Meet Howard Lee
Monday, September 29 2008
by Frank Stasio and Olympia Stone
Howard Lee grew up in Georgia in the 1940s and 1950s—in the heyday of the Jim Crow South, and with the Klan as a constant presence in his small town. As the son of a poor sharecropper, Lee was well acquainted with the horrors of racism, but he was determined to carve out a different path for himself. His life has been proof of that determination and grit. In 1969, he made history as the first black Mayor of Chapel Hill, and later became the first black to be a member of any Governor’s cabinet in the South. Howard Lee is currently the Chairman of the North Carolina State Board of Education and is also a member of the State Utilities Commission. He joins host Frank Stasio to talk about his life and his groundbreaking achievements along the way.
