The Chapel Hill Town Council voted unanimously to rename the Chapel Hill Transit facility on Millhouse Road for former Chapel Hill Mayor and state Sen. Howard Lee and his wife, Lillian Lee. Lee, the son of a Georgia sharecropper, won his first election to Chapel Hill’s mayoral office in 1969. He was the first Black person to be elected mayor of a predominantly white town in the South since Reconstruction, serving three terms before running unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1976. Lillian Lee also stimulated change as an advocate for children and as one of the first teachers at the UNC Hospital School in 1965. She retired after many years as a counselor and administrator in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. She also has served as a board member for the annual University/Community MLK Memorial Banquet, in addition to serving on a number of town boards and committees. The council also approved adding a new name for the town’s Peace and Justice Plaza in front of the U.S. Post Office on East Franklin Street. Frederick “Fred” Lewis Battle, a civil rights activist and longtime town servant, will have his named added. He died in 2019 at the age of 75.
Chapel Hill Transit Facility Renamed for Sen. Howard & Lillian Lee
