On May 7, 1955, Reverend George W. Lee, one of the first Black people registered to vote in Humphreys County, Mississippi since Reconstruction, was murdered for his civil rights activism. A minister and entrepreneur, Lee worked tirelessly to register Black voters in the segregated South, where Jim Crow laws reigned. Despite threats to his life, he refused protection that would have compromised his cause. His brutal assassination — shot while driving his car — became an early martyrdom of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Lee’s death, though not receiving as much national attention as later incidents, fueled outrage and inspired more activists to rise against systemic racism and voter suppression.
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