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Belzoni in Humphreys County, Mississippi — The American South (East South Central)
 

The Reverend George Lee

— Mississippi Freedom Trail —

 
 
The Reverend George Lee Marker (Front) image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Mark Hilton, September 14, 2014
1. The Reverend George Lee Marker (Front)
Inscription.
Front
The Reverend George Lee (1903-1955), a pioneer in the early Mississippi civil rights movement, was a vice president of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, a co-founder of the Belzoni NAACP branch, and a powerful public speaker. In the spring of 1955 he addressed a crowd of 10,000 gathered at a Mound Bayou, Mississippi, voter registration rally. Two weeks later, on May 7, he was assassinated; no one was ever charged for the murder.

Rear
The Reverend George Lee, a prominent minister and successful entrepreneur in Belzoni, was determined to succeed as a civil rights leader as well. He was the first black citizen to register to vote in Humphreys County, where blacks were a majority of the population. In 1953 Lee and Gus Courts, a black grocer and early activist, co-founded the Belzoni branch of the NAACP. When Lee and Courts tried to register to vote and the sheriff refused to accept their poll taxes, they reported the case to federal authorities. They then registered successfully, angering local whites. Together, Lee and Courts registered nearly all of the county's black voters in 1955, despite threats of violence and economic pressures. The Regional Council of Negro Leadership, a leading black organization in the state, pressed for voting rights and organized a successful boycott
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of gas stations that refused to install restrooms for blacks. Lee spoke at the Council's annual meeting in 1955 in Mound Bayou, and Jet magazine reported that Lee "electrified" the crowd. He urged them to vote, telling them if they did, the Delta would someday send a Negro to Congress.

On May 7, 1955, Lee was driving on a street in Belzoni pulled up along-side his and assailants shot him in the face. He lost control of the car and crashed, and died on the way to the hospital. The next day Jackson's Clarion-Ledger ran the story under the headline "Negro Leaders Dies in Odd Accident." Lee's wife and others demanded an investigation by the FBI, which built a circumstantial murder case against two men, but the local prosecutor refused to take the case to a grand jury. When NAACP field secretary Evers came to investigate the murder, Sheriff Ike Shelton, insisting an autopsy was not necessary, informed Evers that Lee died from a car crash and that the lead found in his jaw was dental fillings. An examination of Lee's body by two black physicians revealed that two to three rifle shots were fired — one at point blank range into the cab — ripping of the lower left side of his face. Medgar Evers and others called on Governor Hugh White to investigate, but White refused. The crime went unchallenged, but news of it was reported nationally. The Reverend
The Reverend George Lee Marker (Rear) image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Mark Hilton, September 14, 2014
2. The Reverend George Lee Marker (Rear)
George Lee's widow, Rosebud Lee, prophetically decided to hold an open-coffin ceremony for her late husband, planting the seeds for a similar decision by Mamie Till-Mobley, Emmett Till's mother. Many consider Lee to be the first martyr of the modern civil rights movement.
 
Erected 2013 by the Mississippi Development Authority Tourism Division. (Marker Number 11.)
 
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: African AmericansCivil Rights. In addition, it is included in the Mississippi Freedom Trail series list. A significant historical month for this entry is May 1877.
 
Location. 33° 11.038′ N, 90° 29.302′ W. Marker is in Belzoni, Mississippi, in Humphreys County. Marker is at the intersection of Church Street and First Street (Mississippi Highway 7), on the left when traveling north on Church Street. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 603 Church Street, Belzoni MS 39038, United States of America. Touch for directions.
 
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 14 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies. Turner's Drug Store (approx. 0.4 miles away); Denise LaSalle (approx. half a mile away); Pinetop Perkins (approx. 1.2 miles away); Steamboat Natchez (approx. 1.6 miles away); Jaketown Mounds (approx. 3.6 miles away); Jaketown Site
The Reverend George Lee Marker photos image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Mark Hilton, September 14, 2014
3. The Reverend George Lee Marker photos
** Click picture for more detail **
(approx. 3.7 miles away); Hank Cochran (approx. 7˝ miles away); Little Milton Campbell (approx. 13.2 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Belzoni.
 
Also see . . .  Wikipedia entry on his life. (Submitted on September 24, 2014, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama.)
 
Green Grove Baptist Church in background. image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Mark Hilton, September 14, 2014
4. Green Grove Baptist Church in background.
More than 2,000 came to this church for Lee's funeral.
The Reverend George Lee Marker area image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Mark Hilton, September 14, 2014
5. The Reverend George Lee Marker area
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on June 16, 2016. It was originally submitted on September 24, 2014, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama. This page has been viewed 1,254 times since then and 39 times this year. Photos:   1, 2, 3, 4, 5. submitted on September 24, 2014, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama. • Bernard Fisher was the editor who published this page.

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Mar. 28, 2024