Bernard Lee (October 2, 1935 – February 10, 1991) was an activist and member of the

Southern Christian Leadership Conference The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civ ...

during the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

. He was a key associate of

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

Civil Rights Movement

Lee began his civil rights career as a student at

Alabama State College Alabama State University (ASU) is a public historically black university in Montgomery, Alabama. Founded in 1867, ASU is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. History Alabama State University was founded in 1867 as the Lin ...

, from which he was expelled after leading more than half the student body in a march on the Alabama capitol. During demonstrations for equal library access in 1960, he said: "My grandfather had only a prayer to help him. I have a prayer and an education." Bernard Lee was a courageous student activist, a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). While attending Alabama State University (ASU), he led a sit-in at the Alabama state capitol cafeteria. He was expelled from ASU for the event after the governor threatened the university president, saying he would withhold funding from the HBCU if Lee was not expelled. So, he transferred to Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia to work with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and Martin Luther King Jr, where he contributed to the Poor People’s Campaign and was at King's side after his assassination. Lee later worked for the U.S. Government under President Carter and for Washington D.C. under Mayor Barry (Source NAACP 2014) (http://www.blackpast.org/aah/morris-brown-college-1885) Lee was King's personal assistant and traveling companion for many years. He was arrested with King in 1960 and left the

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segreg ...

(SNCC) in 1961 so that he could work full-time with King and the SCLC. He participated in the 1961

Freedom Rides Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions ''Morgan v. Virgini ...

and helped to orchestrate the

Birmingham Campaign The Birmingham campaign, also known as the Birmingham movement or Birmingham confrontation, was an American movement organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to the integration efforts o ...

in 1963."Lee, Bernard Scott (1935-1991)", ''Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute'', accessed 7 November 2012. He went to Chicago with King in 1965. In January 1967, he was one of few in to accompany King to Jamaica while he wrote ''

Where Do We Go From Here Where Do We Go from Here may refer to: Film * Where Do We Go from Here? (1945 film), ''Where Do We Go from Here?'' (1945 film), an American film directed by Gregory Ratoff * Where Do We Go from Here? (2015 film), ''Where Do We Go from Here?'' (2015 ...

?'' Lee was closer to King than any other member of the Civil Rights Movement, so much that by some accounts he began to identify with King completely. According to historian Taylor Branch: "Lee had already come to dress like King, walk like King, and even to imitate King's long, measured phrases." Lee worked on the

Poor People's Campaign The Poor People's Campaign, or Poor People's March on Washington, was a 1968 effort to gain economic justice for poor people in the United States. It was organized by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (S ...

after King's death in 1968. He also became vice president of the SCLC, which diminished in power over the following years. Lee was directly privy to FBI targeting of King under

COINTELPRO COINTELPRO ( syllabic abbreviation derived from Counter Intelligence Program; 1956–1971) was a series of covert and illegal projects actively conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrati ...

, having been present when King received a letter from the FBI urging him to commit suicide. Lee sued the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice ...

(FBI) in 1977 in an effort to force the destruction of surveillance recordings of King collected during a January 5th, 1963 stay at the

Willard Hotel The Willard InterContinental Washington, commonly known as the Willard Hotel, is a historic luxury Beaux-Arts hotel located at 1401 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Downtown Washington, D.C. It is currently a member oHistoric Hotels of America the offi ...

in Washington D.C. Judge John Lewis denied Lee's request and ordered the

records A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

to be preserved by the National Archives and sealed until 2027.

Later life

Lee worked during the Carter administration as a civil rights advisor to the

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale ...

. During this time he joined with other Black members of the administration to express concern over its policies toward Africa and African Americans. In 1985, Lee received a master's degree in Divinity from

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

, and became the chaplain at Lorton Prison in Virginia. In 1989, he was involved in a public dispute with Ralph Abernathy over Abernathy's book ''

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down ''And the Walls Came Tumbling Down'' is a 1989 autobiography written by civil rights leader Ralph David Abernathy. The book charts his life and work with his best friend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in their leadership of the Civil Rights Moveme ...

''. Lee criticized Abernathy's book, which supported rumors about King's extramarital sex life.James S. Kunen, Jane Sanderson, Tom Nugent, Elizabeth Velez,
A Bitter Battle Erupts Over the Last Hours of Martin Luther King
, ''People'' 32(18), 30 October 1989. Lee died of heart failure in 1991.

References

External links

Photos of Lee
at the Atlanta History Center
Bernard Lee biography
Stanford University Martin Luther King, Jr. Research & Education Institute {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Bernard American human rights activists 1935 births 1991 deaths University of Alabama alumni

Civil Rights Movement

Later life

See also

References

External links