[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 4894-4895]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    REMEMBERING MS. ESTHER JONES LEE

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BARBARA LEE

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 27, 2003

  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise on this day, during Black History Month, 
to pay tribute to a trail blazing civic leader, Ms. Esther Jones Lee. I 
take pride in honoring Ms. Jones Lee for her lifetime of dedication to 
organizing and empowering the African American community, particularly 
African American women, in their struggle to secure the purportedly 
unalienable rights promised to the people of this nation at its 
founding.
  Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1885, the daughter of Ms. Mary Wanzer 
Jones and the Reverend J.W. Jones, Ms. Jones Lee inherited her family's 
unyielding commitment to serving God and her community. The monumental 
integrity and deep compassion that came to characterize Ms. Jones Lee's 
legacy were deeply rooted in the lessons she learned growing up in her 
father's ministries. After graduating from high school in Chillicothe, 
Missouri, Ms. Jones Lee was trained in pedagogy and taught high school 
in Macon, Missouri. In 1904, Reverend Jones and his family relocated to 
the San Francisco Bay Area, where he was charged by the American 
Baptist Association with establishing the McGee Avenue Baptist Church, 
still a vibrant spiritual community to this day. Married in 1908 to Mr. 
George E. Lee, Ms. Jones Lee had three children, of whom only one, Ms. 
Esther Lee Higgs, survived infancy.
  In the Bay Area, Ms. Jones Lee provided skillful and passionate 
leadership to a plethora of organizations and clubs, especially the 
National Association of Colored Women (NACW), which she served for 
three terms as president of the state chapter. In 1918, Ms. Jones Lee 
was appointed by the President of the NACW, Ms. Mary Burnett Talbert, 
to lead California's efforts in the Anti-Lynching Campaign, working 
closely with State Senator William Knowland to introduce the successful 
legislation that outlawed this heinous practice. Ms. Jones Lee also 
served as: Vice President of Child Welfare for the Civic Center of San 
Francisco, the predecessor of the Big Sister Movement; President of the 
Women's Work Baptist Association of the State of California; a founding 
member of the Fannie Wall Children's Home, the area's first home to 
care for African American orphans; a founder of the Linden Branch YWCA, 
the area's first YWCA open to all girls, regardless of race; and head 
of the Women's Division of Northern California for the 1928 Herbert 
Hoover Campaign.
  During her lifetime, the promises of equality, and justice for all 
made by our nation's framers were not extended to Ms. Esther Jones Lee. 
Born into a world in which she could neither vote nor hold public 
office, she found power by raising her voice and taking action where 
her conscience deemed it necessary. Inspiring and empowering those 
whose lives she touched, she rose to positions of leadership from which 
she challenged the status quo, contributed to policy reform, and 
advocated for equality. While partaking in the club activities expected 
of women of their social stature, Ms. Jones Lee and her fellow 
organizers became fierce, courageous, and compassionate political 
forces, needing no one's permission but their own. I take great pride 
in joining Ms. Esther Jones Lee's family and the people of California's 
9th Congressional District in honoring her memory and celebrating her 
legacy.
  Mr. Speaker, I'd like to include in the Record the following articles 
regarding Ms. Esther Jones Lee.

                [From the Oakland Tribune, May 30, 1926]

                        Activities Among Negroes

                        (by Delilah L. Beasley)


                           Welcoming Speeches

       Mrs. Esther Jones Lee, as president of the northern section 
     of California, will have the honor of welcoming the 
     distinguished group of women to Oakland and Mrs. Corrine Bush 
     Hicks, of Pasadena, state president of the California 
     Federation of Colored Women's clubs, will welcome them to 
     California on the night given over to state. Notwithstanding, 
     the great task there are citizens in the east who have 
     visited Oakland, notably Miss Hallie Q. Brown, who have faith 
     in the citizens rally to the assistance of these brave women 
     and helping them in this great effort which will mean much as 
     an educational development of the race.
       The following are appointments given to California women by 
     the national president, Mrs. Mary McCloud [McCleod] Bethune: 
     Regional chairmen for northern section-Temperance, Miss 
     Masterson of Stockton; kindergarten--Mrs.-L.-J.-Williams, 
     Vallejo, headquarters for the national in Washington, D. C., 
     Mrs. H. B. Tllghman; physical education, Esther Jones Lee, 
     Oakland; state chairmen-Peace and foreign relations, Mrs. 
     Irene Bell Ruggles, San Francisco; citizenship, Mrs. Frank 
     Henry, Oakland; temperance, Mrs. Lillian Smith, Oakland; 
     hygiene, Mrs. L.J. Williams Vallejo; arts and crafts, Mrs. 
     Melba Stafford, Oakland; social work and recreation, Esther 
     Jones Lee, Oakland. She is also is local chairman of 
     arrangements for the national.
                                  ____


         [From the California Voice, Friday, December 30, 1960]

       Federated Women Club Notes--(California State Association)

       Maker of History--This is a brief, historical sketch of a 
     personality of pronounced individuality who helped put over 
     remarkable undertakings in all phases of club, church and 
     community work. Mrs. Esther Jones Lee of 1548 Parker Street, 
     Berkeley, began club work in California in 1913 as a member 
     of Mothers Charity Club. Prior to her residence in 
     California, she worked with the Fannie B. Williams Club in 
     Buxton, Iowa, where she was United States post office clerk. 
     Later she taught school in Macon, Missouri.
       Mrs. Lee served in every department of the California State 
     Association and was elected to the presidency of the State 
     Association in 1926, becoming the thirteenth president. 
     Following the election to the presidency, she joined Fannie 
     Jackson Coppin Club.
       Mrs. Lee was Chairman of Affairs during the Fifteenth 
     Biennial Convention of the National Association of Colored 
     Women's Clubs, Inc., in 1926. She was one of the California 
     women accorded special credit for her influence in obtaining 
     the keys to the City of Oakland for this gigantic meeting--
     the largest and finest group of colored women that had ever 
     crossed the Continent. At the next National Convention which 
     convened in 1928 in Washington, D.C., Mrs. Mary McCleod 
     Bethune, the national president, fittingly referred to Mrs. 
     Lee as ``the local chairman of the National in Oakland, 
     California.'' Mrs. Lee was overwhelmingly elected a member of 
     the Board of Control. Mrs. Bethune appointed Mrs. Lee as her 
     special representative to the Y.W.C.A Biennial Convention 
     which was meeting in Sacramento, California.
       Mrs. Lee attended the Seventeenth Biennial Convention in 
     Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1930. She was delegated to give the 
     response to the address of the Arkansas governor, local 
     officials and others. During the Hoover-for-president 
     campaign, she was head of the Women's Division of Northern 
     California.
       Mrs. Lee has given valuable information on numerous 
     historical facets for the State Association's records--two of 
     them being the inadventent birth of the unit called 
     ``Northern Federation,'' and the founding of Fannie Wall 
     Children's Home, and how and why it was named.
       During the presidency of the late National President, Mrs. 
     Mary D. Talbert, 1916 to 1920, Mrs. Lee was appointed 
     regional official for California of the Anti-lynching 
     Campaign.
       Mrs. Lee has been prominently identified with the women's 
     work of the General Baptist Association of California, its 
     auxilliaries and also fraternal orders. the honor of Club 
     Mother for 1954 was conferred upon her by Fannie Jackson 
     Coppin Club.

[[Page 4895]]

       Mrs. Lee's service in important offices on the National 
     State, Regional and local club levels have blazed a trail and 
     laid a foundation upon which we are pursuing and building. 
     The potency of her character, intellect, personal energy and 
     Club fealty, has buided the State Association and Fannie 
     Jackson Coppin Club in paths of high purpose and achievement.

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