Fourth in a series.
Re: “What Distinguishes Lee from Council Field”
When Daniel Lee, the fast-charging newcomer City Council candidate, was asked if he is patterning his nascent political career, he gives a response that will please many.
“When people ask me about mentors or heroes,” said Mr. Lee, “I usually say that I don’t really have one – except for my mom (Lucretia), who lives in Florida, and my grandmother, who passed away two years ago.”
He was not disposed altogether, though, to leave the civil rights movement and its centrality in his young, fascinating life.
You see, Mr. Lee, an actor who now is a fulltime social worker, does have a neon hero.
“Partially because I have been on the MLK Committee for the last five years, I am getting to know a lot more about Martin Luther King Jr.,” Mr. Lee said.
“I am learning not only how passionate he was about civil rights, but how intelligent he was, how much he did for so many different types of people.
“His chief concern,” said Mr. Lee, “was African Americans. But importantly, he was repeatedly there for unions. He was repeatedly there for white people.
“When he was shot and killed in April 1968, he was organizing Beyond Race, another march on Washington.”
The enduring impact of Dr. King on Mr. Lee’s life and goals became more obvious the longer the soft-spoken candidate looked back at the seminal figure he admires so proudly.
“The more I think about Dr. King, the more I reflect on his speeches beyond ‘I Have a Dream,’ I see that he is someone I have patterned my life after,” said Mr. Lee.
(To be continued)
