Ralph Boston

On August 12, 1960, at the Mt. SAC Relays, Boston broke Jesse Owens's long jump world record, which had stood for 25 years. A few weeks later he won the Rome Olympics with an Olympic record of 8.12 meters, one centimeter ahead of teammate Bo Roberson. In May 1961 he became the first jumper past 27 feet. He held the world record from 1960 to 1962 and again from 1964 to 1967. In 1968 he won bronze in Mexico City behind Bob Beamon, whom he had coached unofficially and who set a new world record.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lauren Rogers Museum of Art — 2.3 mi
  Mississippi's oldest art museum, a 1923 memorial to a timber heir in Laurel, with a major Native American basket collection and no admission fee since it opened.
• Amos Deason House — 5.1 mi
  A Greek Revival house in Ellisville where a Confederate major was shot in 1863, tied to the history of the Free State of Jones.
• African American Military History Museum — 25 mi
  The wooden USO club that opened in March 1942 for Black soldiers training at Camp Shelby, now a museum of African American military service from the Revolutionary War to Iraq.
• Forrest County Courthouse and Dahmer Memorial — 25 mi
  The courthouse where Hattiesburg held Freedom Day on January 22, 1964, and where a memorial now honors Vernon Dahmer, killed by Klansmen in 1966.

More markers nearby

• Oak Park School — 0.6 mi
• Masonite Corporation — 1.1 mi
• Beacon Homes — 1.3 mi
• Dr. King Visits Laurel — 1.6 mi