Norvel LaFallette Ray Lee (1924-1992)

D-5

Norvel Lee was born in Botetourt County and grew up a mile northeast of here. He joined the Army Air Forces in 1943, was trained in Tuskegee, AL, and later retired from the Air Force Reserve as a lieutenant colonel. In 1948, Lee was arrested in Covington for refusing to leave the whites-only section of a train car. The Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals reversed his conviction in 1949 on the grounds that the state could not enforce segregation laws on a local train if the passenger held a ticket for interstate travel. In 1952, Lee earned an Olympic gold medal in boxing in Helsinki, Finland. A graduate of Howard University, he was later a corrections officer and educator in Washington, D.C.

Department of Historic Resources, 2021

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Baltimore Afro-American, 25 Sept., 16, 18, 23 Oct. 1948, 17 Sept. 1949. Norfolk Journal and Guide, 17 Sept. 1949. Washington Post, 21 Aug. 1992. Fincastle Herald, 17 Aug. 2016. Roanoke Times, 18 April 2021. Norvel Lee v. Commonwealth of Virginia (1949), record no. 3558 in the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. Lee v. Commonwealth: https://casetext.com/case/lee-v-commonwealth-7 U.S. Olympic Association, United States 1952 Olympic Book (New Haven, CT: The Walker-Ratcliffe Co., 1953). Sulo Kolkka, Official Report of the Organising Committee for the Games of the XV Olympiad, Helsinki, 1952 (Helsinki, 1955). Ken Conklin, Norvel: An American Hero (Daleville, VA: Chapin Keith Publishing, 2021).