[4] Dr. Penn first retired from politics after 1951, but became involved again with the powerful United Citizen's Council of Virginia.
[6] Disgusted with Virginia politicians' attitude toward segregation and the Byrd Organization, Dr. Penn moved to Washington, DC, in 1961,[7] but later returned to Roanoke.
Some 85 Negroes yesterday attended a meeting at the St. Paul Methodist Church and filled out applications for jobs at the LeMarco Manufacturing Co.
[10] In an article about Dr. Penn, published in 2006, the company was described as a personal project: "Penn organized a group of workers at the end of the 1950s and opened Lamarco Manufacturing Co., a dress-making plant on the old Fifth Street in Northwest Roanoke that offered jobs to blacks.
Penn blamed a personal illness, the high cost of training and an $11,000 loss caused by the failure of a New York company the factory had done business with.
[12] Dr. Penn was a member of an interracial committee to improve racial relations in Roanoke in 1960.
He was a member of the Roanoke Civic League, and active in Democratic Party politics, working for the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960.
[15] Harry T. Penn was also active in the Roanoke Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Penn Hall at Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke is named in his honor.
But Penn did become the first black person appointed to the board, "at least to the knowledge of local school officials," the paper reported.
Penn, a Lynchburg native and longtime critic of segregation, was a member of an interracial committee to improve race relations in 1960.