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Negro Educational Official Slain in Georgia

July 11, 1964 - A Negro school official from Washington was slain in Georgia just before 5 a.m. today when two shotgun blasts were fired into a car he was driving through early morning mists. The shotgun was fired from another car. Two Negro companions of the slain man escaped injury.

Agents of the FBI sped to the scene.

The victim was Lemuel Penn, 49 years old, an assistant superintendent of Washington’s public schools and director of the five vocational high schools in the capital. He was a lieutenant colonel in the Army reserve and a veteran of World War II.

He and his companions were returning to their Washington homes after two weeks of Army Reserve duty at Fort Benning, Ga. The others were Maj. Charles E. Brown, 44, and Lieut. Col. John D. Howard, 42.

The killing took place on George Route 172 about 12 miles northeast of Colbert.

As the three men rounded a sweeping curve alongside a chicken farm and headed down a steep hill toward a concrete bridge across a gorge of the Broad River, two blasts were fired from another car as it passed them going the same way. The bullets tore baseball-sized holes in two windows of the officers’ white 1959 Chevrolet. Mr. Penn slumped at the wheel.

One of the blasts hit Mr. Penn in the head. The other went through the rear part of the car without hitting anyone. As Mr. Penn was hit, Mr. Brown, who was also in the front seat, took the wheel and kept the car from going into the river.

Soon after he learned of it, President Johnson called Governor Carl Sanders to seek Federal-state cooperation in finding the slayer. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy ordered the FBI into the case, and today Joseph Casper, an assistant director of the bureau, arrived from Washington to take charge of the investigation.

Governor Sanders called a news conference to announce that every available state investigator would be assigned to the case. He said he was “ashamed” such an incident had occurred in Georgia.

In a statement, he said:

“I am ashamed for myself and for the responsible citizens of Georgia that this occurrence took place in our state. This unfortunate nonsensical occurrence today represents the inflammatory reaction of a person with a demented mind.

“If we want to see our state destroyed, our citizens demoralized, and the very foundation of our nation undermined, we have only to let this type of individual assume greater prominence and eventually take over, and this will be the end of America.”

Mr. Penn left his wife, Gloria, and three children — Linda, 13, Sharon, 10, and Lemuel Jr., 5.

When Mrs. Penn was told of her husband’s death, she said: “It’s a pity that he could live through World War II and not be able to return home and live within the boundaries of his own country in safety and security.”


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