Student Publications
University of Houston
151C Communications Bldg
Houston, TX 77204-4015
713.743.5350

©1991-2007
Student Publications,
All rights reserved.

Last modified:

Contact:
ktruitt@uh.edu

News

Long-time activist addresses prejudice

Author shares life experiences with journalism students 
in a series of speeches

Cougar News Staff

Former Graduate School of Social Work faculty member Robert E. Lee said Friday in two journalism classes that one of the most powerful gifts people can give the ones they love are stories they have written about loved ones. 

Lee spoke to students about his love of writing and shared childhood experiences that helped shape him as a writer and person. 

Lee, who grew up in fifth ward Houston, said he attributes his love for writing and literature to his to his parents and other adults who hung out in his parents' nightclub when he was a child.

"I was always raised around storytelling on both sides of my family," Lee said.
a
Michael Berryhill, an assistant professor in the School of Communication, has been friends with Lee for 15 years and said Lee's storytelling skills were some of the best he had encountered.

"He's one of the great natural storytellers," Berryhill said. "He comes out of an oral tradition that is fading away. One of the standard pieces of advice to writers is ‘write like you talk.-- But few people are as eloquent talking as he is, and few people can write like he can."

In addition to offering students advice on how to tell a story well, Lee addressed racial segregation and his views on the Jasper race conflicts. 

Lee's cousin, James Byrd Jr., was found dead on a road near Jasper in 1998. Byrd was beaten, dragged by a truck and decaptitated, CNN.com reported.

Lee said he helped calm racial tension in Jasper when both Ku Klux Klan and Black Panthers-- members arrived in town after the murder.

"Naturally, I have mixed emotions about it, and I have to struggle with my rage and anger. I must be honest," Lee said.

Hoping to prevent impending race riots, Lee said he began creating and distributing letters and collages in an effort to remind residents of the difference between white supremacists and whites living within the community. Lee said he believes hate comes from teaching and can be avoided.

Lee, a member of the Black Panthers, said he was inspired to join after visiting co-founder Bobby Seale in prison. Huey P. Newton and Seale established the Black Panthers, an African-American civil rights group, in the 1960s to fight oppression against blacks.

At 19, Lee became the Illinois field secretary for the Black Panthers, helping to start some of its pioneering social programs and was present during conflicts with Chicago authorities.

After a series of events leading to the decline of Black Panther influence, including a Dec. 4, 1969 confrontation between the Black Panthers and law enforcement that culminated in the death of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark during a police raid of Hampton's home, Lee returned to Houston.

In Houston, Lee worked as a Harris County Hospital District social worker for the elderly and as a case manager in an AIDS clinic.

Though retired, Lee said he is still involved with social work and continues to counsel AIDS patients and the elderly.

--With additional reporting by Chi Chi Nwaorie

Send comments to dcnews@mail.uh.edu