One of the great moments in civil rights history took place in Chapel Hill on May 6th, 1969. That’s when Howard N. Lee was elected mayor of this town. In so doing, he became the first African American elected mayor in a predominantly white southern town since Reconstruction. Few people know that he was elected two more times, in landslides and with little fanfare. Voters were given the opportunity to change the town’s leadership and direction twice, and they did not.
A native Georgian, Lee moved to North Carolina in 1964 to attend the University of North Carolina. Graduating with a master’s degree in social work in 1966, he was hired to direct a research program at Duke and settled into a home in Chapel Hill’s Colony Woods neighborhood. After a cross was burned on his front lawn, Lee decided to enter local politics. The 1969 mayoral election saw a record 4,734 votes cast in Chapel Hill, and, at the end of the day, Lee defeated former newspaper editor Roland Giduz by 400 votes. Read more. https://chapelhilldiversity.com/howard-lee/
