My Day: The Year Dr. Lee was Born
By Dr. J. Ester Davis
Dr. Theodore Lee, Publisher of The Dallas Post Tribune, died last week. He was 86 years old.
Dr. Lee lived two full service missions. He taught children on all levels the first half of his life and owned operated a renown black newspaper the rest of his life. He never retired . . . nor used the word.
What a wonderful life!
What an amazing journey!
I thought about Dr. Lee’s decades and started reflecting on the depth, breath and wealth of their significance in his life. Decades are diamonds.
And diamonds are timeless gems in a changing world. The decade Dr. Lee was born into was well on its way to history making status. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was organized. A. Philip Randolph was chosen president. Malcolm X, civil rights leader, was born in Omaha, Nebraska. Seventeen (17) black Americans were reported to have been lynched and the Assistant Librarian of Congress, Daniel Murray, dies in Washington, D. C. He was an American Historian.
The year Dr. Lee was born was terribly eventful. Bessie Smith recorded “Nobody Knows You When You are Down and Out”. Augusta Savage won a grant and used it to study in Europe and the stock market crash ushered in the Great Depression.
By the time Dr. Lee was a year old (circa 1930), he was totally indifferent to the Social Security Act being passed. The Summer Olympics Games were held in Berlin. Jesse Owens won four (4) gold medals. You see, by the start of the Civil War over 40 black owned operated newspapers had been established throughout the United States. Even though there was no money during the Great Depression, African Americans managed to operate newspapers quadrupling the number of them Today, there are about 200 black owned newspapers.
Entering into 1940’s, I imagine the young debonair Theodore Lee was quite aware of his surroundings.
(He often told me how handsome and good looking he was). With college and a military tour he was ready to take on the world. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund was founded and the Tuskegee Air Squadron was established as part of the United States Army. Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., is appointed a general in the US Army, and Hattie McDaniel, an African American actress wins the first Academy Award. Dr.
Charles Drew’s thesis “Banked Blood” sermonized through research and discovery that plasma can replace whole blood transfusion, and the “breaking news” of the decade, the charismatic laced Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church, New York City, is elected to the United States Congress.
The civil rights movement actually started in the late 40’s with the Detroit race riot on the auto assembly line, where many African Americans were maimed and killed. Aw . . . but the 1950’s put the first nails into Jim Crow’s coffin, and the struggle against racism and segregation entered mainstream American life. Dr. Lee was there to eyewitness every emerging move, teaching it, enduring it, defending it, writing it, printing it, speaking it, distributing it, living it, overcoming it triumphantly. I really think Theodore Lee lived the best of two lives. . . as an educator and a media owner.
Thank you Dr. Theodore Lee for being armed, ‘tuff’ and ready. Thank you certainly for the diamond of decades. Thank you for heading up the pioneering thoroughbred club. And lastly, just thank you for a “gem” of a gentleman, who truly made a difference in his lifetime from
beginning to end. A dash well service . . . 1929 – 2016.
What an inspiration to all.
Ester Davis can be reached at www.esterday.com, or 214.376.9000
