Epsilon Phi Chapter

Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

Colonel George Washington Lee

Colonel George Washington Lee - Poet, Musician, Novelist, Orator, Radio-broadcaster - was born on a Mississippi cotton patch plantation near Indianola, Mississippi on January 1, 1894. He moved to town at an early age when his mother, the daughter of house servants rather than field hands, took the first opportunity to escape the sharecropper’s life for town life in Indianola, Mississippi.

As it happened, this small town in the heart of the Yazoo, Mississippi Delta was one of the most thriving centers for the Black businesses; and there, Wayne Cox, the owner of the race bank and an insurance company, provided a model of Black success for the young George Lee. Because Cox had graduated from Mississippi's Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College, George Lee enrolled at Alcorn, earning his way by working summers as a bellhop in the Memphis, Tennessee Gayoso Hotel (one of its most fashionable).

After completing Alcorn in 1918, when America entered World War I, George Lee was among the few southern Negroes to be accepted by the Army's Officer Candidate School. He was commissioned October 15, 1917 at Ft Des Monies along with Brothers Frank Coleman and Edgar A. Love He served in France as a Second Lieutenant with the 368th Negro Division. He was cited for bravery, receiving the French Croix de Guerre, during the Argonne Offensive in the closing stages of the War. His final rank of First Lieutenant was one that he relished, and became a title that was part of his name for the rest of his life, although he was given honorary Colonel status by two Tennessee governors.

It was the night of September 25, 1918 in the Argonne, when he won his promotion. He was liaison officer for the 368th Infantry of the 92nd Division. The French and Americans had advanced to the little village of Benarville on the outskirts of the Argonne after fighting through the forest.

It was Lt. Lee's job to go back to regimental headquarters and report the advance and get further orders. The Citation says that Lt. Lee filtered through a barrage of enemy artillery and machine gun fire to reach his objective. Lt. Lee recalls that the forest was being shelled by both the Germans and Allied artillery. He also had a running fight with a German sniper in a tree. A bursting shell inflicted a slight wound in Lee's leg, but he kept going. Lee exchanged shots with the sniper but doesn't know whether he hit him or not, but the sniping stopped.

Following World War I, Lieutenant Lee, as he liked to be known thereafter, returned to Memphis, Tennessee, the commercial capital of the Mid-South that had a population of 101,000 whites and 61,000 Blacks. He eventually became an insurance salesman on Beale Street where he made friends with legendary figures as blues musician W. C. Handy during the Street's colorful heyday.

Rising out of the Mississippi River, Beale Street runs for one mile straight through the busy heart of Memphis and loses itself in the muddy bottoms of East Street. The echoes of its fantastic music have been heard around the globe, for this colorful little thoroughfare is known the world over; its fame has penetrated into every nook and cranny where sound carries the echoes of the English voice. Beale Street, then, owned largely by Jews, policed by whites and enjoyed by Negroes, was the main street of Negro America.

Lieutenant Lee later wrote three books on his experiences on Beale Street: River George, Beale Street Sundown and Beale Street Where the Blues Began, which was a choice by the Book-Of-The-Month Club. In addition he contributed about thirty short stories, many magazine articles and endless number of speeches about life on the street he loved.

Speaking about plans for reconstructing Beale Street as a National Historic Site, Lt.. Lee said in his characteristic prose; "Beale Street was once a mile of sweet melody and low comedy. It seems to me the plan would make it a mile of commercial ambitions, replacing the buildings of historic value with high-rise apartments and department stores." He pleaded for Beale Street developers to have consideration for "historic buildings where Black men owned their hole-in-the-wall places and made their contributions to the American treasury of song. What tourists would like to see are relics of the old Beale Street, with its jerky pantomime of plaint and piety, suppression and sensuousness which was the outer soul of the Negro come to the American town."

Lt. Lee became politically active in Memphis shortly after his arrival here, and by the late 1940s had become leader of the Republican Party of Tennessee, which was largely a Black party. His influence led to many breakthroughs by Blacks in the city. In honor of his contributions in getting Blacks hired as postal employees, a postal station at 826 Mississippi was named for him, one of the few times that a post office has been named for a living person.

In 1952, Lt. Lee made a seconding speech for the nomination of Senator Robert Taft of Ohio at the convention, becoming the first Black to have such an honor by either party since reconstruction. He again came under the national spotlight in 1964 when he lost a struggle to be seated as a delegate at the GOP convention that was to nominate Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. At that time he warned, "It will be a great tragedy for the Republican Party, the Negro and the Nation if the Republicans become a white man's party. This would strike at the roots of our whole system of democracy and equality as set out in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution." In 1960, however, Lt.. Lee had seen the defection of large numbers of Black voters from the Republican Party to cast their ballots for John Kennedy. His power base was gone, the Republican "Old Guard" was replaced by younger white Republicans in Memphis, and Lt. Lee became one of the last members of the party who could boast of being a lifelong Republican in Memphis.

Lt. Lee also had a distinguished business career, becoming a Vice-President of the Tri-State Bank of Memphis and a Senior Vice-President and Director of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company, one of the nation's largest Black owned companies.

His chief civic activities centers around the Bluff City Elks Lodge, Number 97, which under his leadership provided scholarships for needy youths and provided help at Christmas for hungry families. He eventually became the Elk's National Grand Commissioner of Education, another title he cherished.

His awards and citations were as numerous as the words he used with his eloquent voice to serve as a trumpet for his beloved street. It was under his leadership that Handy Park was formed in memory of Memphis' greatest musician, and Lt. Lee gave the dedicatory address at the unveiling of Handy's statue. A painting of Lt. Lee was placed in the Tennessee Capitol at Nashville, joining Handy's portrait as the only two paintings of Blacks hanging in the rotunda.

He also received the R. Q. Venison Memorial Award in 1973, given by American Legion Post Number 27 in honor of his service to the community. In receiving the award, Lt. Lee found himself applauded by most of the city's and state's leaders as tribute to his success. "It's overwhelming," he said. "My heart sinks into a sea of gratitude, speech takes its flight. This is a moment I'll never forget. When I go up to St. Peter and hitch on my angel wings I shall tell him about the golden hour I spent with my friends in this place."

Lieutenant George Washington Lee entered the Sacred Walls of Omega through Alpha Chapter at Howard University. Age could not dim Lieutenant Lee. Only death could keep him form adding still more chapters to a legendary life.