Murder of Lemuel Penn

Lemuel Augustus Penn
Lt. Col. Lemuel A. Penn
Born(1915-09-19)September 19, 1915
Washington, D.C., U.S.
DiedJuly 11, 1964(1964-07-11) (aged 48)
Madison County, Georgia, U.S.
Buried
Arlington National Cemetery
AllegianceUnited StatesUnited States of America
Service / branch United States Army
Years of service1942 – 1964
Rank Lieutenant Colonel
Battles / warsWorld War II
AwardsBronze Star

Lemuel Augustus Penn (September 19, 1915 – July 11, 1964) was the Assistant Superintendent of Washington, D.C. public schools, a decorated veteran of World War II and a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army Reserve who was murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan, nine days after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

An African American, Lemuel Penn joined the Army Reserve from Howard University and served as an officer in World War II in New Guinea and the Philippines, earning a Bronze Star. When he was murdered at the age of 48, he had been an assistant administrator for the public schools in Washington, D.C.,[1] and the father of two daughters and one son, Linda, 13, Sharon, 11, and Lemuel Jr., 5.[2] In the 1940s, Penn had worked for Gunnar Myrdal on the landmark study of race relations, An American Dilemma, and is cited in that book's acknowledgments.

  1. ^ Violence in the U.S.: 1956-67 by Thomas A. Parker. Facts on File, Inc. p. 69
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference thompson was invoked but never defined (see the help page).