Who were the four young black men accused of rape?
The Groveland Four were pardoned posthumously last 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 them after their legal ordeal in Lake County?
fastest-growing cities in the first decade of the new century, nearly tripling in population from 2,978 in 2000 to 8,727 in 2010. Since then, the population has nearly doubled, to 16,407, according to the latest estimates.
But old history and not its burgeoning growth thrust the former citrus town into the spotlight Jan. 11 when the Florida Clemency Board, led by newly elected Gov. Ron DeSantis, wiped the stain from the names of Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd, Ernest Thomas and Charles Greenlee.
Dubbed the “Groveland Four” by the press in 1949, the men were accused — many say falsely — of raping 17-year-old Norma Padgett, a married white farm girl.
Now 86, she opposed the pardons, telling the governor and Cabinet meeting as the Clemency Board, “I’m beggin’ y’all not to give them pardon because they done it.”
Thomas fled the county and was tracked down by a deputized posse that killed him. Shepherd was shot to death by notoriously racist Lake County Sheriff Willis McCall, who died in 1994. And Irvin and Greenlee endured jail beatings then spent over a decade in prison before they were freed.
All are dead. Irvin is buried in Edgewood Cemetery, Groveland’s black cemetery.
“While this act cannot right the wrongs done to them many years ago, I hope it will bring peace to their families and community,” DeSantis said of the pardons.
Though his hope is shared by Groveland residents, both black and white, others disagree on what should be remembered — and how.
Groveland City Manager Mike Hein, hired last year, learned about the infamous case after he took the job and read Gilbert King’s book, “Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys and the Dawn of a
New America,”
Prize winner.
He said the time may be right to talk about recognizing the city’s connection to the case with “monumentation” of some kind.
“It’s not something that’s going to be convenient or comfortable but I feel like it’s my duty in a position of leadership to not avoid those difficult or uncomfortable conversations but rather use them to help inform us on our future,” he said.
Any acknowledgment episode would be a first city.
There’s no mention of the Groveland Four — the subject of two books and a PBS documentary — in the Groveland Historical Museum.
“I don’t think we have to put in anything that we don’t want to and, because it didn’t happen in Groveland, we choose not,” said Marie Padgett, 74, president of the Groveland Historical Society.
Padgett, who said she is no relation to the Groveland Four’s accuser, pointed out the crime was alleged to have occurred on a desolate road in Okahumpka, a crossroads 15 miles north of Groveland.
“It has given Groveland a bad name for years and years and years,” she said.
The cozy, volunteer-run museum includes other noteworthy local African-American figures, including Albert S. Blue, who walked from Groveland to Tavares to successfully petition the school board to build a school for African-American children in Groveland.
After the clemency board’s unanimous vote, Groveland sent out a news reminder that the city had passed a resolution in 2016 calling on the state to pardon the men and issued a public apology to their families for cruel treatment at the hands of McCall.
“While the tragic events of 1949, which gave rise to this case, did not take place in the city of Groveland, the city served as the telephone center for reporters documenting the events,” the
a2013 Pulitzer of for the the
statement read. “As such, the city has been regrettably linked to this terrible event ever since…”
But the city’s connection to the case is stronger than the telephone.
Irvin and Shepherd, both Army veterans of World War II, lived in Groveland. Thomas’ mother ran the Blue Flame, a Groveland-area juke joint shot up by a mob after rape was alleged. And Greenlee, just 16, was arrested at the Groveland rail depot.
When armed, angry whites threatened to overrun black sections of Groveland, National Guard troops arrived in town to tamp down rioters.
James Smith, a teacher who became Groveland’s first black mayor in 2004, said the city should establish a memorial of some kind to the Groveland Four to acknowledge the injustice.
“It happened,” he said. “Let’s face it and move on.”
Smith said Groveland now is a lot different than it was — more integrated, poised for big things.
More than a fifth of its residents today are African-American and 25 percent identify as Hispanic, U.S. Census data shows.
“I’m proud of Groveland, but I’m not proud of some of the history,” Smith said.
That history is some newcomers.
When Gregory James opened his barbecue restaurant three years ago in downtown Groveland, the Sumter County resident wasn’t familiar with the Groveland Four.
He said a former clued him in.
James said he stays focused on cooking ribs, which, according to his restaurant’s slogan, are so succulent “you don’t need teeth” to eat ‘em.
“I’ve been treated well here — by blacks and whites as well. I have no complaints,” said James, who is black. “I come with a lot of love and I’m shown a lot of love.” unknown kitchen to employee WWII veteran Joseph Rifkin walks toward the B-17 Bomber aircraft with his girlfirend at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport on Friday.