The Barbara Lee Papers consist of legislative bills and working files, correspondence, speeches, constituent case files, audiovisual material, subject and administrative files documenting Barbara Lee’s six years as state assemblywoman for California’s 16th District, two years as a state senator for California’s 9th District, and records created by the California Commission on the Status of Black Males (CCSBM).

Barbara Jean Lee (née Tutt) was born on July 16, 1946 in El Paso, Texas the daughter of Mildred Adaire and Garvin Alexander Tutt, a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army. In El Paso, the family lived with her maternal grandparents, William Calhoun and Willie Parish, and she attended St. Joseph’s Catholic School taught by the Sisters of Loretto, a religious order that taught the virtues of peace and justice. The family moved from Texas to the Pacoima neighborhood of Los Angeles, California in 1960. While attending school at San Fernando High School, she sued the school district with help from the local chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. change the school’s procedures for selecting cheerleaders which would allow the entire student body to vote for cheerleaders rather than a small clique. In 1963, she was selected as the school’s first black cheerleader. She graduated from San Fernando High School in 1964 and shortly thereafter followed her husband Carl Lee to England where he was stationed in Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire.

80 linear feet (80 boxes)

Permission to publish from the Barbara Lee Papers must be obtained from the African American Museum & Library at Oakland.

Constituent case files closed to the public. Rest of collection is open to the public.