Lee Bankhead was born in Critten County, Arkansas, on November 12, 1936, the daughter of an organizer for the C.I.O. From 1965 until 1969, the period of most of the documents in this collection, she was involved in civil rights work in Bolivar County, Mississippi. From 1965 until 1968 she served as local project director for SNCC, and also for a time as a teacher in the Head Start Program. In 1967, Bankhead joined the staff of the Tufts-Delta Health Center, an experimental clinic that was being established in Bolivar County under the auspices of Tufts University. In 1969, Bankhead came to Madison to attend the University of Wisconsin.
