Lt. Col. Lemuel Penn and the Civil Rights Act-GHS 97-1-Madison Co
Posted by: 
Sprinterman
N 34° 09.380 W 083° 05.046
17S E 307875 N 3781452
at Madison/Elbert County line (at the Broad River Bridge)
Waymark Code: WM7JBE
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 10/31/2009
Views: 5
On the night of July 11, 1964 three African-American World War II veterans returning home following training at Ft. Benning, Georgia were noticed in Athens by local memers of the Ku Klux Klan. The officers were followed to the nearby Broad River Bridge where their pursuers fired into the vehicle, killing Lt. Col. Lemuel Penn. When a local jury failed to convict the suspects of murder, the federal government successfully prosecuted the men for violations under the new Civil Rights Act of 1964, passed just nine days before Penn´s murder. The case was instrumental in the creation of a Justice Department task force whose work culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
97-1 Erected by the Georgia Historical Society, Lemuel Penn Memorial Committee, and Colbert Grove Baptist Church 2006.7
Type of Marker: Highway
Marker #: 097-1
Date: 2007.1
Sponsor: Georgia Historical Society, Lemuel Penn Memorial Committee, and Colbert Grove Baptist Church
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