Like millions of veterans, he could not find a place to live. After a two-year search, having lived much of the time in a Quonset hut overlooking Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn, he, along with his wife, Grace, and young daughter, moved into Stuyvesant Town.

I had become very aware of racism through the war; not just anti-Semitism, but the way the American army treated black soldiers. On the troop transport overseas, it was always the black company on board that had to clean the ship and do the dirty work, and I felt very uncomfortable with that.

We had one advantage - all the publicity about the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's policies was affecting business. At the time, they wrote 75 percent of the life insurance policies held by blacks - of course, at discriminatory rates. But things went so bad for them that they had to close their Harlem office. So there was leverage.

Sometimes you have to do things in this life which you don't care to explain.

... extreme, illegal, and immoral, and damaging to the public relations of the college.

Lee Lorch inspired me to study mathematics and helped to mould me as a person because of his belief in the dignity of all people. He remains my mentor to this day.

Dr Lorch conducted [the Elementary Analysis] class as he did all of his other courses. He believed that the students could understand the material, not just learn to do it. He was interested in teaching them the why of mathematics in addition to the how. He also watched the reactions of his class intently, and always maintained good rapport. At the first sign that the class was lost, he would stop, repeat, and give more specific examples. He would motivate the students to participate in class discussions, and would often, through his questioning, draw out of the class the proof of some general result. The students saw that he expected them to learn the material, and they felt compelled to live up to his expectations.

This was first made a matter of record in 1951 when I was teaching at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, a leading historically Black university. The Southeast regional meeting of the Mathematical Association of America took place with Vanderbilt University as host. There was an official banquet at which the national President of the Mathematical Association of America was the speaker. Using rather vulgar language, the chair of the local arrangements committee, a Vanderbilt professor, said that no tickets would be available to Negro members. I'm using the polite version of the word he employed. On April 20, 1951, my department sent a letter to the Board of Governors of the Mathematical Association of America and (well aware that the American Mathematical Society behaved no better) also to the Council of the American Mathematical Society, describing the situation and making certain suggestions. Then, with a covering note, I sent it to 'Science' there being no American Mathematical Society or Mathematical Association of America outlets for letters then ...

No housing or dining facilities were provided by the host institution and the printed program listed only places that are restricted to white patrons. One Negro mathematician did attend. He had to eat by himself. Since he is a Professor at Tuskegee (less than twenty miles away) he was able to return home to sleep. Had he come from a more distant institution and desired to remain over for the second day of the meeting there is no telling where he might have had to sleep. The program listed a Social Hour, details to be announced at the meeting. He asked at the registration desk for further information. A member of the Arrangements Committee told him that "technically" he could attend, but that he "probably would not want to do so, as it was being held in one of the girls' dormitories".

The Administration of Fisk University, in 1954-55, was guilty of serious violations of academic freedom and due process in reaching its decision not to renew the appointment of Professor Lee Lorch. The initial, implicit basis for the Board's consideration of the case, that he had acted improperly when he invoked the First Amendment before a Congressional Committee, was dropped. The substituted, explicit basis for the Board's action, that his conduct subsequent to the hearing was detrimental to the educational program at Fisk University, was not framed as a specific charge against him. No hearing, in accordance with accepted standards, was held.

Because he believed in the principles of decency and justice, and the equality of men under God, Lee Lorch and his family have been hounded through four states from the North to the South like refugees in displaced camps. And in the process of punishing Lee Lorch for his views, three proud institutions of learning have been made to grovel in the dust and bow the knee to bigotry.

... behind the scenes, accompanying the black students to school, then tutoring them as they awaited admission to the high school. Once more, whites abused the Lorches for their activities, evicting them from their apartment, harassing their young daughter, burning a cross on their lawn and placing dynamite in their garage.

At 91, he was still using an office at York University, an activity he continued until just a few short years ago. During his early 90s, Lorch collaborated on a research paper about Bessel functions with Prof Martin Muldoon, a former grad student under Lorch in Edmonton, who was also retired from York's Mathematics Department. Lorch travelled to and from the campus frequently well into his 90s. He could be spotted on campus participating in meetings and other activities. He was a regular patron of restaurants in York Lanes and enjoyed Middle Eastern cuisine in particular. During his later years, Lorch loved the freedom that e-mail and the Internet provided and while his physical mobility decreased, his online activity and activism increased. Up until he was hospitalized, Lorch devoured five newspapers a day, including the 'New York Times'. He would send flurries of e-mails daily about peace and justice issues to friends and acquaintances in and out of the mathematical community.

This is a discussion of the domestic and international contexts within which the African American mathematical community has struggled and is struggling. The effect of general social forces on scientific opportunities is emphasized. Stress is laid upon the importance of supporting the civil rights movement so as to protect, hopefully to expand, minority opportunities in mathematics. These are the mass movements which have forced open some windows of opportunity, windows powerful forces are now seeking to close.