photo by steed media service

As a richly-decorated television executive, Debra Lee is obviously an ardent supporter and defender of two main articles of the U.S. Constitution: Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Assembly. How could she be otherwise? Those were the dual engines that fueled the Civil Rights Movement, which inspired Lee to ascend the corporate ladder to become the Chairman & CEO of Black Entertainment Television (BET). It’s chilling to hear how the upheaval of 1968 almost extinguished her inner fire to succeed.

“I was 13 years old when Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. And I remember feeling that, after he was shot and RFK [Robert F. Kennedy] was shot [two months later], that if you did something great in this country, you were assassinated,” she said, her voice tinged with sadness. “And I remember that had such a profound impact on me as a young person that luckily we’ve moved beyond that.” Far enough to where Lee is grudgingly tolerant of BET detractors protesting her. However, there is just one caveat: she doesn’t want those Constitutional rights exercised on her manicured lawn every single day. Lee has been the unhappy recipient of a thunderstorm of protest marches regarding Black Entertainment Television’s programming content from members of the Washington, D.C., religious community.

Lee broached the sensitive topic during an informal discussion during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Later in Memphis, she exhorted her community to maximize the rights bequeathed by King. “It’s so important for us to commemorate this 40th anniversary ... [to] remember MLK and what he stood for, to our community and to the world,” she says as the Memphis sky sobbed above the multitude in attendance. “And it’s especially important for us to do this for the young people who weren’t alive when he was alive.” -terry shropshire

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