
DATE: Friday, November 14, 1997             TAG: 9711140566

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A4   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Focus 

SOURCE: BY ANGIE CANNON, KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:   76 lines

NOMINEE HAS SEEN FIRSTHAND THE PAIN OF RACISM

Shortly before the latest showdown over his nomination for the nation's top civil rights post, Bill Lann Lee reflected about what his father, a poor immigrant from China, would have said about Republican efforts against him.

Speaking in a gentle, soft voice, Lee said his now-deceased father, who had operated a small hand laundry and routinely endured slurs like ``Dumb Chinaman,'' would try to look for the positive side.

``He lived in a time when it was rough to be different,'' said Lee, 48, a civil rights lawyer from Los Angeles. ``He always felt that it was not he who was at fault, but it was those who didn't realize what the country was all about. He always felt the country was about equal opportunity and fairness.

``He would say, `Well, look, you've gotten very far. It's an honor to be where you are.' And that's how I see things,'' Lee said.

``Knowing my father, he would say to hang in there and persevere,'' said Lee.

Conceding that the past few weeks have been ``pressured,'' Lee said he is drawing strength from the lessons learned from his father, Lee Wei-lim.

After coming to this country, Lee's father volunteered for the Army Air Force during World War II and served in a mostly white unit, where he developed friendships and felt accepted.

When the war was over, Lee's parents opened a hand laundry in a poor neighborhood on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Lee said his parents taught him the values of hard work, honesty and trying to serve others. He also learned how painful discrimination is.

Lee said his father often was subjected to racial epithets because he was a poor Chinese-American who spoke broken English. ``It was very wounding to him,'' Lee said.

Confrontations occurred especially with taxi drivers. Every Sunday, Lee and his parents went to Chinatown in lower Manhattan, often staying late and taking a cab home instead of the subway.

``My father would get very angry, and we would end up stranded a lot,'' Lee said. ``We would get thrown out of cabs, and my mother, my brother and I would be standing out there in the streets in the dark. And my father would be yelling at the cab driver and he would be yelling back.''

Lee's father never wanted his two sons to go into the laundry business. Eventually, Lee graduated from Yale magna cum laude, with a degree in history, then earned a law degree from Columbia University.

Lee has spent his career working on civil rights cases, such as employment discrimination, access to health care and education, and equity in public transportation.

``Had the civil rights laws been in effect and enforced during the time my father and mother had their laundry, their lives might very well have been different,'' Lee said. ``I believe that is something that many Americans feel. The story of my father is not unique. It is something that many of us have lived through.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Bill Lann Lee

Graphic

BILL LANN LEE

Nominated for assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights.

Age: 48

Born: New York City, 1949.

Education: Bachelor's degree, Yale University, 1971.

J.D. degree, Columbia University, 1974.

Career Highlights:

Western regional counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund,

1989-present.

Supervising attorney for civil rights litigation, Center for Law