We’re back with another installment of Local History Matters, our collaboration with 6th graders from Ramsey Middle School. Each Tuesday, they check in to share a few stories that you might not know about the people and places that make up Minneapolis history. In this edition, we learn about a brave and tireless lawyer named Lena O Smith who was the head of the Minneapolis NAACP and practiced law in the early to mid 1900’s. She was the first African American woman to do so. Her story ties in with our earlier reporting on the Lee Family and the history of redlining, because she represented Arthur and Edith Lee (the first Black family to purchase a home in South Minneapolis) during their assault from angry and violent European American neighbors. In this report, we also learn the history of the famous Foshay Tower, once the tallest building in Minneapolis.
