Last updated: October 27, 2021
Article
Helen Lee Franklin
Boston served as one of the many destinations for African American southern migrants searching for new economic opportunities and fleeing discrimination during the Great Migration. This article highlights the journey of one of these southern migrants who settled in Boston, as shared on Boston National Historical Park’s Stories of the Great Migration page.
A native South Carolinian, Helen Lee Franklin moved to Massachusetts with her family as a young girl. When a young adult, she returned to the South to teach. Possibly due to her experiences in the South, Franklin became a community organizer and activist in Cambridge and Boston. Her Great Migration story demonstrates how she spoke up against injustice and fought for equality throughout her life.
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Helen Lee grew up on Richland Avenue in the 1890s. This 1870s-1880s stereograph of a group of African Americans standing on Richland Avenue can give us a sense of where Lee grew up. (Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C.)
October, 1895: Richland Avenue, Aiken, Aiken County, South Carolina
Born in Aiken, South Carolina to Sherman and Henrietta Lee, Helen Lee grew up in this southern town with five of her siblings. While Lee’s mother stayed home to take care of their growing family, her father worked as a printer.
Despite being founded by three Black men, Aiken County was plagued by racial tension and violence against African Americans during the 1870s. According to family legend, this continued tension within the county affected Lee’s family: her father was “harassed for printing and distributing literature condemning segregation and discrimination.” This harassment resulted in the family’s move north. [1]
Lee's 1914 yearbook photograph from Cambridge High and Latin School. (Credit: Cambridge Rindge and Latin School Library)
1914: 8 Worcester Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts
In the early 1900s, Lee and her family settled in Massachusetts. First they lived in Somerville, where Lee attended Charles G. Pope School. Her father worked as a real estate agent and her mother worked as a dressmaker. They later joined the small, active Black community in Cambridge, living on Worcester Street and then Western Avenue. Helen Lee attended Cambridge High and Latin School, graduating in 1914. Her yearbook photo from this year identified her as a “Bookworm” who studied music. [2]
Palmer Memorial Institute, where Helen Lee worked for several years as a young woman. (Credit: Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University)
1920: Palmer Memorial Institute, Sedalia, North Carolina
A few years after graduating from high school, Helen Lee moved to the South to work at the Palmer Memorial Institute in Sedalia, North Carolina. Principal Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown founded this Institute to teach African American children in the rural South. She shared a similar background to Lee, having moved to Cambridge from North Carolina as a young girl. Dr. Brown frequently traveled between Sedalia and Cambridge to fundraise for her school. During one of these trips, Helen Lee and Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown’s paths may have crossed.
While we do not know when Helen Lee first began working at Palmer Memorial Institute, Ambassador Harriet Lee Elam-Thomas, Lee’s niece, recalled that her mother, Blanche Lee, did not wait for her sister Helen Lee to return home from working at the Palmer Institute before marrying Robert Elam in the spring of 1920. [3]
March 15, 1924 article from the Cambridge Tribune about the Sedalia Quartette's performance at Brattle Hall, Cambridge. (Credit: Cambridge Tribune, Cambridge Public Library)
1924: Brattle Hall, Brattle Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Throughout the 1920s, Lee demonstrated her love for education by continuing to work at schools for African Americans in the South. She may have briefly worked at the Utica Normal and Industrial School in Utica, Mississippi in addition to serving as a secretary at the Palmer Institute for several years. In March 1924, Lee traveled back to Cambridge with the “Sedalia Quartette,” a group of singers that performed in the North to help raise money for the Institute. At one of these performances held at Brattle Hall in Cambridge, Helen Lee participated by performing “One Day at Palmer.” [4]
Original building of the Cambridge Community Center. (Credit: Cambridge Community Center)
1929: Cambridge Community Center, Howard Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts
On August 10, 1929, the Cambridge Community Center opened its doors with Helen Lee as its first secretary. Lee had been instrumental in establishing this community center; she hosted one of the initial planning meetings for the community center as well as chaired a committee that sponsored a benefit to raise funds for it. Over the next few years, possibly until 1936, Lee continued working at the Community Center or supporting its programs and events. [5]
This April 25, 1931 article describes one of the programs Helen Lee held at a health clinic on behalf of the Boston Urban League. (Credit: Baltimore Afro-American)
1931: Boston Urban League, Camden Street, Boston, Massachusetts
By 1931, Helen Lee had begun devoting her attention to another local organization, the Boston Urban League. Established in 1919, the Boston Urban League dedicated itself to helping African Americans faced with economic, social, and health issues, specifically focusing on employment and housing. From 1931 to about 1936, Lee served as assistant secretary of the Boston Urban League under the leadership of executive secretary George Goodwin. Newspapers frequently mentioned her involvement at health fairs to educate the public about the League. For example, one of these programs involved discussing the variety of people who come to the Boston Urban League for assistance. [6]
This selection of a map shows Cobden Street, the street Lee moved to in Roxbury. She lived at 1 Cobden Street, a couple houses from the public school. (Credit: Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, Boston Public Library)
1935: 1 Cobden Street, Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts
Around 1935, Lee moved from Cambridge to Roxbury. Following her father’s death in December 1930 and her mother’s death in January 1931, Helen Lee spent the early 1930s trying to keep her family home at 194 Western Avenue in Cambridge. Notices in local papers demonstrated Lee's efforts to pay off her family’s debts and owed taxes. Despite her persistence, this hardship likely led to her decision to move to Roxbury, another neighborhood with a strong Black community. By 1935, she lived as a lodger at this address in Roxbury with other lodgers who were also migrants from the South and the West Indies. [7]
The Ladies Auxiliary of the Isaac Wilson Taylor Post participated in several events in 1940, including this Cambridge parade. (Courtesy of the Cambridge Public Library Archives and Special Collections)
October, 1939: Inman Square Fire House, Cambridge, Massachusetts
At a “Musical and Tea” held at the Inman Square Firehouse, Helen Lee’s niece, Annetta Elam, read two poems written by Lee for an event sponsored by the Ladies Auxiliary of the Isaac Wilson Taylor Post, No. 2443, Veterans of Foreign Wars. In addition to the Boston Urban League and the Cambridge Community Center, Helen Lee devoted herself to several other clubs in the 1930s, including this Ladies Auxiliary post. Similar to other auxiliary posts of Veterans of Foreign Wars, this post supported veterans and their families through a variety of events, from participating in parades to hosting social gatherings.[8]
One of the two poems read outloud by Helen Lee's neice at the Ladies Auxiliary of the Isaac Wilson Taylor Post event. (Courtesy of the Cambridge Public Library Archives and Special Collections)
October, 1939: Inman Square Fire House, Cambridge, Massachusetts
From 1934-1936, Lee served as the Post’s “Musician” and helped organize club events along with her sister, Blanche Elam, who also served in leadership positions. The poems Lee wrote for this event demonstrate her awareness of injustice and discrimination towards African Americans and her desire to bring attention to and take action on these issues. [9]
Entrance to Building 39, which may have been where Lee worked as a typist. (Credit: Boston National Historical Park)
1941: Charlestown Navy Yard, Charlestown, Boston, Massachusetts
In November 1941, Helen Lee began working at the Charlestown Navy Yard as a typist. Her motivations for working at the Navy Yard are unclear, although her relatives’ dedication to service may have influenced this decision: two of her brothers served in World War I. Her sister’s three sons later served in the Army during World War II.[10]
Helen Franklin and 11 other women signed this letter to the FEPC about discrimination at the Navy Yard. (Credit: National Archives at Boston)
November, 1943: Charlestown Navy Yard, Charlestown, Boston, Massachusetts
With her involvement in different community and activist organizations, it is no surprise Lee stood up for herself when she believed her Charlestown Navy Yard supervisors discriminated against her and her colleagues.
On November 6, 1943, Helen Lee Franklin (the previous month she married her husband, Clarence Franklin), and eleven other women sent a letter to the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) regarding discrimination in their typist training section at the Navy Yard. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the FEPC to investigate discrimination in the defense industry, and these women saw this commission as their avenue to achieve justice. Franklin and these women wrote in their letter that they believed their supervisors were making their section a “Jim Crow” section and that supervisors gave white women promotions before them.[11]
Julian D. Steele, president of the NAACP and the Armstrong-Hemingway Foundation, spoke at the commissioning of the U.S.S. Mason at the Boston Navy Yard. (Credit: National Archives and Records Administration)
November, 1943: Charlestown Navy Yard, Charlestown, Boston, Massachusetts
Not wanting to leave this investigation solely in the hands of the FEPC, Helen Franklin also contacted Julian D. Steele, President of the Boston Branch of the NAACP. Julian Steele responded to her letter, noting, “I am looking into the matter of Jim Crow at the Navy Yard… I feel that something vigorous should be done to halt this practice.” He planned to reach out to other federal and local organizations, such as the Boston Urban League, to investigate this discrimination further.[12]
Letter from Helen Lee Franklin to Mr. Walker of the War Manpower Commission inquiring about getting a transfer to the Veteran's Bureau. (Credit: National Archives at Boston)
April, 1944: War Manpower Commission Office, Tremont Street, Boston, Massachusetts
Ultimately, the Fair Employment Practices Committee dismissed this case “due to merits,” meaning the claim did not have substantial evidence to support it. Nevertheless, Franklin did bring awareness to discrimination at the Navy Yard. While looking into her case, investigators recognized at least seven other alleged cases of discrimination at the Navy Yard. Although the Navy Yard’s investigation denied all accusations, federal investigators noted that discrimination did exist at the yard, yet stated “we cannot prove it.”
After this outcome, Helen Franklin reached out to the War Manpower Commission, a commission created to manage wartime labor needs, requesting a transfer to the Veteran’s Bureau. She wrote, “I know that getting transfers, etc from the Yard here have been difficult but I do want to make a change and feel that it is to my own advantage to make one now for physical reasons and for my own happiness. I have gone about as far as they will allow me to here and maybe some of us ought to get out.” [13]
The beginning of an obituary for Helen Lee Franklin from the January 29, 1949 Boston Chronicle. (Credit: Boston Chronicle)
January 19, 1949: St. Mark Congregational Church, Townsend Street, Dorchester, Massachusetts
Helen Beatrice Lee Franklin died January 19, 1949. Over the last few years of her life, Franklin remained active working with veterans at the Veterans Rehabilitation Center of Boston, as well as served on the Executive Board of the Boston Branch of the NAACP in 1946. Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown, president of the Palmer Memorial Institute and life-long friend, delivered the eulogy at Franklin’s funeral held at St. Mark Congregational Church. Dr. Brown remembered,“the dynamic personality of one such as Helen Franklin will ever be among us.” Franklin’s obituary praised her for being a “self-sacrificing and public-spirited leader.” [14]
An artistic interpretation of a poem written by Helen Lee Franklin in 1939. (Credit: National Park Service)
Her Legacy
Tracing Helen Lee Franklin's story demonstrates a life dedicated to the community and standing against injustice, whether in the South or in and around Boston. Her legacy continues through the lives of her nephews, nieces, and their children, one of whom recalled, “Aunt Helen gave all of her nieces and nephews great encouragement and support, pushing all of us to get a good education.” Among these relatives would be the first Black Chief Justice of the Boston Municipal Court, a U.S. Ambassador, a President of a college, as well as other careers and paths that serve their communities.[15]
Footnotes
[1] According to Ambassador Harriet Lee Elam-Thomas, Helen Lee and her family’s relative was Samuel J. Lee, one of the three founders of Aiken County. (Elam-Thomas, Diversifying Diplomacy, 19).
Harriet Lee Elam-Thomas with Jim Robison, Diversifying Diplomacy: My Journey From Roxbury to Dakar (Nebraska: Potomac Books, 2017), 19.; Walter Edgar, ed., The South Carolina Encyclopedia Guide to the Counties of South Carolina (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2012), ProQuest Ebook Central, 8-9.; United States Census Bureau, Census Record, 1900, Aiken, Aiken, South Carolina, Enumeration District 0022, page 10.
Image: Palmer, James A. "No. 64, Richland Avenue, recto." Stereograph. Chibbaro Stereograph Collection: 186u-1997. South Caroliniana Library. University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C.
[2] United States Census Bureau, Census Record, 1910, Somerville Ward 2, Middlesex, Massachusetts, Enumeration District 0992, Roll T624_604, page 12B.; Cambridge High and Latin School, Cambridge High and Latin School Yearbook, Cambridge, 1914.
Image: Cambridge High and Latin School. Cambridge High and Latin School Yearbook. Cambridge, 1914.
[3] “Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown,” North Carolina Historic Sites, February 2020, https://historicsites.nc.gov/all-sites/charlotte-hawkins-brown-museum/history/dr-charlotte-hawkins-brown.; Ambassador Harriet L. Elam-Thomas, interviewed by James T. L. Dandridge, II, June 2, 2006, oral history, The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project. https://adst.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Elam-Thomas-Harriet-L.pdf.; United States Census Bureau, Census Record, 1920, Cambridge Ward 4, Middlesex, Massachusetts, Enumeration District 47, Roll T625_708, page 6B.
Image: Commencement activity outside of Stone Hall, Palmer Memorial Institute. Charlotte Hawkins Brown Papers. Folder: Photographs: Students, events, buildings, n.d. Sedalia Public School, 1938-39, n.d. HOLLIS collection level record 000605309 . RLG collection level record MHVW85-A64. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. https://images.hollis.harvard.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=HVD_VIAolvwork20013559&context=L&vid=HVD_IMAGES&search_scope=default_scope&tab=default_tab&lang=en_US
[4] "Sedalia Quartette Sing Folk Songs," Cambridge Tribune (Cambridge, MA), Mar. 15, 1924, 7, https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/?a=d&d=Tribune19240315-01.2.64&srpos=2&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-sedalia+quartette------. “Funeral Rites for Social Worker,” Boston Chronoicle (Boston, MA), Jan. 29, 1949, 1.
Image: "Sedalia Quartette Sing Folk Songs," Cambridge Tribune (Cambridge, MA), Mar. 15, 1924, 7, https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/?a=d&d=Tribune19240315-01.2.64&srpos=2&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-sedalia+quartette------.
[5] Odile Sweeney, “Community Center Plans New Building in 1947,” Cambridge Chronicle (Cambridge, MA), 1946, 39.; “Benefits Cambridge Community Centre,” Cambridge Tribune (Cambridge, MA), May 18, 1929, 1, https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/?a=d&d=Tribune19290518-01.2.5&srpos=11&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22helen+lee%22----- ; “New Community Centre Opened Tuesday Night,” Cambridge Tribune (Cambridge, MA), Aug. 10, 1929, 2, https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/?a=d&d=Tribune19290810-01.2.14&srpos=12&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22helen+lee%22------ ; “Staff Meeting At Community Center” Cambridge Chronicle and Cambridge Sun (Cambridge, MA), Apr. 2, 1936, 9. ; “Community Center has its first Demonstration,” Cambridge Tribune (Cambridge, MA), Oct. 24, 1931, 1, https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/?a=d&d=Tribune19311024-01.2.7&srpos=4&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22helen+b.+lee%22------ ; C. Elliot Freeman Jr., "Boston News," The Chicago Defender (National edition) (1921-1967) (Chicago, IL), May 6, 1933, ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Defender, 20.
Image: Cambridge Community Center, http://www.cambridgecc.org/photo-archive.html.
[6] "Boston," Afro-American (1893-1988) (Baltimore, MD), Apr. 25, 1931, ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Baltimore Afro-American, pg. 18. “Our Milestone,” Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, accessed January, 2020, https://www.ulem.org/centennial; Robert C. Hayden, “A Historical Overview of Poverty among Blacks in Boston, 1850-1990.” Trotter Review 17, no. 1 (September 2007), 137, https://archive.org/details/trotterreview171willi/page/136/mode/2up.
Image: "Boston," Afro-American (1893-1988) (Baltimore, MD), Apr. 25, 1931, ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Baltimore Afro-American, 18.
[7] “Commonwealth of Massachusetts Probate Court,” Cambridge Sentinel (Cambridge, MA), Sept. 26, 1931, 5, https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/?a=d&d=Sentinel19310926-01.2.40.4&srpos=8&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22helen+b.+lee%22------ ; “Delinquent Tax Sales Collector’s Notice,” Cambridge Tribune (Cambridge, MA), Dec. 8, 1933, 8, https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/?a=d&d=Tribune19331208-01.2.91&srpos=13&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22helen+b.+lee%22------; United States Census Bureau, Census Record, 1940, Boston, Suolk, Massachusetts; Enumeration District: 15-399, Roll: m-t0627-01669, page 12A; Department of Public Health, Registry of Vital Records and Statistics. Massachusetts Vital Records Index to Deaths [1916–1970]. Volumes 66–145. Facsimile edition. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.
Image: G.W. Bromley & Co.. "Atlas of the city of Boston, Roxbury." Map. 1931. Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:1257c411w
[8] Musical and Tea, section of yearly history, 1939, "Ladies Auxiliary Scrapbook: Histories, Reports 1939-1940" (Folder 8), Isaac W. Taylor VFW Post No. 2443 Records, 1932-1999 (131), Box 1, Cambridge Public Library Archives and Special Collections. https://public.archivesspace.dlconsulting.com/repositories/2/archival_objects/9300
Image: "Women’s Auxiliary March in Cambridge," newspaper clipping, "Ladies Auxiliary Scrapbook: Histories, Reports 1940-1941" (Folder 9), Isaac W. Taylor VFW Post No. 2443 Records, 1932-1999 (131), Box 1, Cambridge Public Library Archives and Special Collections. https://public.archivesspace.dlconsulting.com/repositories/2/archival_objects/9300
[9] List of Officers, 1934, 1935, 1936 "Ladies Auxiliary Scrapbook: Histories, Reports 1934-1938" (Folder 7), Isaac W. Taylor VFW Post No. 2443 Records, 1932-1999 (131), Box 1, Cambridge Public Library Archives and Special Collections. https://public.archivesspace.dlconsulting.com/repositories/2/archival_objects/9300
Image: "A Challenge, 1939," Poem from scrapbook, page with two poems by Helen B. Lee, 1939, "Ladies Auxiliary Scrapbook: Histories, Reports 1939-1940" (Folder 8), Isaac W. Taylor VFW Post No. 2443 Records, 1932-1999 (131), Box 1, Cambridge Public Library Archives and Special Collections. https://public.archivesspace.dlconsulting.com/repositories/2/archival_objects/9300
[10] Joseph A. Smith, Regional Director, War Manpower Commission, to Lieutenant Commander Paul S. Strecker, Personnel Division, Boston Navy Yard; Fair Employment Practice Committee, December 17, 1943; Boston Navy Yard, 1-GR-55, 1943-1944; Closed Regional Case Records, 1943-1946, Box 1; Records of the Committee on Fair Employment Practice 1940-1946, Record Group 228; National Archives at Boston.; Helen Lee to Julian D. Steele, August 9, 1943, Julian D. Steele Collection, NAACP Correspondence 1929-1947, Box 20, Folder 5, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts.; Elam-Thomas, Diversifying Diplomacy, 20-21.
Image: Boston National Historical Park: Image ID = 9369-2.
[11] To learn more about this case, read this article Discrimination and African American Women at the Charlestown Navy Yard.
11 other women: Janet H. Scottron, Dorothy Francis Smith, Yvonne J. Meek, Edna Thefton, Imgard G. Windfort, Irena A. Jackson, Geraldine L. Sinclair, Doris V. Jackman, Alice M. Sumpter, Esther M. Brown, Larraine A. Foster.
Helen Franklin et al. to Richard Walker, Fair Employment Practice Committee, November 6, 1943; Boston Navy Yard, 1-GR-55, 1943-44; Closed Regional Case Records, 1943-46, Box 1; Records of the Committee on FEP 1940-46, Record Group 228, National Archives.; “Miss Helen Lee, C. Franklin Wed,” Afro-American (1893-1988) (Baltimore, MD), Oct 16, 1943, ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Baltimore Afro-American, pg. 12.
Image: Helen Franklin et al. to Richard Walker, Fair Employment Practice Committee, November 6, 1943; Boston Navy Yard, 1-GR-55, 1943-44; Closed Regional Case Records, 1943-46, Box 1; Records of the Committee on FEP 1940-46, Record Group 228, National Archives.
[12] Julian D. Steele to Helen Franklin, November 19, 1943, Julian D. Steele Collection, NAACP Correspondence 1936-1944, Box 20, Folder 6, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts.
Image: Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. Naval Photographic Center. (12/1/1959 - ca. 1998). Record Group 80: General Records of the Department of the Navy, 1804 - 1983. National Archives. Local Identifier: 80-G-218855, https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2017/08/10/researching-wwii-navy-ships/
[13] Final Disposition Report, April 12, 1944; Boston Navy Yard, 1-GR-55, 1943-1944; Closed Regional Case Records, 1943-1946, Box 1; Records of the Committee on Fair Employment Practice 1940-1946, Record Group 228; National Archives at Boston.; Helen Franklin to Richard Walker, War Manpower Commission, August 15, 1944; War Manpower Commission. Regional Correspondence Files, Region I, Mass. 1943. Box 17:5; War Manpower Commission Central Files 1942-1945, Record Group 211, Series 269, NAID 6278149. National Archives.
Image: Helen Franklin to Richard Walker, War Manpower Commission, August 15, 1944; War Manpower Commission. Regional Correspondence Files, Region I, Mass. 1943. Box 17:5; War Manpower Commission Central Files 1942-1945, Record Group 211, Series 269, NAID 6278149. National Archives.
[14] “Funeral Rites for Social Worker,” Boston Chronicle (Boston, MA), Jan. 29, 1949, 1, 8.
Image: “Funeral Rites for Social Worker,” cropped image, Boston Chronicle (Boston, MA), Jan. 29, 1949, 1.
[15] Elam-Thomas, Diversifying Diplomacy, 20-21.
Image: NPS/Woods, Based on poem: "Reflection," Poem from scrapbook, page with two poems by Helen B. Lee, 1939, "Ladies Auxiliary Scrapbook: Histories, Reports 1939-1940" (Folder 8), Isaac W. Taylor VFW Post No. 2443 Records, 1932-1999 (131), Box 1, Cambridge Public Library Archives and Special Collections. https://public.archivesspace.dlconsulting.com/repositories/2/archival_objects/9300.