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Article: Lee, Bertram M. Sr. 1939–2003
- Article from:
- Contemporary Black Biography
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Bertram M. Lee, Sr. 1939
–
2003
Entrepreneur
Declared Bankruptcy
Pioneered Black TV Station Ownership
Bought Denver Nuggets
Returned to Chicago
Sources
Bertram M. Lee, Sr. made history in 1989 when he became the first African American to hold a majority stake in a major-league U.S. sports franchise. Lee and his partners, who included the late U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, acquired the National Basketball Association
’
s Denver Nuggets team for $65 million. At the time, Lee stressed that affirmative action had played no part in the historic ownership deal.
“
As African Americans, in these kind[s] of transactions, one of the things we fight is the tendency for ...