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The Groveland Four (or the Groveland Boys) were four African American men, Ernest Thomas, Charles Greenlee, Samuel Shepherd, and Walter Irvin. In July 1949, the four were accused of raping a white woman and severely beating her husband in Lake County , Florida .
- Norma Padgett Accuses The Groveland Four of Rape
- The Trials of Charles Greenlee, Walter Irvin, and Samuel Shepherd
- Appealing The Death Penalty
- The Groveland Four Are Finally Exonerated
On July 16, 1949, 17-year-old Norma Padgett and her husband Willie were driving home from a dance in Groveland, Florida. According to NBC News, Padgett claimed that their car stalled and four Black men stopped and offered to help. The men then allegedly abducted and raped Padgett after attacking her husband. Within hours of Padgett reporting the as...
Greenlee, Irvin, and Shepherd faced all-white juries as they attempted to prove their innocence. Unfortunately, their trials were rigged against them from the start. The doctor who had examined Norma Padgett after her alleged rape found no evidence of semen or signs of assault, according to the African American Registry. In fact, there was no evide...
In 1951, the United States Supreme Court overturned the original sentences of Irvin and Shepherd due to adverse pre-trial publicity and ordered the Florida courts to retry their case. Sheriff McCall was furious. He arranged to transport Shepherd and Irvin from the prison where they were being held to the Lake County jailhouse to await the trial. Du...
Charles Greenlee was the only member of the Groveland Four to live past 1970 — and the only one who lived beyond his 30s. He died in 2012, seven years before the state pardoned the men in 2019. Greenlee’s family had fought for years for the pardon. And then, in 2021, a Florida judge officially exonerated the Groveland Four. “We all know how things ...
Nov 23, 2021 · The Groveland Four became a disturbing example of racial injustice from the Jim Crow-era, and preceded the high-profile killing of Emmett Till, a Black 14-year-old who was lynched in Mississippi...
- Senior Reporter
- 12 min
Nov 22, 2021 · CNN — The families of the “Groveland Four” got some closure Monday after Florida officially cleared four young Black men wrongly accused of raping a 17-year-old White girl in 1949.
Nov 22, 2021 · Four black men who were wrongly accused of raping a white teenager in the US have been cleared of the charge more than 70 years later.
Jun 28, 2019 · The Groveland Four were four young black men, Ernest Thomas, Charles Greenlee, Samuel Shepherd and Walter Irvin, who were accused of raping Norma Padgett, a 17-year-old white woman on July 16, 1949, in Lake County, Florida.
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Jan 11, 2019 · The Groveland Four were pardoned posthumously Friday by the Florida Clemency Board. But who were the four young black men accused of raping a 17-year-old white woman, and what happened to...
