Description
Photograph of a Georgia Historical Commission marker on Georgia Highway 172 in Madison County. The marker commemorates the murder of Lt. Col. Lemuel Penn by Ku Klux Klan members in 1964.The text of the marker is as follows: "Lt. Col. Lemuel Penn and the Civil Rights Act. 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 members 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 convince 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. Erected by the Georgia Historical Society, Lemuel Penn Memorial Committee, and Colbert Grove Baptist Church."The Georgia Historical Commission was the earliest statewide force for historic preservation in Georgia; the advent of the commission was the first time state government, rather than a private organization, became involved in historic preservation. One of the commission's major works was erecting some 1,800 historical markers.
Image
Please contact holding institution for information regarding use and copyright status.
