene. People: Howard N. LeeDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, December 6, 1969, page 1 (OCR text)
  9. Mayor Howard Lee leads a memorial march for James Cates About 65 people joined a memorial march for James Cates led by Mayor Howard Lee and Alderman R. D. Smith, four days after the killing. People: Howard N. LeeDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, December 1, 1970, page 1
  10. Howard Lee is re-elected mayor over Jack Maultsby Lee won a second term against three challengers, leading restaurant co-owner Jack Maultsby 1,999 to 1,352 with two-thirds of the vote counted on election night; NCpedia gives his final share as 64 percent. The same ballot narrowly approved a Chapel Hill-Carrboro bus system in Chapel Hill, which Carrboro voters rejected. People: Howard N. LeeDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, May 5, 1971, page 1 (OCR text)
  11. Rogers Road landfill opens Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County opened a shared, unlined county landfill on Eubanks Road, built in late 1972 beside the historically Black Rogers-Eubanks community, whose residents were told it would close after about ten years. It was expanded repeatedly and ran for 41 years, closing in June 2013. People: Howard N. LeeThe Daily Tar Heel: Orange County landfill to close this weekend (June 26, 2013)
  12. Officials signed the landfill agreement that carried promises to the Rogers-Eubanks neighborhood RENA's chronology records that Chapel Hill Mayor Howard Lee, Mayor Robert Wells Jr. and county commission chairman H.D. Bennett signed the full landfill agreement. Residents remember Lee promising that their road would be paved and that the filled site would become a recreation center for them. People: Howard N. LeeRENA Community Center: The Orange County Landfill
  13. Howard Lee wins a third term as mayor by a landslide In Chapel Hill's first November municipal election Lee carried every reporting precinct, taking 5,001 votes to 1,109 for graduate student Douglas Holmes, whom he had also beaten in 1971. NCpedia puts his share at 89 percent. People: Howard N. LeeDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, November 7, 1973, page 1 (OCR text)
  14. Chapel Hill Transit begins service Chapel Hill's municipal bus system began running on August 1, 1974, after Mayor Howard Lee and UNC Chancellor Ferebee Taylor cut the ribbon, with eight town, campus and park-and-ride routes. Carrboro was not yet served. People: Howard N. LeeSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel (DigitalNC): bus system opening day ceremony, August 26, 1974

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 2 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

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Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Howard N. Lee, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

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