Helen Shores Lee

Lee was born in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, on May 3, 1941.^[2] Her father was Arthur Davis Shores, a prominent civil rights attorney in Alabama^[3] and her mother, Theodora, was active in their community.^[4] Her neighborhood was a frequent target of the Ku Klux Klan and was attacked so many times it earned the nickname Dynamite Hill.^[5] Lee grew up in the segregated South, with separate facilities and entrances for black people.^[6] Given her parents' work, Lee herself often tried to resist the racism of the time throughout her adolescence.^[7] Lee tried to shoot at a car of white men threatening the family home when she was 13, but her father stopped her.^[7]

Lee first attended a trial during Lucy v. Adams in 1955, where her father represented Autherine Lucy amidst the effort to desegregate the University of Alabama.^[8] She later described the disrespect toward her father in the case as dispiriting, driving her away from a legal career.^[8]

Lee graduated from A.H. Parker High School and went on to earn her Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Fisk University in 1962.^[9][10] In 1963, Lee's house was bombed twice within two weeks and also shot at; one attack injured Lee's mother and killed their family pet.^[2] She relocated to California and later earned her Master of Arts in clinical psychology from Pepperdine University.^[10]

From 1971 to 1987, Lee worked as a clinical psychologist,^[10] before being encouraged by family friend Chris McNair to "follow in her father's footsteps".^[8] She enrolled in the Cumberland School of Law, graduating with her Juris Doctor in 1987 and admission to the Alabama State Bar in 1988.^[3] As a lawyer, she fought against both racial discrimination and segregation and working on cases dealing with employment discrimination and civil rights.^[11] She served on the Alabama State Ethics Commission from 1996 to 2000, and served as chairwomen from 1999 to 2000.^[2]

In 2003, Lee became a judge for the 10th Judicial Circuit of Alabama.^[12] She was the first African-American woman to serve as a judge in Jefferson County.^[12] In 2012, Lee published The Gentle Giant of Dynamite Hill: the Untold Story of Arthur Shores and His Family's Fight for Civil Rights, co-authored by Lee and her sister Barbara.^[9]

Lee retired in 2016.^[11] She died on July 2, 2018.^[12]

• In 2013, Lee was awarded the Jeana P. Hosch Woman of Valor from the YWCA^[9]
• In 2014, Lee was named Samford University Alumnus of the year^[10]
• In 2025, named to the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame^[3]