Memphis,Tennessee.He received numerous citations for his benevolence and civil initiatives.
His parents,the Reverend George & Hattie Lee Stringfellow,separated before
his birth,George and his brother Abner were raised by their mama,who worked as a sharecropper.Hattie Lee moved the family to nearby Indianola,
Mississippi,as a child,George obtained summer employment at a grocery store in Indianola,was subsequently fired by the white owner who was pressured by white patrons to hire white staff.
George entered Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College in Loman,Mississippi,where he was recognized for his academic achievement.
In the summer of 1912,George moved to Memphis,Tennessee,where he found work as a bellhop at the Gayoso Hotel.When the hotel's manager died in 1916,
George demonstrated his skill at writing and composed a eulogy to his former boss which was published in a Memphis newspaper.
After the outbreak of World War I,he was determined to enter the Fort Des Moines Provisional Army Training School in Iowa.In the qualifying examinations,George excelled in both physical skill and intelligence,and at
the age of twenty-three was selected to attend the camp.Lieutenant Lee's 920th Division provided their bravery while stationed in France,and George himself was awarded a French Croix de guerre medal for bravery.His division none-the-less received racist insults and innuendos from white soldiers.
Lieutenant Lee recived an honorable discharge in 1919,and returned to Memphis where he soon found employment as a salesman with with the black-owned Mississippi Life Insurance Company.Within weeks he was promoted to manager,and then to vice-president in 1920.
When white-owned Southern Life Insurance Company purchased Mississippi Life in 1923,the new owners requested George continue to work for them collecting premiums from the African-American clients,and offered him $7,000 per year and two percent of each premium.George refused,asserting
that he did not want to enable the takeover of a black-0wned business.He went on to join the Atlanta Life Insurance Company,where he became a senior
vice-president,and continued to work until his death in a car wreck.
George was active in the Republican Party,and in the 1928 presidential election served as national directors of "Veterans for Hoover". In 1952,George
delivered one of the speeches at the Republican national convention in Chicago,where he seconded the nomination of Senator Robert Taft.In the 1956 presidential election,George is credited with delivering Tennessee to Eisenhower.
In 1934,Robert authored Beale Street: Where the Blues Began;the first book by an African-American author advertised in the Book-of-Month Club news.
His second novel, River George,was published in 1937.George's stores were
published in The Negro Digest,The World's Digest,and Southern Literacy Messenger,and in 1942,an anthology of his short stories entitled Beale Street Sundown was published.
In 1951,The Chicago Defender named George one of ten "Most Useful Men" for his efforts at voter registration in Memphis.
George became Grand Commissioner of Education and the Civil Rights Department of the National Elks for the Memphis chapter of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks in 1952.
In 1956,George was the first African-American to have a US post office named
after him,in Memphis.
As Memphis African-American leaders became more radical throughout the
1940s and 1950s,George became increasingly more conservative.He opposed
the violence of the Rap Brown "Black Power" movement,and during the 1960s
he traveled around the country criticizing black power movements towards violence.He believered African-Americans should appeal to the white sense of
conscience to guilt rather than simply demand their own rights through violence.
A number of of George's speeches have been inserted into the Congressional Record,and in 1973 his portrait was hung in the Rotuunda of the Tennessee State Capitol.
In 2006,construction began on George's Landing Retail,Entertainment and Parking," in the Beale Street district of Memphis.A street in the area is also named in his honor.
His parents,the Reverend George & Hattie Lee Stringfellow,separated before
his birth,George and his brother Abner were raised by their mama,who worked as a sharecropper.Hattie Lee moved the family to nearby Indianola,
Mississippi,as a child,George obtained summer employment at a grocery store in Indianola,was subsequently fired by the white owner who was pressured by white patrons to hire white staff.
George entered Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College in Loman,Mississippi,where he was recognized for his academic achievement.
In the summer of 1912,George moved to Memphis,Tennessee,where he found work as a bellhop at the Gayoso Hotel.When the hotel's manager died in 1916,
George demonstrated his skill at writing and composed a eulogy to his former boss which was published in a Memphis newspaper.
After the outbreak of World War I,he was determined to enter the Fort Des Moines Provisional Army Training School in Iowa.In the qualifying examinations,George excelled in both physical skill and intelligence,and at
the age of twenty-three was selected to attend the camp.Lieutenant Lee's 920th Division provided their bravery while stationed in France,and George himself was awarded a French Croix de guerre medal for bravery.His division none-the-less received racist insults and innuendos from white soldiers.
Lieutenant Lee recived an honorable discharge in 1919,and returned to Memphis where he soon found employment as a salesman with with the black-owned Mississippi Life Insurance Company.Within weeks he was promoted to manager,and then to vice-president in 1920.
When white-owned Southern Life Insurance Company purchased Mississippi Life in 1923,the new owners requested George continue to work for them collecting premiums from the African-American clients,and offered him $7,000 per year and two percent of each premium.George refused,asserting
that he did not want to enable the takeover of a black-0wned business.He went on to join the Atlanta Life Insurance Company,where he became a senior
vice-president,and continued to work until his death in a car wreck.
George was active in the Republican Party,and in the 1928 presidential election served as national directors of "Veterans for Hoover". In 1952,George
delivered one of the speeches at the Republican national convention in Chicago,where he seconded the nomination of Senator Robert Taft.In the 1956 presidential election,George is credited with delivering Tennessee to Eisenhower.
In 1934,Robert authored Beale Street: Where the Blues Began;the first book by an African-American author advertised in the Book-of-Month Club news.
His second novel, River George,was published in 1937.George's stores were
published in The Negro Digest,The World's Digest,and Southern Literacy Messenger,and in 1942,an anthology of his short stories entitled Beale Street Sundown was published.
In 1951,The Chicago Defender named George one of ten "Most Useful Men" for his efforts at voter registration in Memphis.
George became Grand Commissioner of Education and the Civil Rights Department of the National Elks for the Memphis chapter of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks in 1952.
In 1956,George was the first African-American to have a US post office named
after him,in Memphis.
As Memphis African-American leaders became more radical throughout the
1940s and 1950s,George became increasingly more conservative.He opposed
the violence of the Rap Brown "Black Power" movement,and during the 1960s
he traveled around the country criticizing black power movements towards violence.He believered African-Americans should appeal to the white sense of
conscience to guilt rather than simply demand their own rights through violence.
A number of of George's speeches have been inserted into the Congressional Record,and in 1973 his portrait was hung in the Rotuunda of the Tennessee State Capitol.
In 2006,construction began on George's Landing Retail,Entertainment and Parking," in the Beale Street district of Memphis.A street in the area is also named in his honor.
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