Opinion: Legacy of George W. Lee is instructive for today’s GOP

Daily Memphian
Otis Sanford
Otis Sanford holds the Hardin Chair of Excellence in Journalism and Strategic Media at the University of Memphis and is the political analyst and commentator for WATN Local 24. Contact him at 901-678-3669 or at o.sanford@memphis.edu. Follow him on Twitter @otissanford.
Lee encouraged Black Memphians to support Democrat Lyndon Johnson in 1964. But when emerging Black leaders in Memphis pleaded for Lee to officially abandon the Republican Party and become a Democrat, he graciously declined.