This new book, from a friend of mine, is very timely.

The author’s website is www.kennethfconklin.com​​​​​​​

Norvel LaFallette Ray Lee was an American military officer, boxer, civil rights activist, and educator. Lee was born in Botetourt County and attended segregated public schools. He enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces in 1943 and completed the Tuskegee Airmen flight training program but was not assigned to a combat unit due to a speech impediment. Lee graduated from Howard University in 1953 and was commissioned as an officer in the Air Force Reserves, retiring at the rank of lieutenant colonel. As an amateur boxer, Lee won national and international boxing titles in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He became the first African American from Virginia to win an Olympic gold medal with his victory in the light heavyweight division at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. In 1949, Lee successfully appealed a conviction for refusing to move from the whites-only section of a train traveling in Virginia. Following his boxing career, Lee worked in education, corrections, and emergency preparedness, holding various leadership positions until his retirement in 1991. Lee died in 1992 at the age of sixty-seven. In 2022, a portion of U.S. Route 220 in Botetourt County was designated the “Norvel LaFallette Ray Lee Memorial Highway” in Lee’s honor.