decades now, but in 1965 in Selma, Alabama, a mere “2.1%” of blacks were registered voters and they, according to Congressman John Lewis who thought he would die during the original march, “could only vote on the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month.” Lewis said, “…Without television, the civil rights movement would have been like a bird without wings.” Elaine Lee Turner, Owner of Heritage Tours, Inc. and Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum first encountered PHOTOS By Tony Wright racism as a young person growing up in Memphis, TN, in the 1960s. “There were restrictions for black people to any public facilities that were designated for whites,” said Turner. The libraries were segregated. The museums were segregated, the art galleries, and all of those places where our families paid taxes were segregated. The wheels of justice simply were not turning fast enough for the youth at that time.” Turner, remembers when 40 or so students from LeMoyne and Owen Junior Colleges, one of whom was her oldest sister, Ernestine Lee, went to the white segregated Cossitt and Peabody libraries and sat down to read books in them. The date was March 19, 1960, and the students were hauled out of the library, put in patty wagons, and were taken to jail and promptly arrested. “This black community rallied behind those students,” said Turner who eventually began to sit in at segregated lunch counters and restaurants in Memphis herself. “That was my first arrest in 1960 when I was 16. We were all put in jail that day. There were five of us sisters that were put in jail that day.” There was a lot of excitement in the Lee household that day, but Turner’s parents supported their children's decisions. “Our parents supported us in what we were doing,” said Turner. “We knew that we had to be persistent and if it meant getting arrested then that is what it was going to take. We knew that we had to continue the fight, continue the demonstrations, the sit-ins, and the marches, and whatever we were doing as a form of protest.” The Lee sisters may being arrested 17 or Turner can look back on standing up for what was about being part of the family rights have made history more times in total. those instances of right today and laugh in participated in the march 1965. A Shelby County marks the spot that was Shainberg’s Department downtown Memphis sister Ernestine were for sitting in at a white most arrested civil Memphis. She also in Selma, AL in historical marker now in front of the old Store on Main Street in where Turner and her arrested and taken to jail lunch counter. This happened in August 1960. Three other Lee sisters were also arrested that day while sitting in at lunch counters on Main Street. A plaque was presented to the family in 1965 by NAACP Executive Director Roy Wilkins. An Award of Recognition, it reads, in part, as follows: “Memphis is a better place because the Lees stood up by sitting down in forbidden seats.” 3
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