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. In this January 30, 1951 file photo, as temperatures drop below freezing, demonstrators march in front of the White House in Washington, in what they said was an effort to persuade President Harry Truman to halt execution of seven Black men sentenced to death in Virginia on charges of raping a white woman. NAACP officials focused national attention to the case, hoping to delay or overturn the death penalty judgment. The Civil Rights Congress and the Virginia Committee to Save the Martinsville Seven publish a flyer November 8, 1950 explaining why the Virginia case of seven black men sentenced to death was important for the fight against white supremacy. In May, Northamannounced new steps to streamline the pardon process, including increased staff and a new petition portal that allows electronic tracking submission and tracking of pardon requests, CBS affiliate WDBJ reported. The propaganda emanating from these sources bears no semblance of truth and is designed for no other purpose than to foment ill feeling between the races and to mislead those who have no knowledge of the true fact of these cases.. In 1908, Virginia became the fifth state in the U.S. to use the electric chair, and executions were carried out by the Virginia Department of Corrections at the State Penitentiary in Richmond. 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 money owed her by Ruth Pettie, a woman to whom she had sold clothing. Learn more about managing a memorial . Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/78661616/ruby-floyd. As manager of this memorial you can add or update the memorial using the Edit button below. Tony L. Millner, vice president of the Martinsville NAACP chapter, said he was a child when it happened. "The Martinsville Seven were not given adequate due process 'simply for being black,' they were sentenced to death for a crime that a white person would not have been executed for 'simply for being black,' and they were killed, by the Commonwealth, 'simply for being black,'" the advocates wrote in their letter to Northam. When the NAACP appealed their convictions, its defense team noted that when the police had questioned the men, they had been drinking for some time, and they were not allowed to consult lawyers or their families. 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. Meanwhile, other demonstrators picketed the White House in support of the sevcen. The Martinsville Seven were a group of seven African-American men from Martinsville, Virginia, who were convicted and executed in 1951 for raping a white woman in 1949. Are you sure that you want to delete this photo? All of them were tried by all-white juries. Other demonstrations were held in Washington, D.C. in an attempt to convince President Harry S. Truman to interveneagain to no avail. The seven men, ranging in age from 18-37 years old, were arrested in 1949 for the reported rape of 32-year-old Ruby Stroud Floyd, a white woman who lived in Martinsville. Box 500 Station A Toronto, ON Canada, M5W 1E6. But the remaining three men were executed on Monday, Feb. 5. The seven executed were all workers. 2021 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Spotsylvania County Sheriffs Office has decided to end its participation on a national television show, at least for now. Cries and sobs could be heard from some of the descendants after Northam's announcement. Efforts by the defense team to change the trial's venue from the Martinsville Circuit Courton the grounds that sensationalist press about the events made a fair trial impossiblewere unsuccessful. From 1908 when Virginia began using the electric chair to 1951, state records show that all 45 people executed for rape were Black, he said. A prosecutor asked him: "Charlie, do you know what happens to little boys who tell lies when they die?". And the real victim Ruby Stroud Floyd didn't even get a mention from those coon descendants of her rapists ! Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, North Carolina, U.S., Death Indexes, 1908-2004, U.S., Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current, U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014, Thank you for fulfilling this photo request. Ralph Northam granted posthumous pardons Tuesday to seven Black men who were executed in 1951 for the rape of a white woman, in a case that attracted pleas for mercy from around the world and in recent years has been denounced as an example of racial disparity in the use of the death penalty. All of the appeals by the NAACP failed. Persons: howard lee hairston, ruby stroud floyd , liz ryan, frank hairston, james grayson, annie hobson, booker t millner, john battle, mary wade, ruby floyd, james hairston, james luther hairston, frank hairston jr, joe henry hampton. 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 neighbourhood in Martinsville, Va., on Jan. 8, 1949, to collect money for clothes she had sold. She had previously distributed Jehovah's Witnesses materials in the neighborhood. On January 31, a mass demonstration of over 400 took place in Richmond to demand a halt to the planned executions despite the virulent racist opposition of many white supremacists. Why Movieland says you have to be 17 to attend a movie after 7:30 p.m. Ashland dairy farm announces Farmview Creamery to help modernize business, Farmville native caught with 42 lbs of cocaine, $862K in drug money gets 17 years, Diablo Doughnuts dishes up Unicorn Farts and more yeast doughnuts in Glen Allen, Norment, long among the most powerful in the Capitol, is retiring, Bezos 'ban' may speed up Commanders sale as league meeting looms, Mechanicsville man charged with 10 child porn counts, Millions at Risk of Slipping Into Poverty as COVID-Era SNAP Benefits Set to End, More than 300 words have been added to the English dictionary, Citizens travel to Peru's capitol Lima to protest against Boluarte, Russia accuses U.S. of intent to use chemical weapons in Ukraine. While the NAACP focused on racial equality as part of Cold War American democratic visions, CRC mobilized left-based organizations and newspapers from around the world to pressure state and national officials to intervene. And, he asserts, it is "the most dramatic example of how the American judicial system has simply refused to face the facts about race and capital punishment.". The Civil Rights Congress pickets the White House January 30, 1951 demanding President Harry Truman stop the execution of the Martinsville 7 seven African American men sentenced to death for the rape of a white woman in Virginia. This browser does not support getting your location. The Martinsville 7 Project, according to their website, seeks to highlight the case, share their stories, collect and post records related to the case, and promote the pardon request. Former NFL star Chad Johnson says he saved money by living inside Cincinnati Bengals stadium for 2 years. Four of the seven testified at their own trials. If people like George Floyd really did die "simply for being black," how can we doubt that black men in the . 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. Oops, we were unable to send the email. [7] From 1908 to 1951, only Texas, North Carolina and Georgia executed more black men for rape than did Virginia. Save to. It was a dramatic shift for Virginia, a state that had the second-highest number of executions in the U.S. Both African American newspapers, the Richmond Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Guide concluded the national and international crusades by the CRC hurt the defendants' chances for clemency. Year should not be greater than current year. Mrs. Thurman B. Towill, of Governor Battle's office, looks at stacks of protest letters regarding the Martinsville Seven case. 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 Martinsville . By the next morning, all the men in custody had signed confessions. To use social login you have to agree with the storage and handling of your data by this website. The trial lasted for eleven days, during which the jury heard testimonies from both sides, including medical evidence of Floyds physical injuries and accounts from black witnesses whom Floyd appealed to for help after the assault. We will review the memorials and decide if they should be merged. At the time, rape was a capital offence. "The older people all know about it, and it's so hurtful that they don't really want to talk about it. His signed confession, like those of the others, was read into the record and can be found in the old files. Black men executed in 1951 for the rape of a white woman granted posthumous pardons | CBC News Loaded. The prosecution vetoed all potential black jurors so that all-white and all-male juries heard the cases. First published on August 31, 2021 / 3:17 PM. In Richmond, more than 200 people, most wearing black armbands, marched to Capitol Square from a memorial meeting at Third Street Bethel AME Church. She also had abrasions on her elbows, forearms, knees, lower legs and thighs. 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. 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. While Ruby Stroud Floyd was being treated in hospital after the alleged rape, police arrested six suspects, and two days later a seventh. Prospective jurors in each trial included some blacks, but all 72 jurors selected to try the cases were white. The Martinsville Seven were a group of seven African American men from Martinsville, Virginia, who were convicted and executed for raping a white woman in 1949. And in the justices' unanimous opinion, as far as the Martinsville Seven case was concerned, "one can hardly conceive of a more atrocious, a more beastly crime.". The last was Grayson, 38, who was pronounced dead at 8:15 that morning. 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. Floyd identified two of her rapists as Grayson and Hampton, but she could not identify the others. 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.". Please if you have any form of concern, suggestions, or query as regards this publication, kindly contact us. By the spring of 1949, all seven men were charged with rape. 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. New York Public Library. They said that the men had been forced into confessing that they had raped Ruby Stroud Floyd, a 32-year-old white woman who had been visiting a predominantly Black section of Martinsville,. Did You Know That Disney Released A Cartoon Featuring A Freed Slave As The Hero? While we can't change the past, I hope today's action brings them some small measure of peace. 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