Martinsville Seven: Difference between revisions

The '''Martinsville Seven''' were a group of seven [[African Americans|African-American]] men from [[Martinsville, Virginia]], who were all executed in 1951 by the state of Virginia after being convicted of raping a white woman. 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> On August 31, 2021, the Governor of Virginia pardoned the convictions of all seven men, 70 years after their deaths.