John Robert Edward Lee Sr. was born into slavery in Seguin, Texas, on this date in 1864. J. R. E. Lee served as the third president of Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University from 1924 to 1944. Prior to his time at Florida A&M, Lee graduated from Bishop College in 1889, taught at the Tuskegee University under Booker T. Washington, and taught at Benedict College in South Carolina. During Lee’s twenty-year tenure at Florida A&M, he was able to substantially increase funding for new facilities and teachers’ wages and increased attendance to 812 students and 112 faculty members. Lee is remembered for his unselfish dedication to higher education and humanitarian services for African Americans in the South.
~Florida Historical Society
