On May 6, 1969, Howard N. Lee made history when he was elected the first black mayor of Chapel Hill, a predominately white town in the South. Only ten percent of the town’s
12,500 permanent residents were black and only half of those were registered to vote. In a surprising upset, Lee changed history. In 1977, North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt appointed Lee Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Community Development making Lee the first black member of a governor’s cabinet in the South. Lee then went on to serve thirteen years in the North Carolina Senate. In his memoir The Courage to Lead,Lee shares his life storyand sheds light on how he achieved these goals.
On May 6, 1969, Howard N. Lee made history when he was elected the first black mayor of Chapel Hill, a predominately white town in the South. Only ten percent of the town’s
12,500 permanent residents were black and only half of those were registered to vote. In a surprising upset, Lee changed history. In 1977, North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt appointed Lee Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Community Development making Lee the first black member of a governor’s cabinet in the South. Lee then went on to serve thirteen years in the North Carolina Senate. In his memoir The Courage to Lead, Lee shares his life story and sheds light on how he achieved these goals. 