Lee Lorch facts for kids
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Lee Alexander Lorch (born September 20, 1915 – died February 28, 2014) was an American mathematician and a brave civil rights activist. He also believed in communism. He played a big part in making sure everyone, no matter their race, could live in places like Stuyvesant Town in New York City. His efforts helped make housing discrimination illegal in the U.S. But because of his activism, he lost his job twice.
Lee and his wife, Grace Lorch, moved to the Southern United States. There, they joined the Civil Rights Movement, which fought for equal rights for all people. He also taught at several Historically Black colleges. He encouraged Black students to study mathematics and helped many become the first Black men and women to earn PhD degrees in math in the U.S. Later, because of a time called McCarthyism (when people were suspicious of communists), he moved to Canada. He finished his career as a professor emeritus (a retired professor who keeps their title) of mathematics at York University in Toronto, Ontario.
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Early Life and War Service
Lee Lorch was born in New York City. He finished college at Cornell University in 1935. He then earned his PhD in mathematics from the University of Cincinnati in 1941.
During World War II, he first worked in a math-related job that kept him out of the army. But in 1943, he decided to join the United States Army. He served in India and the Pacific Ocean area before leaving the army in 1946. After the war, he got a teaching job at the City College of New York. However, he was soon fired because he was working to help African-Americans gain equal rights.
Fighting for Fair Housing
Lee Lorch learned a lot about racism during the war. He saw how the American army treated Black soldiers. He remembered that Black soldiers often had to do the hardest and dirtiest jobs on ships. This made him feel very uncomfortable.
After starting his job at City College, he moved into Stuyvesant Town. This was a new housing area built for war veterans. It was owned by a big insurance company and supported by New York City. Lee was very upset because Stuyvesant Town had a rule: "No Negroes." He became a leader in a group of tenants who wanted to stop this unfair rule. Most tenants (two-thirds) supported him.
Even though City College said his teaching was excellent, they fired him without giving a reason. Lee then got a new job at Pennsylvania State University. But he didn't want to give up his fight against the housing rule. So, he asked a Black friend and his family to move into his apartment as "guests." This helped them get around the rule that stopped Black people from applying for housing. But because of this, Lee was fired from Penn State too. This news was even in The New York Times in 1950.
Lee Lorch said in 2007, "It's hard to imagine now, but there was no civil rights legislation back then. You could be fired without explanation. But how could you do anything else, in all good conscience?"
Moving South to Teach
After being fired by Penn State, Lee Lorch found a teaching job in 1950 at Fisk University. This was a Black college in Tennessee.
In 1951, a meeting for mathematicians was held in Nashville. Lee Lorch, who was the head of the math department at Fisk, went with three Black colleagues: Evelyn Boyd, Walter Brown, and H. M. Holloway. They were allowed to attend the math sessions. However, the person organizing the closing dinner refused to let them eat there because they were Black. Lee and his colleagues wrote to the main math groups, asking them to make rules against discrimination. The rules weren't changed right away, but the groups did make sure that no one would be treated unfairly at their future events.
Facing Questions from the Government
In 1955, Lee Lorch was called to speak before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). This committee investigated people they thought might be communists. Lee and his wife, Grace, had tried to enroll their daughter, Alice, in an all-Black elementary school. This happened after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that separating students by race in schools was against the law.
The committee's questions quickly turned to politics. Lee said he had not been involved in any Communist activities while at Fisk. He refused to answer questions about whether he was a member of the Communist Party before 1941. He used his right under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (freedom of speech) to do this. He was later accused of "contempt of Congress" (meaning he didn't cooperate with Congress), but he was found not guilty. Even so, the president of Fisk University said that Lee's actions before the HUAC were "as good as admitting" he was a Communist. Many people at Fisk, including staff, students, and former students, asked the university to keep him. But Fisk ended his contract anyway.
Helping the Little Rock Nine
In 1957, Lee Lorch was the head of the Mathematics Department at Philander Smith College. This was another small Black college in Little Rock, Arkansas. That year, he and his wife, Grace, helped the Little Rock Nine. These were nine Black high school students who were trying to be the first Black students to attend Little Rock Central High School. Many white people were against this. Grace Lorch even helped protect a 15-year-old Black girl named Elizabeth Eckford from an angry crowd.
Because of their help, the Lorches faced threats. People left sticks of dynamite in their garage. Also, the school's funding was at risk. So, Lee Lorch resigned from his job and had to find new work again.
Moving to Canada
By 1959, many U.S. universities would not hire Lee Lorch. This was like being on a "blacklist." So, he accepted a job at the University of Alberta and moved his family to Canada. In 1968, he moved to York University in Toronto and taught there until he retired in 1985. Even after retiring, he kept an office at York and continued to work on math papers.
Lee Lorch remained active in politics in Canada. He was a member of the Communist Party of Canada and other groups that worked for peace and friendship between countries.
Achievements in Math and Beyond
Lee Lorch's early math work focused on how certain types of Fourier series (a complex math topic) behaved. He was recognized for his excellent work in mathematics. He became a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and was elected to the councils of several important math organizations.
Two of the colleges that had fired him, Fisk University and City University, later gave Lee Lorch honorary degrees. This was a special award to show respect for his achievements. He was also honored by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1990 and by Spelman College in 1999. In 2003, a group called the International Society for Analysis gave him an honorary life membership. They recognized his important math contributions and his fight for people who were treated unfairly and for world peace.
In 2007, Lee Lorch received the highest award from the Mathematical Association of America for his great service to mathematics. In the same year, he was one of the first Canadians to be chosen for the Cuban Academy of Sciences. In 2012, he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.
His Lasting Impact
Lee Lorch's most important legacy was how he encouraged Black students, including Black women, to study math at a high level. At Fisk University, he taught three of the first Black students ever to earn doctorates (the highest degree) in mathematics. Out of 21 Black American women who earned a PhD in math before 1980, Lee Lorch taught three of them while he was at Fisk.
In 2010, someone asked Lee Lorch if he would have done anything differently in his life. He replied, "More and better of the same." He passed away in 2014 in Toronto, at the age of 98.
See also
- Grace Lorch
- List of peace activists
