Northeast Georgians attended a remembrance ceremony on Thursday honoring Lt. Colonel Lemuel Penn. The Army reservist was lynched in Madison County on July 11, 1964. Penn and two other reservists were traveling from Fort Benning in Columbus back to Washington, D.C. when they were targeted by members of the Athens Ku Klux Klan.
In an interview with WUGA Radio’s Alexia Ridley before the ceremony, Athens Area Court Watch Project co-coordinator John Vodicka detailed the events of that night.
“Penn was driving as they left Athens, and the Klansmen trailed the Washington D.C. car,” Vodicka said. “When they got to the Broad River on the Madison County side, the Klan car pulled alongside the car being driven by Lt. Colonel Penn, and shotgun blasts were fired into the Penn car, and Penn was mortally wounded. The other two soldiers managed to keep the car from going into the river.”
The three suspects were acquitted by an all-white jury. Two were tried in federal court and received five-year sentences.
Madison County resident Lena Watkins Chandler organized the July 11 ceremony. Vodicka said she aimed to begin a process so county residents “can own this history, admit to this history, recognize this history, in a way that might bring about some sort of reconciling and healing.”
Major Charles Brown and Lt. Col. John Howard survived the attack. The event was held at the Madison County Senior Center.
This story comes to Now Habersham in partnership with WUGA
