The Lee Sisters

The Lee Sisters. . , During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, Jet magazine reported in 1965 that members of the Lee Family of Memphis "have been arrested 17 times for civil rights activities and claim the title of the Most Arrested Family" in the country.” The seven daughters of Robert and Alversa Williams Lee were committed to the struggle for justice and equality at the forefront of the protests to break down segregation and Jim Crow laws. Whenever there was a Civil Right protest in Memphis, the Lee sisters were likely there in numbers., Ernestine, the eldest, and a junior at LeMoyne College, was one of the leaders who helped organize student protests against segregated public facilities. On March 19, 1960, police arrested students from both LeMoyne and Owen Junior College for sitting in at Cossitt and Peabody libraries. These sit-ins sparked the desegregation movement in Memphis.Erected by the African American Museum of Memphis and the Shelby County Historical Society., The other Lee sisters soon joined the protest. In an August 1960 sit-in at the lunch counters on Main Street, Ernestine and Ruth Elaine were arrested at Shainberg's, Sandra and Brenda at Bry's and Joan at Lowenstein's. The two oldest were taken to the city jail; Brenda, 17, Ruth Elaine, 16, and Joan, 14, to Juvenal court. in 1965 Ruth Elaine and Joan, along with younger sisters, Peggy Jane. 16, and Susan, 12, were arrested while picketing against job Discrimination. The sisters were involved in national protests. Joan participated on the 1963 March on Washington, Ruth Elaine in Selma in 1965, and in 1966 five of the sisters, along with brothers Wesley, Lewis, Clifford, and Mark, joined the Meredith March against Fear. In 1965, NAACP Executive Director Roy Wilkins presented the Lee family as Award of Recognition. Memphis is a better place because the Lees stood up by sitting down in forbidden seats.