The first biography of Lester Blackwell Granger.
He led the National Urban League for twenty years and helped orchestrate the desegregation of the United States Navy — and no one has written about his life.
Lester Blackwell Granger (1896–1976) was Executive Director of the National Urban League from 1941 to 1961. His leadership led to breaking down racial barriers in countless corporations and communities across the U.S.A. During the Second World War, as a civilian adviser to Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, he traveled some sixty thousand miles through the fleet and the shore establishment, listening to thousands of sailors, and returned with the recommendations that became the basis for Navy desegregation — the first of the armed forces, which ultimately provoked the fall of racial barriers in the rest.
About Me
I am Richard Augustus Granger II, great-grandnephew of Lester Blackwell Granger. My great-grandfather Augustus was one of Lester’s brothers. In my professional life as a brand consultant, I’ve cultivated skills in research, writing and design to help present the most authentic and compelling version of my clients to the world. Now I’m turning that experience towards my uncle.
This will be the first full-length account of his life, built from his own manuscripts, oral histories, and archival collections across the country — and held to an explicit standard of evidence, treating family lore and Lester’s retrospective self-accounts as claims to corroborate rather than repeat.
Researchers, archivists, and members of the Granger, Lane and Turpin families: I would be glad to hear from you.
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