"It was like all of us had been Raped": Sexual violence, community mobilization, and the African American freedom struggle

Journal of American History

Volumn 91, Issue 3, 2004, Pages 906-930

  McGuire, Danielle L ^a  

^a Rurgers University

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 33745651245     PISSN: 00218723     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3662860     Document Type: Article

References (184)

1. New York Amsterdam News, June 20, 1959, p. 37.
2. Jimmy Carl Cooper, a white youth, testified that David Beagles told him he planned to go out and get "some nigger 'stuff" and noted that "stuff was not the word used": Trezzvant W. Anderson, "Rapists Missed Out on First Selection," Pittsburgh Courier, June 20, 1959, p. 3.
3. A cleaned-up version reported that Beagles had plans to get a "Negro girl": "Four Convicted in Rape Case," Tallahas-see Democrat, June 14, 1959, p. 7.
4. "I Was Scared," Pittsburgh Courier, June 20, 1959, p. 1.
5. "Four Begin Defense in Trial on Rape," New York Times, June 13, 1959, p. A13.
6. See also criminal case file #3445, State of Florida v. Patrick Gene Scarborough, David Ervin Beagles, Ollie Odell Stoutamire, and William Ted Collinsworth, 1959 (Leon County Courthouse, Tallahassee, Fla.) (copy in Danielle L. McGuire's possession)
7. Thanks to the Leon County Courthouse for sending me the file. Because the original trial transcript is no longer available, I have had to rely on newspaper reports, particularly those in African American newspapers: the Baltimore Afro-American, the Louisiana Weekly, the New York Amsterdam News, the Pittsburgh Courier, and the South Carolina Lighthouse and Informer. The fact that the transcript is missing is verified in the case file notes of Patrick G. Scarborough v. State of Florida, 390 So. 2d 830 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App., 1980).
8. See also Robert W. Saunders, "Report on Tallahassee Incident," May 9, 1959, box A91, series III, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Papers (Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). Thanks to Timothy B. Tyson for finding this information for me.
9. The murders of Emmett Till in 1955 and Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney in 1963 are considered pivotal moments in the civil rights movement. Their stories are given prominent attention in the PBS Eyes on the Prize series and Hollywood films such as the 1988 thriller Mississippi Burning.
10. For monographs on these murders, see, for example, Nicolaus Mills, Like a Holy Crusade: Mississippi 1964-The Turning Point of the Civil Rights Movement in America (Chicago, 1992);
11. and Stephen J. Whitfield, A Death in the Delta: The Story of Emmett Till (Baltimore, 1991).
12. Historians have only recently begun to explore how gender and sexuality affected the civil rights movement. Early efforts to include gender often took the form of "a women's history tacked onto men's history of civil rights": Steven F. Lawson, "Civil Rights and Black Liberation," in A Companion to American Women's History, ed. Nancy A. Hewitt (Oxford, Eng., 2002), 411.
13. On the ways women changed the civil rights movement and how it changed their lives as well, see, for example, Vicki L. Crawford, Jacqueline Anne Rouse, and Barbara Woods, eds., Women in the Civil Rights Movement: Trailblazers and Torchbearers, 1941-1965 (New York, 1990);
14. and Belinda Robnett, How Long? How Long? African-American Women in the Struggle for Civil Rights (New York, 1997). Recent works place black and white women and their long-standing traditions of community organizing and resistance in the forefront of the movement;
15. see, for example, Charles M. Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle (Berkeley, 1995);
16. and Barbara Ransby, Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision (Chapel Hill, 2003).
17. On the "culture of dissemblance," see Darlene Clark Hine, "Rape and the Inner Lives of Black Women in the Middle West: Preliminary Thoughts on a Culture of Dissemblance," Signs, 14 (Summer 1989), 912-20.
18. On the way gender and sexuality structured racial slavery, see, for example, Kathleen Brown, Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs (Chapel Hill, 1996), 128-36;
19. Kirsten Fischer, Suspect Relations: Sex, Race, and Resistance in Colonial North Carolina (Ithaca, 2002);
20. and Deborah Gray White, Arn't I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South (New York, 1985).
21. Gerda Lerner, ed., Black Women in White America: A Documentary History (New York, 1972), 172.
22. See also, for example, Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, "'The Mind That Burns in Each Body': Women, Rape, and Racial Violence," in Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality, ed. Ann Snitow, Christine Stansell, and Sharon Thompson (New York, 1983), 328-49;
23. and Leslie A. Schwalm, A Hard Fight for We: Women's Transition from Slavery to Freedom in South Carolina (Urbana, 1997), 37, 44-45, 119-21.
24. Tera W. Hunter, To 'Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women's Lives and Labors after the Civil War (Cambridge, Mass., 1997), 34.
25. Winthrop Jordan, White over Black: American Attitudes toward the Negro, 1550-1812 (Chapel Hill, 1968), 141.
26. Frances Thompson quoted in Lerner, ed., Black Women in White America, 174-75
27. Harriet Sim-ril quoted, Black Women in White America, 183-85;
28. see also Hannah Rosen, "'Not That Sort of Woman': Race, Gender, and Sexual Violence during the Memphis Riot of 1866," in Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History, ed. Martha Hodes (New York, 1999), 267-93.
29. Essic Harris quoted in Elsa Barkley Brown, "Negotiating and Transforming the Public Sphere: African American Political Life in the Transition from Slavery to Freedom," Public Culture, 7 (1994), 112n8;
30. Ferdie Walker quored in William Chafe, Raymond Gavins, and Robert Korstad, eds., Remember-ingjim Crow: African Americans Tell about Life in the Segregated South (New York, 2001), 9-10.
31. John H. McCray, "Souths Courts Show New Day of Justice," Baltimore Afro-American, July 11, 1959. Theralene Beachem interview by McGuire, March 19, 2003, audiotape (in McGuire's possession);
32. Gloria Den-nard interview by McGuire, March 19, 2003, audiotape, ibid.; Linda S. Hunt interview by McGuire, March 19, 2003, audiotape, ibid.', Mrs. Lucille M. Johnson interview by McGuire, March 16, 2003, audiotape, ibid.
33. Chana Kai Lee, For Freedom's Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer (Urbana, 1999), 9.
34. On the "perilous intersection of race, gender, and sexualized brutality," see Timothy B. Tyson, Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power (Chapel Hill, 1999), 2, 94.
35. Though over a half century old, two of the best articulations of the sexual subtext of segregation that exist are John Dollard, Caste and Class in a Southern Town (Madison, 1937);
36. and Lillian Smith, Killers of the Dream (New York, 1949).
37. Lee, For Freedoms Sake, 9-10, 78-81. Although Lee argues that Hamer was "inclined to dissemble when it came to sex, race, and violence" (ibid., 78-81), Lees own evidence suggests that Hamer testified publicly to the sexualized aspects of her beating in Winona, Mississippi, and her forced sterilization as often as she kept them hidden;
38. see For Freedoms Sake, ibid, 54, 59, 79, 80-81, 89, 198n42, 196n2.
39. See also Kay Mills, This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer (New York, 1993).
40. See Deborah Gray White, Too Heavy a Load: Black Women in Defense of Themselves, 1894-1994 (New York, 1999), 60-66.
41. John Lewis Adams, "'Arkansas Needs Leadership': Daisy Bates, Black Arkansas, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People" (M.A. thesis, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2003). Thanks to John Adams for sharing his research with me. On "reversing the shame," see Temma Kaplan, "Reversing the Shame and Gendering the Memory," Signs, 28 (Autumn 2002), 179-99.
42. Jo Ann Robinson, The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, ed. David J. Garrow (Knoxville, 1987), 37.
43. On the impact of World War II, see, for example, Timothy B. Tyson, "Wars for Democracy: African American Militancy and Interracial Violence in North Carolina during World War II," in Democracy Betrayed: The Wilmington Race Riot of 1898 and Its Legacy, ed. David Cecelski and Timothy B. Tyson (Chapel Hill, 1998), 254-75;
44. and Harvard Sitkoff, "Racial Militancy and Interracial Violence in the Second World War," Journal of 'American History, 58 (Dec. 1971), 661-81. My preliminary dissertation research indicates that African Americans throughout the South used World War II as a wedge to publicize southern injustice, especially sexual violence by white men. Between 1942 and 1950, African American women accused white men of rape, testified about their assaults, and sparked community mobilization efforts in a number of southern towns, often securing convictions, mostly on minor charges with small fines assessed.
45. Fred Auwater, "$600 to Rape Wife? Alabama Whites Make Offer to Recy Taylor Mate," Chicago Defender, n.d., clipping, Recy Taylor case, folder 2, Administrative Files, Gov. Chauncey Sparks Papers, 1943-1947 (Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery);
46. N. W. Kimbrough and J. V. Kitchens, "Report to Governor Chauncey Sparks," Dec. 14, 1944, ibid.; John O. Harris, N. W. Kimbrough, and J. V. Kitchens to Gov. Chauncey Sparks, "Supplemental Report, December 27, 1944," ibid.
47. See also "Grand Jury Refuses to Indict Attackers," Pittsburgh Courier, Feb. 24, 1945, folder 3, ibid.;
48. "This Evening," Birmingham News, Feb. 21, 1945, ibid.;
49. and "Second Grand Jury Finds No Bill in Negro's Charges," Dothan Eagle, Feb. 15, 1945, ibid.
50. On Scottsboro's political infrastructure, see Dan T. Carter, Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South (New · York, 1971);
51. and James Goodman, Stories of Scottsboro (New York, 1994). Over thirty national labor unions and many more locals supported Recy Taylor.
52. See "Press release," Feb. 3, 1945, folder 4, box 430, Earl Conrad Collection (Cayuga Community College Library, Auburn, N.Y.). Other organizations that played an active role in Recy Taylor's defense include the Southern Conference for Human Welfare, the National Council of Negro Women, the Southern Negro Youth Congress, the National Negro Congress, the International Labor Defense, and the Birmingham and Montgomery branches of the NAACP: "Partial Sponsor List," Dec. 28, 1944, ibid.;
53. Earl Conrad, Eugene Gordon, and Henrietta Buckmaster, "Equal Justice under Law," pamphlet draft, ibid.
54. See Kimbrough and Kitchens, "Report to Governor Chauncey Sparks"; Harris, Kimbrough, and Kitchens to Sparks, "Supplemental Report." See also "Grand Jury Refuses to Indict Attackers," Pittsburgh Courier, Feb. 24, 1945;
55. "Dixie Sex Crimes against Negro Women Widespread," Chicago Defender, n.d., Scrapbook Collection, Conrad Collection;
56. "Alabama Rapists Came from Church to Join White Gang in Sex Crime," Chicago Defender, March 24, 1945, ibid.;
57. and "Alabama Has No Race Problem, Claims Official," Chicago Defender, n.d., ibid.
58. See Montgomery Advertiser, April 5, 1949, p. 8A;
59. Montgomery Advertiser, ibid, April 6, 1949, p. 1B;
60. Montgomery Advertiser, ibid., April 7, 1949, p. 2A;
61. S. S. Seay, I Was There by the Grace of God (Montgomery, 1990), 130-31.
62. Criticizes City," Montgomery Advertiser, May 3, 1949, p. 1A;
63. ibid., May 21, 1949, p. 1A;
64. "Anglo-Saxon System of Justice," ibid.Mzy 22, 1949, p. 2B.
65. "Rape Cry against Dixie Cops Fall on Deaf Ears," Baltimore Afro-American, April 9, 1949, p. 1;
66. Stewart Burns, ed., Daybreak of Freedom: The Montgomery Bus Boycott (Chapel Hill, 1997), 7;
67. Joe Azbell quoted in "Cradle of the Confederacy," transcript, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Southern Regional Council Web site (March 1997; not currently available; printout in McGuire's possession).
68. Rufus A. Lewis story in Townsend Davis, Weary Feet, Rested Souls: A Guided History of the Civil Rights Movement(New York, 1998), 34.
69. Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1963 (New York, 1988), 130.
70. Marissa Chappell, Jenny Hutchinson, and Brian Ward, "'Dress modestly, neatly ... as if you were going to church': Respectability, Class, and Gender in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Early Civil Rights Movement," in Gender in the Civil Rights Movement, ed.
71. Peter J. Ling and Sharon Monteith (New York, 1999), 87. Branch, Parting the Waters, 130.
72. Black leaders in Montgomery decided against using the arrests of Claudette Colvin, an unwed pregnant teenager, and Mary Louise Smith, the daughter of a local drunk, as test cases for desegregating the buses; see Branch, Parting the Waters, 123-28;
73. Lynn Olson, Freedom's Daughters: The Unsung Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement from 1830-1970 (New York, 2001), 94-95; and Chappell, Hutchinson, and Ward, "'Dress modestly, neatly ...as if you were going to church,'" 84.
74. Neil R. McMillen, The Citizens' Council: Organized Resistance to the Second Reconstruction, 1954-1964 (Urbana, 1994), 184, 186;
75. see also Numan V. Bartley, The Rise of Massive Resistance: Race and Politics in the South during the 1950s (Baton Rouge, 1969), 83-84;
76. and Tom P. Brady, Black Monday: Segregation or Amalgamation, America Has Its Choice (Winona, Miss., 1955). The White Citizens' Councils counted approximately 250,000 members throughout the South.
77. Hine, "Rape and the Inner Lives of Black Women in the Middle West," 915.
78. Brown, "Negotiating and Transforming the Public Sphere," 146.
79. Historians of the modern day civil rights movement are beginning to build upon work that chronicled the ways respectability, dignity, and manhood and womanhood shaped the strategies and goals of the middle- and working-class black activists during Reconstruction and the Progressive Era; see, for example, Glenda Gilmore, Gender and Jim Crow: Women and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896-1920 (Chapel Hill, 1999);
80. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920 (Cambridge, Mass., 1993).
81. "Deputy Tells of Confessions," Tallahassee Democrat, June 12, 1959.
82. Saunders, "Report on Tallahassee Incident."
83. "Deputy Tells of Confessions," Tallahassee Democrat, June 12, 1959. Original reports stated that Owens was "bound and gagged," but she later testified that she was only blindfolded; after she pulled the blindfold down, she appeared to have been gagged.
84. "Four Whites Seized in Rape of Negro," New York Times, May 3, 1959, p. A45.
85. On the Tallahassee bus boycott, see Glenda Alice Rabby, The Pain and the Promise: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Tallahassee, Florida (Athens, Ga., 1999), 9-46. Robert M. White, "The Tallahassee Sit-ins and CORE: A Nonviolent Revolutionary Sub-movement" (Ph.D. diss., Florida State University, 1964), 65.
86. White, "Tallahassee Sit-ins and CORE," 65.
87. "Rapists Face Trial," Famuan, 27 (May 1959), 1, 3;
88. "Negroes Ask Justice for Co-ed Rapists," Atlanta Constitution, May 4, 1959, p. 2;
89. "Four Whites Seized in Rape of Negro," New York Times, May 3, 1959, p. A45;
90. New York Times, ibid., May 5, 1959, p. A23;
91. "Mass Rape of Co-ed Outrages Students," Louisiana Weekly, May 9, 1959, p. 1;
92. Lisservatore Romano, June 12, 1959;
93. Herald Tribune-London, June 13, 1959;
94. "Jury to Take Up Rape of Negro Co-ed," Atlanta Constitution, May 5, 1959, p. 5.
95. Patricia Stephens Due telephone interview by McGuire, March 4, 1999 (notes in McGuire's possession). See also Tananarive Due and Patricia Stephens Due, Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights (New York, 2003), 40-41. White, "Tallahassee Sit-ins and CORE," 65.
96. See Howard Smead, Blood Justice: The Lynching of Mack Charles Parker (New York, 1988);
97. Tyson, Radio Free Dixie, 143;
98. "Lynch Victim Mack Parker's Body Is Found," Tallhassee Democrat, May 5, 1959.
99. "4 Indicted in Rape of Negro Co-ed," New York Herald Tribune, May 7, 1959, p. 5;
100. Moses Newson, "Leaves Hospital to Give Testimony," Pittsburgh Courier, May 16, 1959, pp. 1-2.
101. M. C. Williams quoted in "Packed Court Hears Not Guilty," Pittsburgh Courier, May 16, 1959, pp. 1-2;
102. "Judge Instructs Jury Here," Tallahassee Democrat, May 6, 1959, p. 1;
103. "Sobbing Co-ed Bares Ordeal," Baltimore Afro-American, May 16, 1959, p. 1;
104. "Indictment for Rape," criminal case file #3445, Florida v. Scarborough, Beagles, Stoutamire, and Collinsworth;
105. "Four Plead Not Guilty to Rape," Tallahassee Democrat, n.d., clipping, folder 4, box 912, W. May Walker Papers (Special Collections, Robert Manning Strozier Library, Florida State University, Tallahassee).
106. Claude Sitton, "Negroes See Gain in Conviction of Four for Rape of Co-ed," New York Times, June 15, 1959, p. Al.
107. Statistics are from David R. Colburn and Richard K. Scher, Florida's Gubernatorial Politics in the Twentieth Century (Gainesville, 1995), 13.
108. Willis McCall quoted in Steven F. Lawson, David R. Colburn, and Darryl Paulson, "Groveland: Florida's Little Scottsboro," in The African American Heritage of Florida, ed. David R. Colburn and Jane L. Landers (Gainesville, 1995), 298-325, esp. 312.
109. See Moses J. Newson, "The Wind Blew, the Sky Was Overcast," Baltimore Afro-American, June 20, 1959;
110. Moses J. Newson, "Abraham's Shadow Hangs Low over Tallahassee," ibid.; and Moses J. Newson, "His Mother Can Never Forget Him," ibid.
111. "Another Dixiecrat Headache," Pittsburgh Courier, June 20, 1959;
112. "The Other Story," n.d., clipping, folder 1, box 912, Walker Papers.
113. William H. Chafe, "Epilogue from Greensboro, North Carolina," in Democracy Betrayed, ed. Cecelski and Tyson, 281-82.
114. "Senate to Get Racial Measures," Tallahassee Democrat, June 14, 1959, p. 1; "Pent Up Critique on the Rape Case," ibid., May 14, 1959.
115. Pittsburgh Courier, May 30, 1959, p. 3;
116. "Mr. Muhammad Speaks," Pittsburgh Courier, May 16, 1959.
117. Ella Baker quoted in Pittsburgh Courier, May 30, 1959, p. 3;
118. see also Ransby, EIla Baker and the Black Freedom Movement, 210.
119. "Enforce the Law," New York Amsterdam News, May 9, 1959;
120. "What Will Florida Do?," Pittsburgh Courier, May 16, 1959.
121. "King Asks Ike to Go to Mississippi," Baltimore Afro-American, May 23, 1959;
122. see also Martin Luther King Jr. to Clifford C. Taylor, May 5, 1959, in The Papers of Martin Luther King, ed. Clayborne Carson et al. (vol. 6, Berkeley, forthcoming). Thanks to Kieran Taylor for sending me this information.
123. "Report from Europe," Baltimore Afro-American, May 23, 1959;
124. "King Asks Ike to Go to Mississippi," ibid. For the impact of the Cold War on civil rights, see, for example, Mary L. Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy (Princeton, 2000);
125. and Thomas Borstelmann, The Cold War and the Color Line: American Race Relations in the Global Arena (Cambridge, Mass., 2001).
126. "Appeal to U.N. to Stop Race Violence," Louisiana Weekly, May 9, 1959, p. 1.
127. Tyson, Radio Free Dixie, 145-51, esp. 148, 149; ibid, 163-65.
128. Roy Wilkins to LeRoy Collins, May 6, 1959, box A91, series III, NAACP Papers.
129. Tallahassee Democrat, May 4, 1959. On the "fair maiden," see Hall, "'The Mind That Burns in Each Body,'" 335.
130. "I Was Scared," Pittsburgh Courier, June 20, 1959:
131. see also "Did Not Consent," Tallahassee Democrat, June 11, 1959;
132. "Rape Co-eds Own Story," New York Amsterdam News, June 20, 1959, p. 1;
133. Atlanta Constitution, June 12, 1959;
134. "Negro Girl Tells Jury of Rape by Four," New York Times, June 12, 1959, p. A16. Coverage of Owens's testimony was nearly identical in newspapers cited.
135. "Did Not Consent," Tallahassee Democrat, June 11, 1959; ibid.; ibid.;
136. "I Was Scared," Pittsburgh Courier, June 20, 1959, p. 1;
137. "Did Not Consent," Tallahassee Democrat, June 11, 1959; ibid.;
138. see also Charlotte Observer, June 12, 1959, p. 1A.
139. "Did Not Consent," Tallahassee Democrat, June 11, 1959;
140. "I Was Scared," Pittsburgh Courier, June 20, 1959;
141. "State's exhibits" (knife) in criminal case file #3445, Florida v. Scarborough, Beagles, Stoutamire, and Collinsworth, 1959.
142. "Rape Co-eds Own Story," New York Amsterdam News, June 20, 1959, p. 1;
143. "I Was Scared," Pittsburgh Courier, June 20, 1959, p. 1;
144. see also "Four Begin Defense in Trial on Rape," New York Times, June 13, 1959, p. A13.
145. Doctors quoted in "Rape Co-eds Own Story," New York Amsterdam News, June 20, 1959, p. 1;
146. also in "Four Begin Defense in Trial on Rape," New York Times, June 13, 1959, p. A13;
147. friends quoted in "Did Not Consent," Tallahassee Democrat, June 11, 1959; John Rudd and Richard Brown quoted in "Deputy Tells of Confessions," ibid., June 12, 1959.
148. Anderson, "Rapists Missed Out on First Selection," Pittsburgh Courier, June 20, 1959, p. 3;
149. "Four Begin Defense in Trial on Rape," New York Times, June 13, 1959, p. A13;
150. Howard Williams quoted in "Rape Defendants Claim Consent," Tallahassee Democrat, June 13, 1959.
151. "Negro Co-ed Gave Consent, Rape Defendants Tell Jury," Atlanta Constitution, June 13, 1959.
152. William Hopkins quoted in "Four Convicted in Rape Case; Escape Chair; 2 hr 45 min Verdict Calmly Received in Court," Tallahassee Democrat, June 14, 1959, p. 1; Pearlie Collinsworth and friends quoted in "Rape Defendants Claim Consent," ibid., June 13, 1959;
153. Maudine Reeve's history of Ted Collinsworth, "State's exhibit #15." criminal case file #3445, Florida v. Scarborough, Beagles, Stoutamire, and Collinsworth, 1959; letter from Mrs. W. T. Collinsworth, "State's exhibit #16," ibid.
154. W. M. C. Wilhoit's testimony in "Motion for Leave to File Notice of Defense of Insanity," May 28, 1959, criminal case file #3445, Florida v. Scarborough, Beagles, Stoutamire, and Collinsworth, 1959.
155. "Four Begin Defense in Trial on Rape," New York Times, June 13, 1959, p. A13; John Rudd quoted in "Four Guilty of Raping Negro; Florida Jury Votes Mercy," ibid., June 14, 1959, p. 1;
156. Arthur Everett, "Four Convicted in Florida Rape Case," Washington Post, June 14, 1959;
157. "Insanity Plea Prepared as Rape Case Defense," Tallahassee Democrat, May 28, 1959; "Mental Exam Set for Collinsworth," ibid., May 29, 1959;
158. "Four Begin Defense in Trial on Rape," New York Times, June 13, 1959, p. A13.
159. "Four Guilty of Raping Negro; Florida Jury Votes Mercy," New York Times, June 14, 1959, p. Al. Charles U. Smith interview by Jackson Lee Ice, 1978, in Jackson Lee Ice Interviews, Florida Governors Manuscript Collection (Special Collections, Strozier Library); verified in Charles U. Smith telephone interview by McGuire, March 9, 1999 (notes in McGuire's possession).
160. "Precedent Seen in Rape Trial," Tampa Tribune, June 15, 1959;
161. Tallahassee Democrat, June 14, 1959, p. 1.
162. "Verdicr," June 14, 1959, criminal case file #3445, Florida v. Scarborough, Beagles, Stoutamire, and Col-linsworth, 1959.
163. "Guilty as Charged," Baltimore Afro-American, June 20, 1959;
164. A. H. King quoted in "No Brutality Proof, Says Florida Jury," Atlanta Constitution, June 15, 1959, p. 1.
165. Sitton, "Negroes See Gain in Conviction of Four for Rape of Co-ed," New York Times, June 15, 1959, p. Al;
166. "I'm Leaving Dixie," New York Amsterdam News, June 20, 1959.
167. Apparently students at Florida A&M ostracized Thomas Butterfìeld and Richard Brown for failing to protect Betty Jean Owens and Edna Richardson; students thought they ought to have shown some "physical resistance" rather than run away from the "point of a knife and gun": "I'm Leaving Dixie," New York Amsterdam News, June 20, 1959. "Hits Negro Men," ibid., June 6, 1959, p. 8.
168. "Williams Was Right," Baltimore Afro-American. June 27, 1959;
169. "Four Convicted in Rape Case," Tallahassee Democrat, June 14, 1959, p. 7;
170. "I'm Leaving Dixie," New York Amsterdam News, June 20, 1959.
171. Sitton, "Negroes See Gain in Conviction of Four for Rape of Co-ed," New York Times, June 15, 1959, p. Al.
172. "Negroes Say They Will Use Tallahassee Case as Precedent in Rape Trials," Tampa Tribune, June 15, 1959. Later that summer, Leon A. Lowery and others helped launch a successful campaign to highlight the unequal justice meted out for black men accused of raping white women.
173. See also Trezzvant W. Anderson, "Four Florida Rapists Near Chair," Pittsburgh Courier, July 4, 1959.
174. Roy Wilkins to Fredrick Cunningham, June 23, 1959, box A91, series III, NAACP Papers; "This Is Not Equal Justice," Louisiana Weekly, July 4, 1959.
175. Fred G. Millette to Judge W. May Walker, June 15, 1959, box 912, folder 1, Walker Papers; Mrs. Laura Cox to Judge Walker, June 15, 1959, ibid.; Mrs. Bill Aren to Judge Walker, June 15, 1959, ibid.
176. On the "incubus," see Glenda Gilmore, "Murder, Memory, and the Flight of the Incubus," in Democracy Betrayed, ed. Cecelski and Tyson, 73-93.
177. Frederick Douglass quoted in Martha Hodes, White Women, Black Men: Illicit Sex in the Nineteenth-Century South (New Haven, 1997), 206.
178. For information on Florida's "moderate" racial politics, see Tom Wagy, Governor LeRoy Collins of Florida: Spokesman of the New South (University, Ala., 1985);
179. and Steven F. Lawson, "From Sit-in to Race Riot: Businessmen, Blacks, and the Pursuit of Moderation in Tampa, 1960-1967," in Southern Businessmen and Desegregation, ed. Elizabeth Jacoway and David R. Colburn (Baton Rouge, 1982), 257-81.
180. Cases cited in Kimberly R. Woodard, "The Summer of African-American Discontent," unpublished paper, Duke University, 1992 (in McGuire's possession). See also "Death to Be Demanded in Rape Case," Baltimore Afro-American, July 4, 1959; John H. McCray, "Marine Doomed to Electric Chair in S.C. Rape Case," ibid., July 11, 1959, p. 1; John H. McCray, "Marine Doomed to Electric Chair in S.C. Rape Case," ibid., July 11, 1959, p. 1;
181. Clarence Mitchell, "Separate but Equal Justice," ibid.; "Girlfriend Turns in Rape Suspect," ibid., Aug. 1, 1959; Trezzvant Anderson, "Negroes Weep as Georgia White Is Acquitted," Pittsburgh Courier, Sept. 2, 1959.
182. "The Tallahassee Case: A Turning Point in South," New York Amsterdam News, July 18, 1959;
183. John H. McCray, "South's Courts Show New Day of Justice," Baltimore Afro-American, June 11, 1959.
184. Richard Haley, "Report on Events in Tallahassee, October 1959-June 1960," folder 7, box 10, series 5, Congress of Racial Equality Papers (Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison).