Arthur and Edith Lee House, Minneapolis

In 1931, an unassuming house at 4600 Columbus Avenue South in Minneapolis was the site of racial violence directed at the Lees, an African American family who had recently purchased the property. Over a period of several days, angry white mobs swarmed the neighborhood to harass and intimidate the family. With the help of community leaders, family, friends, and NAACP attorney Lena Olive Smith, the Lees persevered and remained in their house for another two years before moving in 1933.  

Constructed in 1923, the Lee House is a modest bungalow at the southwest corner of Columbus Avenue South and East 46th Street in South Minneapolis. In June 1931, African Americans Arthur and Edith Lee purchased and moved into the nondescript house in the all-white Field neighborhood, along with their daughter, Mary. Arthur was a United States Postal Service employee and World War I veteran.  

The Lees’ move infuriated their new white neighbors, who wanted the area to stay segregated. The house’s deed did not include a racial covenant—a statement barring people of color from ownership. Four years earlier, however, about 400 members of the Eugene Field Neighborhood Association had signed non-legally-binding “contracts” aimed at preventing non-white groups from renting or purchasing houses in the neighborhood. 

The association offered to purchase the house from the Lees for $5,000, about 6 percent more than what the Lees had paid for the property. After the Lees declined the offer, they were threatened and taunted, their house was vandalized, and neighbors hurled racial epithets at the family. Police did not respond when the Lees contacted them after continued intimidation, so the property was guarded by the Lees; family friends; Arthur’s brother, Edward; and fellow postal workers and World War I veterans. 

Between July 11 and July 16, angry white neighbors besieged the house. So many people joined in that police officers formed a circle around the bungalow, and reinforcements arrived to control the growing crowd. Onlookers continued to vandalize the property, throw stones, and shout at the Lees; eventually, the family’s dog was poisoned. On the night of July 16, more than four thousand people gathered a block away from the house but were held back by police.

Minneapolis Mayor William A. Anderson asked residents to avoid the property but did not immediately aid the Lees or intervene. Civic leaders urged local newspapers to curtail their coverage of the unrest, and a group of Minneapolis ministers signed a resolution that protested the demonstrations. The July 18 issue of the Minneapolis Tribune reported on initial mediation sessions. The Lees’ white attorney, H. E. Maag, claimed that the Lees were considering selling their house.

On July 18, the Lees dismissed Maag and retained Lena Olive Smith, an African American attorney with the Minneapolis chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). They hired Smith after Maag, representatives from Mayor Anderson’s office, and community leaders encouraged the couple to sell their house to the neighborhood association and vacate the area. 

Smith was vehement about the Lees remaining in their house. She was quoted in the July 20 issue of the Minneapolis Journal saying that “there will be no further negotiations with any committee of citizens.” Smith also released a statement in all three major Minneapolis newspapers informing the public that the Lee family would not be selling its house. While people feared that Smith’s resolute message would lead to further violence, the unrest subsided after its release.

Smith’s statement, along with mediation and the large police presence on the block, helped to quell further intimidation by white neighbors after July 20. Seventy-five white residents, however, protested the Lees on August 4. Police presence persisted through September 1932, and officers escorted Mary to her kindergarten class throughout the school year. The intimidation was so great that the Lees slept in their basement for as long as they lived in the house. Seeking a less hostile neighborhood with more Black residents, they sold their house in late 1933.

On July 16, 2011, a sculpture created by the Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center and dedicated to the Lee family was installed on the northeast corner of the property. In 2014, the property was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In 2016, it was designated as a local historic landmark.