The photographer is unknown. [11], The case of the Martinsville Seven was taken up by outside groups, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Civil Rights Congress (CRC). The last to be arrested, Joe Hampton, was taken into custody on January 10. Oh boo, fricking hoo look what they do to criminals in their Afreakan homeland. All six juries convicted the young men of rape and recommended the death penalty. The pardons do not address the guilt or innocence of the men, but Northam said the pardons are an acknowledgement that they did not receive due process and received a "racially-biased death sentence not similarly applied to white defendants.". Deputies in Davidson County rushed to help a 69-year-old man they'd found unresponsive in his house following a welfare check. They were not assigned a lawyer. "No one believed they should get off free " she said. The Wades called an ambulance for her. But, none was selected for any of the seven juries, as the prosecutors rejected all of them on various grounds. Their trials and the electrocutions became a cause clbre similar to the Scottsboro Case of the 1930s. Suggest Edits Toggle Dropdown. But Northam said Tuesday that the death penalty for rape was applied almost exclusively to Black people. All of them were tried by all-white juries. August 31, 2021 / 3:17 PM You are using an out of date browser. cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. Weve updated the security on the site. On January 30, 1951, 400 protesters arrived in Richmond, appealing to Battle on the issue of racial disparity in sentencing. He is now in his 70s and lives just outside the city of Martinsville. [2], The trials were held back to back, each with a separate jury of twelve white men. Use Escape keyboard button or the Close button to close the carousel. The last was Grayson, 38, who was pronounced dead at 8:15 that morning. Gravely also does not believe everything has come out about the case. They would soon be handling the volatile case of seven black men charged with raping a white woman, and Whittle admonished them that the accused "will be tried as though both parties were members of the same race. Ralph Northam, left, looks over the. [2] The men were executed in early February. Ruby belonged to a predominantly black neighborhood in Martinsville,. She said that she had been raped at least 13 times. After being questioned by local police officers, the defendants initially confessed to committing or witnessing the crime. James Walter Grayson is the son of Francis DeSales Grayson, who was one of the seven. Each were. You have permission to edit this article. That they could be standing there for photos with those smug looks on their faces like they have something to be proud of is just beyond my comprehension ! Tony L. Millner, vice president of the Martinsville NAACP chapter, said he was a child when it happened. Virginia Gov. Two days later, on Sunday, 100 people picketed the White House in Washington, and Josephine Grayson, wife of Francis Grayson, unsuccessfully sought to see President Harry S. Truman. Hundreds stayed in Richmond for a prayer vigil until the executions took place. The CRC focused on producing pamphlets and publicity for outside campaigns to raise awareness about the case, including internationally, and hoped to put pressure on government officials. Martin and the NAACP also agreed to represent the men in an appeal for the Seven with the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. The email does not appear to be a valid email address. GREAT NEWS! . Year should not be greater than current year. In some cases, they said that the police had written the confessions, that the formal account varied from a handwritten version, and that they had not fully read the police version when signing and did not recognize that their own accounts had been changed. *. Although it was dark, Floyd testified in all six trials identifying each of the seven. Every single one of the 45 men executed by Virginias electric chair for rape at that point were African American men charged with assaulting white women. The seven executed were all workers. There were six trials two defendants elected to be tried together held back to back, none of them lasting more than a day. Newly elected Virginia Governor John S. Battle refused their request for clemency. Please enter valid email address to continue. Try again. Thanks for using Find a Grave, if you have any feedback we would love to hear from you. Though Governor William Tuck initially agreed to a stay during appellate litigation, by late July 1950, newly elected Governor John S. Battle refused to commute the men's sentences, saying he was horrified by the rapes. Racism was less explicit in the trial than in cases known as "legal lynchings" in the South, in which innocent men were convicted (e.g., the Scottsboro Boys, Willie McGee), and the Groveland Boys. Only one of the accused had a prior criminal record, and most of the men were employed. A presentation of a bouquet of flowers is a special way of showing youre thinking of them and their loss, as the bright colours reflect the personality of the passed loved one. August (1992): 461-490; Eric W. Rise, The Martinsville Seven: Race Rape and Capital Punishment (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995). Now they've been pardoned | CNN, Shocking moment thief is burned to death by villagers who say he led a violent gang. Before their executions, protesters picketed at the White House, and the governor's office received letters from around the world asking for mercy. While Ruby Stroud Floyd was being treated in hospital after the alleged rape, police arrested six suspects, and two days later a seventh. There is 1 volunteer for this cemetery. [2] A relative of the Hairstons has said that their family tradition always said that Floyd had been having an affair with one of the defendants, but this was not explored at trial. Martinsville remained quiet. This relationship is not possible based on lifespan dates. The seven men, most in their late teens or early 20s, were: Grayson, Millner, Frank Hairston Jr.; Howard Lee Hairston; James Luther Hairston; Joe Henry Hampton; and John Clabon Taylor. A Year of History: Martinsville Seven executions remain 'a raw wound' for many. "This is about righting wrongs," Northam said. Northam announced the pardons after meeting with about a dozen descendants of the men and their advocates. Close this window, and upload the photo(s) again. In denying appeals to commute the Martinsville 7 death sentences, Virginias Governor John S. Battle said, that the wave of messages that flooded his desks was cosponsored by the Civil Rights Congress and the Communist Party. There was an error deleting this problem. He said, 'Well, read the book the Martinsville Seven. Despite the efforts put forth by the NAACP, four of the Martinsville Seven were electrocuted on February 2, 1951. In addition, each of the jury pools for the six separate trials contained some African Americans. They should not have been executed," he added. Their trials and the electrocutions became a cause clbre similar to the Scottsboro Case of the 1930s. Some of the defendants acknowledged having sexual intercourse with Floyd, but said that it was consensual, or that she did not resist or say no, either considered necessary as a condition to prove rape. His signed confession, like those of the others, was read into the record and can be found in the old files. The seven were charged with the rape of Ruby Stroud Floyd in a black neighborhood of Martinsville, Virginia on January 8, 1949. Governor Battle listened to their claims but was unwilling to bend on the issue of the Seven, saying: "The prisoners have not been convicted because they are Negroes and should not be released because they are Negroes." On the evening of January 8, 1949, Ruby Stroud Floyd accused 13 black men of raping her while she passed through a poor African American neighborhood in Martinsville, Virginia. To protect them from mob violence, they took them to other jails outside Henry County. After a long legal battle led by the NAACP and a grassroots campaign led by the Civil Rights Congress, the seven were executed in 1951 on February 2nd and February 5th. Each were tried and sentenced to death within an eight-day period by all-white juries. The "Martinsville Seven," as the men became known, were all convicted of raping 32-year-old Ruby Stroud Floyd, a White woman who had gone to a predominantly Black neighborhood in. To use social login you have to agree with the storage and handling of your data by this website. Virginia had historically convicted and executed numerous black men accused of raping white women; for most of its history, only blacks were sentenced to death for rape. Blacks makeup 13% of the population but commit the majority of violent crimes in this country. "This was the Jim Crow South; this was prior to the civil-rights movement why would she be there," she asked. The sentences were carried out in February 1951, the largest group of executions for crimes against a single victim in state history and one of the largest in U.S. history. But Hodge-Muse, Millner and others also believe that not all the facts came out during the trials and that there are many unanswered questions. He further stated, "We all deserve a criminal justice system that is fair, equal, and gets it rightno matter who you are or what you look like. Other demonstrations were held in Washington, D.C., New York and elsewhere in an attempt to convince President Harry S. Truman to interveneagain to no avail. The first four were executed at 15-minute intervals on February 2. It was a dramatic shift for Virginia, a state that had the second-highest number of executions in the U.S. Hampton said he, Howard Hairston, Booker T. Millner and Frank Hairston Jr., were drinking wine near some railroad tracks that Saturday night. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot loses reelection bid, Fiery train crash in Greece kills at least 36, injures some 85, Garland to face Congress amid ongoing special counsel investigations, FBI chief says agency feels pandemic likely started with Chinese lab leak, House select committee hearing paints China as a strategic antagonist, JetBlue flight forced to abort landing in close call at Logan Airport, Three officers shot, standoff follows in Kansas City, Mo., police say, Vanessa Bryant, family settles claims over Kobe crash site photos for $28.5M, Bald eagle couple lays new egg after losing eaglets two years in a row, Supreme Court hears case on race and the death penalty. They argued for lesser sentences, but Battle resisted their pleas. NAACP lawyers argued on appeal that Virginias legal code was hardly race neutral, since whites convicted of rape seldom, if ever received the death penalty. The attack occurred in Cherrytown, the black section of Martinsville. You need a Find a Grave account to continue. Hodge-Muse said it was common knowledge that the victim spent a great deal of time in the black community. In Richmond, more than 200 people, most wearing black armbands, marched to Capitol Square from a memorial meeting at Third Street Bethel AME Church. The trial transcripts show that on the evening of Saturday, Jan. 8, 1949, Ruby Stroud Floyd, the 32-year-old wife of a department-store manager, entered a black area of the city to collect. In their first appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals in 1950, the lawyers argued among other things that the death sentence for rape in Virginia was reserved for blacks. The Associated Press contributed to this report. By the next morning, all the men in custody had signed confessions. THIS is the harrowing moment vengeful villagers burned to death the alleged ringleader of a violent gang they say had been terrorising them for months. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. "A white lady and a little colored boy came by and the lady asked where Ruth Pettie lived we all planned to get her when she came back.". This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. If you have questions, please contact [emailprotected]. Every single one of the 45 men executed by Virginias electric chair for the crime of rape at that point in time were African American men charged with assaulting white women. Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows offered on CBC Gem. Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone. Eric W. Rise, Race, Rape, and Radicalism: The Case of the Martinsville Seven, 1949-1951. The Journal of Southern History LVIII, no. "It is worthy of note that none of the defendants claimed that promises or threats were made by anyone before the confessions were signed," he wrote. You must log in or register to reply here. From left to right: Booker T. Millner, Frank Hairston, Howard Lee Hairston, Joe Henry Hampton, John Clabon Taylor, Francis DeSales Grayson, and James Luther Hairston. Records unavailable at the time of the Martinsville Seven appeals show that from 1626 until 1908, at least three whites and 99 blacks were hanged for rape or attempted rape in Virginia. He and his older brother (below) were not related to Frank Hairston Jr. Francis DeSales Grayson, age 38 and of Richmond, Virginia, denied having sex with Floyd; only defendant without local ties. Using an out of date browser Scottsboro Case of the men in an appeal for the six trials... The email does not believe everything has come out about the Case feedback we love... 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