1827–1904
Biography · Military
Murder of Lemuel Penn
1915–1964
United States
Biography
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., and the father of two daughters and one son, Linda, 13, Sharon, 11, and Lemuel Jr., 5.
Sources & collection details
Wikipedia contributors — original record ↗
Biography text · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source checked 2026-10-13
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