Martinsville Seven: Difference between revisions

The '''Martinsville Seven''' were a group of seven [[African Americans|African-American]] men from [[Martinsville, Virginia]], who were convicted andall executed in 1951 forby the state of Virginia after being convicted of raping a white woman in 1949. At the time of their arrest, all but one were between the ages of 18 and 23. They were quickly tried in six separate trials (two agreed to be tried together), and each was convicted and sentenced to death. It was the largest mass execution for rape that had been reported in the United States.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Klarman|first1=Michael J.|title=From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality|date=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199880928|url=https://archive.org/details/fromjim_kla_2004_00_2378|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/fromjim_kla_2004_00_2378/page/74 74]|accessdate=21 September 2016}}</ref> AccordingOn toAugust historian Eric W.31, Rise2021, this case "demonstrated the powerGovernor of theVirginia southernpardoned legalthe system to enforce codesconvictions of racialall behavior."<refseven name=RiseJSH>{{cite journal |first=Eric W. |last=Rise |title=Racemen, Rape,70 andyears Radicalism:after Thetheir Case of the Martinsville Seven, 1949–1951 |journal=[[Journal of Southern History]] |volume=58 |issue=3 |year=1992 |pages=461–490 |doi=10deaths.2307/2210164 |jstor=2210164 }}</ref>

The [[Civil Rights Congress]] defended the men originally, and later conducted two marches and other attempts to raise awareness and conduct a public campaign on behalf of their agenda. This was objected to by the [[NAACP]], who feared further backlash because of the CRC's [[Communist]] affiliations. [[Martin A. Martin]] and other NAACP attorneys defended the men on appeals, attempting to ensure fair trials, set [[due process]] precedents, and gain clemency or sentence reductions. The case attracted national newspaper coverage. The NAACP appeals also noted that since Virginia started use of the electric chair, only black men had been executed for rape in the state for what was a non-lethal crime. Though Governor [[William M. Tuck|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. The appellate courts upheld the convictions and sentences, and the US Supreme Court twice refused to hear the cases. In 1977 the Supreme Court referred to those arguments with respect to rulings in other cases. According to historian Eric W. Rise, this case "demonstrated the power of the southern legal system to enforce codes of racial behavior."<ref name=RiseJSH>{{cite journal |first=Eric W. |last=Rise |title=Race, Rape, and Radicalism: The Case of the Martinsville Seven, 1949–1951 |journal=[[Journal of Southern History]] |volume=58 |issue=3 |year=1992 |pages=461–490 |doi=10.2307/2210164 |jstor=2210164 }}</ref>

The alleged rapes occurred on Saturday, January 8, 1949, after Ruby Stroud Floyd, a 32-year-old white woman, entered a black neighborhood in [[Martinsville, Virginia]], to collect money for clothing she had sold. She had previously distributed [[Jehovah's Witnesses]] materials in the neighborhood. Residents warned her not to stay too long, noting the time as late afternoon. She passed four men at the railroad tracks and continued into the neighborhood, where she was later assaulted by some of those four and other men. At 7:30 p.m., after dark, she went to Mary Wade's house for shelter, showing signs of an assault. The Wades called an ambulance for her.

Based on her account, in which she claimed to have been raped by several13 black men,<ref>{{cite news |last=Franklin |first=Jonathan |date=2021-08-31 |title=These 7 Black Men Were Executed For An Alleged Rape. Now, They Have Been Pardoned |url=https://www.npr.org/2021/08/31/1032859243/virginia-history-pardons-execution-civil-rights-martinsville-seven |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210901044345/https://www.npr.org/2021/08/31/1032859243/virginia-history-pardons-execution-civil-rights-martinsville-seven |archive-date=2021-09-01 |access-date=2021-09-01}}</ref> the police quickly arrested Frank Hairston, Jr. and Booker Millner. Four more suspects were arrested that night, based in part on the first two men's confessions. By the next morning, all the men in custody had signed confessions. The last to be arrested, Joe Hampton, was taken into custody on January 10. All but one man waswere in histheir early 20s. After being held by police overnight, the first six all signed confessions, implicating themselves and each other. All admitted to being present at the crime, including Joe Hampton, although not all took part in rape. Only one of the accused had a prior criminal record, and most of the men were employed. 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 with lawyers or their families.<ref name=RiseJSH/>

The officials separated the men. To protect them from mob violence, they took them to other jails outside [[Henry County, Virginia|Henry County]]. The preliminary hearing occurred about a month later, and the [[grand jury]] two months after that. A grand jury (which included both black and white members) indicted all the men. Their quick arrest assured the community that stability was being preserved.<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/martinsvilleseve00rise/martinsvilleseve00rise_djvu.txt Eric Walter Rise, ''THE MARTINSVILLE SEVEN AND SOUTHERN JUSTICE: RACE, CRIME, AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN VIRGINIA, 1949-1951''], 1992 PhD dissertation, pp. full text available at Internet Archive</ref> Authorities showed increased professional conduct and procedures since the controversial arrest and execution of [[Odell Waller]] during World War II (he was initially represented at trial by the Trotskyite [[Revolutionary Workers League (Oehlerite)|Revolutionary Workers League]] and ultimately executed).<ref>{{cite book |first=Eric W. |last=Rise, ''|title=The Martinsville Seven: Race, Rape and Capital Punishment'' (|place=Charlottesville: |publisher=University Press of Virginia, |date=1995) p. |page=62}}</ref>

* Howard Lee Hairston, age 20, denied having sex with Floyd. 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. It has been stated by several residents of Martinsville, Virginia that Grayson and Floyd were in a sexual relationship.

The judge appointed seven attorneys for the seven defendants. Since they ranged widely in experience, he asked the more experienced ones to aid the newer attorneys. Efforts by the defense team to change the trial's venue from the Martinsville Circuit Court—on the grounds that sensationalist press about the events made a fair trial impossible—were unsuccessful. There was considerable community sentiment against the men. 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 (convict)|Willie McGee]]), and the [[Groveland Boys]]).

Rise says that the white community disdained Ruby Floyd for her missionary work with the [[Jehovah's Witnesses]] and for her willingness to enter the black part of Martinsville. The prosecution pointed out that Floyd had had gone to an area considered unsafe for white women, ignored warnings of black residents of staying too long there, and not been attentive to her surroundings or the men she passed.<ref name=RiseJSH/> 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.<ref name="pamelaH"/>

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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Christman|first=Roger|date=2021|title=Seeking Justice For The Martinsville Seven|url=https://uncommonwealth.virginiamemory.com/blog/2021/02/10/the-martinsville-seven/|access-date=2021-08-10|website=The UnCommonwealth: Voices from the Library of Virginia}}</ref> Since Virginia started using an electric chair in 1908, all 45 of the men sentenced to death for rape had been black men convicted of raping white women.<ref name=Green>Frank Green, "[http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2011/feb/06/martinsville-seven-executions-remain-raw-wound-man-ar-823535/ A Year of History: Martinsville Seven executions remain 'a raw wound' for many] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106072647/http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2011/feb/06/martinsville-seven-executions-remain-raw-wound-man-ar-823535/ |date=2012-11-06 }}", ''Richmond Times-Dispatch'', 6 February 2011.</ref> From 1908 to 1951, only Texas, North Carolina and Georgia executed more black men for rape than did Virginia.<ref name="bowers">William J. Bowers (1984), [https://archive.org/stream/martinsvilleseve00rise/martinsvilleseve00rise_djvu.txt ''Legal Homicide: Death as Punishment in America, 1864-1982,''], Appendix A, Northeastern University Press</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/ASWPL Jessie Daniel Ames, ''The Changing Character of Lynching: Review of Lynching, 1931-1941''], with a discussion of recent developments in this field,'' Atlanta: Commission on Interracial Cooperation, Inc., 1942, pp. 34-50 (pamphlet), full text available online at Internet Archive</ref> An editorial in New York's ''[[Amsterdam News]]'' read,

<blockquote>When we consider the fact that in the entire history of the Old Dominion state, no white man has ever received capital punishment for rape, then of necessity we must conclude that the death penalty for seven men for a singular crime was neither righteous, nor compassionate, nor wise.<ref>{{cite web |author=Mark Gado |title=The Martinsville Seven |url=httphttps://www.crimelibrary.comorg/notorious_murders/famous/martinsville_seven/14.html | titlearchive-url=The Martinsville Seven| authorarchive-date=Mark Gado| publisheraccessdate=TruTV |website=Crime Library| accessdate|publisher=DecemberTruTV 10,Crime 2014Library}}</ref></blockquote>

The NAACP thought that involvement by the CRC in appeals could endanger the defendants both because of their inflammatory tactics and its communist affiliation. In this period of the second [[Red Scare]], Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]] and the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] had raised alarms about purported communist influence in government and society. Both African American Newspapersnewspapers, the ''Richmond Afro-American'' and ''Norfolk Journal and Guide'' concluded the national and international crusades by the CRC hurt the defendants' chances for clemency.{{sfn|Rise|1995|p=151}}

All of the appeals by the NAACP failed. The Sevenseven were executed at the [[Virginia State Penitentiary]] in early February 1951. The first four were executed at 15-minute intervals on February 2. The remaining three were executed on February 5, 1951.<ref>King, ''The Devil in the Grove'', pp. 291-292</ref> It is the largest execution for rape charges in the United States.<ref name=":0" /> The day before the youngest of the seven was executed, he said, "God knows I didn't touch that woman and I'll see yay'llall on the other side."<ref name="pamelaH">Pamela Hairston, "[http://www.mndaily.com/2007/02/19/letters-editor Letters to the editor: An infamous event]", ''Minnesota Daily'', 19 February 2007.</ref>

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[[Category:Gang rape in Norththe AmericaUnited States]]