Heslip M. "Happy" Lee papers

Access and use

Location of collection:
Virginia Commonwealth University, Cabell Library
James Branch Cabell Library
Virginia Commonwealth University
P.O. Box 842003
901 Park Avenue
Richmond, VA 23284-2003
Contact for questions and access:
POC: SCA Staff
Phone: (804) 828-1108
Fax: (804) 828-0151
Restrictions:

The collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

There are no restrictions.

Preferred citation:

Heslip M. "Happy" Lee Papers, 1915-2003. Manuscript M 322, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University

Summary

Extent:
6.86 Linear Feet 9, 5" document cases 1 2.5" document case 6, 17" print boxes
Creator:
Lee, Heslip M. (Heslip Malbert), 1922-2011
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Heslip M. "Happy" Lee Papers, 1915-2003. Manuscript M 322, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University

Background

Scope and content:

The Heslip M. "Happy" Lee, consists primarily of correspondence, committee work, writings, and publications and newspaper clippings. The bulk of the material is from 1950-2003. The correspondence section of the collection is rich with details on Lee's activities as executive deirector of the Virginia Council on Human Relations in the early 1960s and as a consultant in the late 1960s and 1970s to various educational, urban, and community programs in North Carolina, Georgia, and other localities.

The folders of correspondence may also contain reports and ephemera as Lee originally bound these materials together, and the arrangement he created has been maintained. Some copies of outgoing correspondence are contained with the outgoing correspondence as well. Subjects in the correspondence range from Civil Rights era issues including African American education in North Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia, the Virginia Council on Human Relations, the War on Poverty, and Prince Edward County, to religion, ministry, and Baptists. Notable correspondents and subjects include Wyatt Tee Walker, J. Rupert Picott, Rufus Harris, Virginia Lt. Governor Henry Howell, Georgia Senator Max Cleland, Willie Carter, and L. Francis Griffen.

Writings collected by and composed by Lee contain sermons, papers, and notes on various topics, many related to civil rights. Most materials are written by Lee himself.

Photographs in the collection are a mix of personal photographs of Lee and his family, and professional activities. Notable people in the photographs with Lee include Corretta Scott King, Bill Clinton, Max Cleland, and Jimmy Carter. There are also photographs of the Madison Avenue Baptist Church, the Happy Lee Family Jewelers store, and the NAACP convention in New York City.

Biographical / historical:

Heslip Malbert "Happy" Lee, minister, educator, social, and political activist, spent much of his life working to improve race relations in the United States. His life's work is representative of many other like-minded individuals of his generation who were active in the cause for civil rights and equality in the last half of the 20th century. A native of Georgia, Lee's work during the height of the struggle for civil rights brought him to Virginia in the early 1960s, where he served as executive director of the Virginia Council on Human Relations. In the late 1960s and 1970s, he served as a consultant to various educational, urban, and community programs in North Carolina, Georgia, and other localities.

Lee was born in rural Polk County, Georgia, on February 21, 1922, to Mary Camp Lee (1918-1983) and Malbert Warren Lee (1898-1976). He had two younger siblings, a sister, Virginia (born 1924), and a brother, Charles, who died at age 2. The Lee family were poor tenant farmers, raising cotton and corn, living without electricity and running water. Lee attended elementary and high school in Polk County. The origin of the name "Happy" began when Lee's sister could not pronounce his first name. She eventually started calling him something that sounded like "Happy." Lee was at Junior College when the name "Happy" began to be used by more than his family. One of his professors considered his name Heslip too hard to remember and asked him if he had a nickname. Lee recounted his sister calling him "Happy." The professor preferred the nickname, and it stuck.

In 1941, Lee married Laura McClung (1924-2011) of Haralson County. They later had five children: Dwain, Glen, Joan, Stephen, and Laurie. Lee operated a dairy farm and grocery business in Polk County. Ordained to "preach the Gospel" in October 1949, Lee became the pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in July 1950. During his career, he served as pastor of nearly a dozen Baptist churches in Georgia and other states. At 29, Lee uprooted his young family and sold everything they owned to pursue higher education and see the wider world outside Polk County. Lee eventually received a B.A. Degree in Philosophy in June, 1954 from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and a Master of Divinity Degree in 1957 from Colgate-Rochester Divinity School. He became pastor of York Baptist Church, in York, New York, while working in a number of local community organizations. From 1957-1959, he returned to Georgia and served as Director of Religious Activities at Mercer University in Macon. Lee then served as pastor of First Baptist Church in Springfield, Virginia from 1959-1961. While in Virginia he became a member of the Board of Directors of the Virginia Council of Human Relations (VCHR), a biracial statewide organization that worked to foster communication and improve relations between Black and white people. Lee and his family moved to Richmond when he accepted the post as Executive Director of VCHR. He also served as a member of the Virginia State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 1961-1964. Lee was extremely active as VCHR's Executive Director. He worked to increase the number of local VCHR groups and overall membership; he spoke to numerous groups in both small and large settings, as well as helped in the desegregation of dozens of public facilities in Virginia, and monitored actions in Prince Edward County, Virginia, where county officials had closed the pubic schools in an effort to block school desegregation.

In late 1964 Lee left Virginia and became the Executive Director of Salisbury-Rowan Community Service Council, Inc., in Salisbury, North Carolina and served as Chairman, North Carolina State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. In 1966 he began serving as Vice President for Development at Shaw University in Raleigh and continued to be active in the fight for civil rights in the state. Beginning in 1968, he would serve for nearly ten years under a variety of titles acting as a consultant to several educational, urban, and community programs in North Carolina, Georgia, and other localities. Lee retired in 1978 in Cedartown, Georgia. In retirement he remained busy, operating a family jewelry store, Happy Lee Family Jewelers, and raising cattle. In the 1980s, he participated in the American Baptist Interim Minister Pprogram of the American Baptist Churches serving as "Minister at Large" in churches from New York to Utah. In the 1990s he chaired the 7th District (7 Counties) Democratic Party in Georgia and is credited with revitalizing the Polk County Democratic Party.

In 2004, the Gandhi Foundation of USA, which promotes the philosophies of both Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., chose Rev. Lee to be the first non-Indian recipient of the Gandhi Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his work in human relations. Rev. Lee received the Gandhi Lifetime Achievement Award on October 9, 2004 at a ceremony held at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic District.His life was chronicled in 2005, in Happy Warrior: The Legend of Happy Lee by H.V. Shivadas. Lee died in 2011 and was survived by his wife, four of his children, and many grandchildren and great- grandchildren.

Arrangement:

Arranged alphabetically by folder title and chronologically therein. Correspondence and many of the folders of collected writing were originally bound and arranged by Lee. These have been unbound but retain the arrangement created by Lee. Oversized materials are arranged intellectually in alphabetical order, but are housed separately in oversized boxes.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard