James Lee
Retired Chicago public school teacher and veteran World War II Naval aircraft maintenance instructor, James Oscar Lee was born April 1, 1912 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. With family roots in rural Gloucester, Virginia, Lee grew up amid the row houses of North Philadelphia. He graduated from Central High School in 1930 with a B.S. in industrial arts. Central High, founded in 1836 and the second oldest high school in America, was at one time authorized to grant baccalaureate degrees. He went on to attend traditionally black, Cheyney State Teachers College in Cheyney, Pennsylvania, graduating with another B.S. degree in industrial arts in 1934. Lee also attended the University of Pennsylvania.
A caterer in 1938, his teaching career began at James Adams Senior High School in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, where he taught from 1939 to 1942. At the onset of World War II, Lee served at the Naval Air Technical Training Center in Chicago, Illinois. At this facility, which is now Chicago Vocational High School, Lee taught aviation engine mechanics exclusively to white soldiers. Black soldiers were not chosen to learn aviation engine maintenance. Later, in the South, Lee was not allowed to teach whites who needed to know aircraft maintenance because he was black. These restrictions rendered him idle for long periods of time. In order to work and travel, Lee became a chief carpenter’s mate.
In 1948, the Chicago Board of Education’s new Dunbar Trade School employed Lee. Unfortunately for black students, Dunbar’s status as a “trade” school was soon changed to “vocational” school. This change meant a loss of true union apprenticeship programs and the guaranteed jobs that followed. Lee was also a pioneer homeowner in Chicago’s Park Manor neighborhood. Facing threats of violence, Lee and his family endured and lived in the home for over fifty years. After fifty-one years of teaching and numerous citations for superior performance at Dunbar, Lee retired as teacher emeritus in 1997.
James Lee passed away on July 15, 2005.
A2003.296
Male
12/5/2003
Lee
Married
Oscar
Reynolds Gen John F Sch
Cheyney University of Pennsylvania
Central High School
James
Philadelphia
LEE02
Spring
Pennsylvania
Pacific Islands
None

Illinois
4/1/1912
Chicago
United States
Ham (Virginia)
7/15/2005
High school mechanics teacher James Lee (1912 - 2005 ) taught aviation and engine mechanics to white pilots in WWII and then taught in the Chicago Public Schools for fifty years.
James Adams Senior High School
Dunbar High School
Blue
Tape: 1 Story: 1 - Slating of James Lee's interview
Tape: 1 Story: 2 - James Lee lists his favorites
Tape: 1 Story: 3 - James Lee talks about his mother
Tape: 1 Story: 4 - James Lee talks about his maternal family background
Tape: 1 Story: 5 - James Lee talks about his paternal family background
Tape: 1 Story: 6 - James Lee talks about his family's relocation to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Tape: 1 Story: 7 - James Lee describes his mother's occupation and his home life as a child
Tape: 1 Story: 8 - James Lee talks about his absent father
Tape: 1 Story: 9 - James Lee recalls how working in a print shop as a teenager influenced his lessons on cabinet-making later in life
Tape: 1 Story: 10 - James Lee talks about his childhood neighborhood in North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and a device called a busybody
Tape: 1 Story: 11 - James Lee describes an early form of radio and watching black entertainers perform at the Pearl Theater in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Tape: 1 Story: 12 - James Lee talks about attending Episcopal church services as a child
Tape: 2 Story: 1 - James Lee talks about radio and television appliances from the 1940s
Tape: 2 Story: 2 - James Lee talks about his elementary school experience at John F. Reynolds School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Tape: 2 Story: 3 - James Lee talks about his relationship with parents and students at Dunbar Trade School in Chicago, Illinois
Tape: 2 Story: 4 - James Lee talks about elementary school teachers and making toys as a child
Tape: 2 Story: 5 - James Lee talks about attending Central High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Tape: 2 Story: 6 - James Lee talks about the racial dynamics at Central High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the early 1930s
Tape: 2 Story: 7 - James Lee talks about cleaning teachers' cars in high school and his career aspirations
Tape: 2 Story: 8 - James Lee recalls working at the Spray Beach Hotel in Beach Haven, New Jersey during the early 1930s
Tape: 2 Story: 9 - James Lee explains how he paid for Cheyney State Teachers College in Cheyney, Pennsylvania
Tape: 2 Story: 10 - James Lee talks about student life at Cheyney State Teachers College in the 1930s
Tape: 2 Story: 11 - James Lee talks remembers Bayard Rustin as a student at Cheyney State Teachers College in the 1930s
Tape: 3 Story: 1 - James Lee recalls interactions with students at Dunbar Trade School in Chicago, Illinois
Tape: 3 Story: 2 - James Lee talks about the strict code of conduct at Cheyney State Teachers College during the 1930s
Tape: 3 Story: 3 - James Lee talks about crafting a block front desk as a student at Cheyney State Teachers College during the 1930s
Tape: 3 Story: 4 - James Lee talks about playing basketball and football for Cheyney State Teachers College during the 1930s
Tape: 3 Story: 5 - James Lee talks about applying for his first teaching position after graduating from Cheyney State Teachers College
Tape: 3 Story: 6 - James Lee explains how he became an aircraft engine maintenance instructor at Naval Air Technical Training Center during WWII
Tape: 3 Story: 7 - James Lee explains his desire to work with black soldiers at Great Lakes Naval Training Center during WWII
Tape: 3 Story: 8 - James Lee talks about civilian jobs he held in Fresno, California while serving in the U.S. Navy during WWII
Tape: 3 Story: 9 - James Lee talks about transitioning from service in the U.S. Navy to obtaining a job at Dunbar Trade School in Chicago, Illinois
Tape: 4 Story: 1 - James Lee talks about the history of Dunbar Trade School in Chicago, Illinois
Tape: 4 Story: 2 - James Lee talks about politics and race relations in Chicago, Illinois unions during the 1940s and 1950s
Tape: 4 Story: 3 - James Lee talks about racial discrimination in Chicago, Illinois unions and the history of black skilled labor
Tape: 4 Story: 4 - James Lee talks about the transformation of Dunbar Trade School into a vocational high school
Tape: 4 Story: 5 - James Lee explains how the disappearance of trade schools has led to a decline in black skilled labor
Tape: 4 Story: 6 - James Lee talks about his teaching philosophy and the lack of parental discipline he witnessed as a teacher
Tape: 4 Story: 7 - James Lee shares two stories about his relationship with students at Dunbar Trade School in Chicago, Illinois
Tape: 5 Story: 1 - James Lee talks about purchasing a home in the Park Manor neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois
Tape: 5 Story: 2 - James Lee recalls purchasing house awnings from a neighbor in Chicago, Illinois' Park Manor neighborhood
Tape: 5 Story: 3 - James Lee talks about his efforts to clean up Chicago, Illinois' Park Manor neighborhood
Tape: 5 Story: 4 - James Lee reflects upon his legacy
Tape: 5 Story: 5 - James Lee considers what he would have done differently in life
Tape: 5 Story: 6 - James Lee describes how he would like to be remembered
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