User:Jessielee58/Esther M Lee

= Esther M. Lee is a civil rights activist and education leader in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (Lehigh Valley). In 1968, she became involved in PTA at Madison School in Bethlehem, PA where she was concerned for her children's education.During that time she became president of the city-wide PTA organization, seeking equal opportunities for lower-income students. She ran for school director in 1971 - 1977 and became the first African-American woman to be elected to a public office in Bethlehem.This served a a springboard toward her future. =

= Early Life = Esther Mae Grimes, the fourth of five children, was born in 1933 to the late Jesse G. Grimes and the late Beolar Brandon Grimes. She is married to William L. Lee, Sr., mother of two adult children William L., Jr, (Lisa)., Jessica L., two grandsons, Adam N, a Moravian College graduate, Madison, Wisconsin and Andrew J, a Moravian College graduate. Esther attended Central Elementary School from (1939 - 1945), Broughal Junior High School (1946 - 1948) and Liberty High School (1949 - 1951). Esther played intramural sports; softball, soccer, basketball an baseball. She enjoyed the relationships of her fellow classmates. After graduation she took Secretarial Correspondence Courses, Computer classes, and Political classes.

She never felt the sting of racism; her teachers were very caring and accommodating, until graduating from high school. Esther was interested in finding out about herself living in an all white environment.

Her family was on the lower economic stratus. In the fall of each year, so she and her sister ("Chick") sawed tree logs for wood to heat the house. Her father Jesse was a laborer/construction worker and her mother was a homemaker. Both parents were from North Carolina and emigrated to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the early 1920s.