Richard C. Lee

Richard Charles Lee (March 12, 1916 – February 2, 2003) (sometimes called "Mr. Urban America") was a Democrat and a longtime Mayor of New Haven (1954–70) and the youngest when he held the position in 1954 at age 37. Lee is best known for his leading role in urban redevelopment in the 1950s and 1960s.

Richard C. Lee
Lee in 1961
Mayor of New Haven, Connecticut
In office
1954–1970
Preceded byWilliam C. Celentano
Succeeded byBartholomew F. Guida
Personal details
Born(1916-03-12)March 12, 1916
DiedFebruary 2, 2003(2003-02-02) (aged 86)
Political partyDemocratic

Biography

Richard Charles Lee was born on March 12, 1916. He grew up in a cold-water apartment in the working-class Newhallville neighborhood of New Haven. His father, Frederick, worked at the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. He graduated from Hillhouse High School in 1934.

After being defeated for mayor in 1949 and 1951, he won in 1953. Lee appointed the city's first black corporation counsel, George Williamson Crawford, in 1954.[1] During his first re-election campaign in 1957, John F. Kennedy, then in the Senate, traveled to New Haven to campaign for him. To shore up New Haven's large Italian electorate, the mayor brought in Rocky Marciano, the boxer. He won that election by a 2-to-1 margin. Lee went on to serve 16 years as mayor, second-longest of New Haven's mayors at the time. In 2003 he died at the age of 86.

On May 17, 1999, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) dedicated the Richard C. Lee United States Courthouse in downtown New Haven to Lee. DeLauro worked with Senators Christopher Dodd and Joseph Lieberman to rename the federal building, which stands at 141 Church Street. The Richard C. Lee Highway, a freeway in downtown New Haven, is also named in his honor. A former New Haven public high school, carried the name Richard C. Lee High School in his honor; it has been replaced by Career Magnet High School.[2][3] The Richard C. Lee High School building became the Yale School of Nursing and now houses a variety of Yale Medical School offices.

gollark: Neural networks. So buzzword.
gollark: Why is my documents folder 25GB?
gollark: Apparently my `.config` folder is 1GB.
gollark: ```Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted ondev 4049896 0 4049896 0% /devrun 4093740 1156 4092584 1% /run/dev/mapper/arch-root 62914560 36713744 25937136 59% /tmpfs 4093740 32672 4061068 1% /dev/shmtmpfs 4093740 0 4093740 0% /sys/fs/cgrouptmpfs 4093740 8236 4085504 1% /tmp/dev/sda1 1046512 72504 974008 7% /boot/dev/mapper/arch-home 163371072 142836388 20534684 88% /hometmpfs 818748 32 818716 1% /run/user/1000```
gollark: Well, my server holds other stuff, and it has 1TB.

References
General
Notes
  1. "George W. Crawford Black Bar Association". Archived from the original on 4 December 2010. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
  2. Allan Appel, New Haven’s Monks Sing On, The New Haven Independent, July 21, 2008 (identifies Lee High School as "the predecessor to Career").
  3. Charlotte Libov, Schools Trying to Desegregate On Their Own, The New York Times, August 28, 1988 (states that "Career High School, formerly the Richard C. Lee High School, is in Wooster Place and specializes in health fields, business and computers" and describes plans to replace it with a regional magnet school).
  • Richard Charles Lee papers (MS 318). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.



Political offices
Preceded by
William C. Celentano		 Mayors of New Haven, Connecticut
1954 — 1970		 Succeeded by
Bartholomew F. Guida
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