FLORIDA JURY LAUDS BRUTALITY OFFICERS
Williams, Franklin H.
Florida Jury Lauds Brutality Officers On August I'.i, 1949, The New Leader published the first authentic account of the reign of white tenor in Lake County, Florida, which led to the arrest and...
...See 7"/ie New Lender, September 17, 1949...
...i, who s.iw lire youths 11 n weeks idler (hen beatings and look their sworn -itatcmelil ,, wa neither subpoenaed nor allowed |u | est IrY The ia I it el, vlro fh I pilbln ly aiiiioion ed lb.it these youth ; bud been so bill!.illy abused by still" riffii ei f, wa s in -111 n i subpoena' d nor a! low I to li .My Two doctor i horn Jacksonville, Florida, who at the request of the writer examined these youths four weeks after their beatings, though subpoenaed, were informed by the United Stales Attorney-upon their arrival at the courthouse at the appointed time that their testimony was not necessary as the grand jury had been dismissed that morning...
...We permitted grammatical lapses and typographical errors which, under other circumstances, would lontj ago have lost for us our readership...
...Florida Jury Lauds Brutality Officers On August I'.i, 1949, The New Leader published the first authentic account of the reign of white tenor in Lake County, Florida, which led to the arrest and conviction of three Negro youths on rape charges, and which has since been dubbed the "Little Scottsboro (use " Tins story tens then followed by a series in the New York Post written by Ted Foston...
...the "full and com plele" investigation promised and made by a federal gland jury, A grand imy ci impost d of men whose racial altitudes and prejudice^ obviously controlled their decisions and conclusions, a United States Attorney, who, for reasons unknown, billed and refused to present to the gland jury key witnesses whose testimony would have hutliessed and supported the statements of the three youths lhciuscluig| i oiicei nuig tin ii' heatings With the )iji v . ii'liii'n nf ri 'Nwi lie loll,' the virion., circle has been ol roost completed An appeal from the conviction...
...Rather, our new look is intended to enhance the effectiveness of our presentation ol our ideas and principles...
...has been aigucrl before the Siipieiiie Court of tin State of Florida and...
...Unfortunately, such was not the ease ease in Oeala, Florida, on April 17 and 1)1, lil.ill...
...Negri youths That no indictment was r 'lurried was not surprising, when one i onsidei the parade of witnesses brought befoi...
...Greenlee, a tall, gangling, adolescent sixteen-year-old kid, will pay the price levied against him by a jury of alleged responsible, impartial unbiased Lake County white men of a lifetime on a Honda road gang...
...the penally fm being Negro youths urbi(rarily charged with the commission of tins heinous crime had been exacted...
...We wrote editorials with one hand and laid out ad copy with the other...
...AN EDITORIAL— Goodbye and Hello rip HIS IS THE LAST ISSUE ol The New Lead, i in its present form Beginning next week, we shall carry the neve look ot a stream lined magazine...
...On the other hand, the .ain of Hie guards at Raiford State I on, who informed the writer that he had not examined tin- youths nor provided medical care for thorn because they were not technically "state prisoners," was called and teslilied...
...We lake this opportunity to thank them for the faith they have demonstrated in us, and trust that it will continue undiminished into the future...
...At limes we did not have a lead story till the morning of press day...
...Walter It - vim...
...cold war...
...Infected with the fever attending big city newsgathering, when we could scoop the dailies as we occasionally did we announced the fact -n a manner tvuical of them: through huge scare headlines...
...HUNG FROM THE CEILING in the basi merit of the courthouse, their bodies had been beaten, whipped and bruised until barely a spark of life remained...
...if unsuccessful, will be pressed to the highest court of the land...
...Meanwhile, let this stand as a salute to them for past efforts, and a pledge of greater inspiration to come Finally, there are our readers...
...The federal grand juiy im paneled "lo investigate the alleged beatings" failed and refused to mdn ! anyone...
...We are snatching lift from death We have the past and we now reach into the future 'Xs night bills like n curt-tin upon what we once were, yve say goodbye...
...They had acted as judge and jury ami beaten and mutilated Negro youth:, solely because they were Negior s. When the Attorney General of tli'' United States, having learned lire brutal details of these beating.,, ordered bis local United Slates Attorney to institute a ledcial grand jury invest) gallon of Muse heatings, rl wa., liop« d that...
...William A. Fordham, a young attorney of Tampa, Floi Ida, tin lirst individual to see and examine these three Negro youths, was neilhi i subpoenaed 1101 his testimony beard bv Hie grand jury Doioihy Marshall, a sei ret.iiy ft inn Dayton.i Hear )r...
...Williams presents us with an exclusive story on the latest developments in the Little Scottsboro Ca.te...
...On Septemb ¦/ 17, we then published a first-hand report on the tiial of tl'e Negro hoys, written exclusively for us /»</ one of their counsel, F tank lin H Williams This week, Mr...
...Williams, Assistant Speeiul Counsel of the NAACP, has just returned from Florida, where he pleaded before the State Supreme Court to obtain an acquittal of the three condemned Negro youths, and testified before a grand jury that Lake Counti/ luu enforcement officer* had brutally treated the accused In"fore thmr trivl By fRANKLIN H. WILLIAMS Special to The New Leader WHEN GOVERNMENTAL AGENTS, whether state or federal, are incapable of divorcing their personal prejudices from their conduct as such agents, gross injustices inevitably occur...
...Rut publishing a tabloid in the biggest city oi the world, we felt a close affinity also, and inevitably,, with metropolitan journalism...
...Three other Negro youths...
...bill as we awaken in the bright dawn of 'he morrow we shall, with all the cheerfulness beholden on a fresh visage, greet von with a hearty hello...
...WE LEAVE BEHIND MUCH...
...It is indeed rare that a publication can experience the exciting metamorphosis through which we are passing...
...lire grand jui v I>v the local United Slates Attorney It, is less surprising reu one considers tile large number ol Witnesses not subpoenaed or allowed to testify...
...though they be Negro bang in the balance...
...There, among tht linotypes and forms and galleys and presses, we formed friendships which were worth more than superb craftsmanship even Many was the time that an old typesetter has advised us to delete from or add tcx-.af editorial, and we have followed his advice...
...Samuel Shepherd and Charles Greenlee, were subsequently taken down the one-way road ol Southern just ice, Irvin and Shepherd, veterans of the Sec,,nd World War, fought to plot.si the basic principles of constitutional government, but were sentenced to death by electrocution following a trial that possessed many of the aspects of a "dime store crime novel...
...To them we oiler our deepest regrets at Inning to end our long association...
...Ernest Thuatrug¦» whose actions on the night of the alleged rape will never be known (6 the general public, was tried by a sheriff's posse and convicted on the edge of an isolated Floridian swamp where his black body was riddled beyond recog nition by the bullets of posse men, who...
...but we shall carry forward much The traditions of The New Leader which have made it a beacon through depression and war and now...
...Lawyer., of Hie National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have expressed confidence and hope that those who sit in the state's highest tribunal will judge the issues fairly rind impartially, recognizing that the lives of two Anienian eiti/ont...
...On tire other hand, thev prai eil and iiriiitiiendi d Willis McCall sin r ill of Lake County, whose- depute had ,.o brutally beaten I lie...
...The New Leader regards itself as very fortunate that its leaders are among the most loyal, the most generous, and the most patient in the world...
...We, on the other hand, are shedding one existence only to begin another...
...Without our old printers The /Mete Leader could never have become the force it is...
...Many, too, were the frictions we alf experienced, but they were the kind which happen in most families and in the future we shall remember, not them, hut the kinship which existed among us...
...finally, unprejudiced reason would hold .-Avav and lire true attack lis" made to pay for their actions...
...Kveu prior to their "mock trial...
...We nublished items which no paper of broader scope would have items of interest purely to "local citizens...
...Our graduation into the magazine class will be like entering...
...This, after all, could have -been our obituary, for th • times arc not propitious to the expansion of endeavors of this kind all too many publishing enterprises are today vanishing from the scene, victims of tone's vicissitudes...
...anew upon the era ol mass industrialization, and we admit we shall miss some of the foibles ol our "country editor" days...
...THEN, war...
...a few hours earlier, had been an angry, lawless mob of madmen, burn ing and destroying the homes and property of peaceful Negro citizens...
...That gave us a raucous satisfaction we shall probably never again experience (though we promise to continue trying to score beats), for as a magazine yve snail have to exercise more typographical restraint Saddest of all, we shall miss our weekly excursions to the print shop where Vlie New Lmider has been printed almost since its inception, conditions of magazine production having forced us to print elsewhere...
...Any publication which, after a quarter ol a century, is about to record such an advance as ours, must he possessed of an unusually devoted following...
...and no glory which'may accrue to our magazine can nullify this fact...
...The facts of the "full and complete" grand jury investigation have been brought to the attention of Attorney General J. Howard Mi (hath...
...THEN...
...What we are alMiut to do is cause for regret as well as rejoicing for vvc leave behind many fond memories, exciting tunes and dear friends Putting out a weekly tabloid like ours was often an exercise in "country editor" journalism...
...When a young, ignorant white girl last summer charged "rope" by four unknown, unidentified Negro youths, the latter were subsequently swept up in a maelstrom of irrational emotions which stirred the heretofore...
...Kim id...
...will be carried on m the new format, for these are not things which a face-lifting is designed to remove...
...This brutality had been si.il tered not at the hands of private citizens, but rather of those sworn to uphold the constitution and laws of the State ol Floi icla and lire United States deputy sheriffs differentiated from mobsmen only by virtue of tin .silver star of justice on their breast...
...No doubt wo, the editors, will continue to remain the betes nones which editors so often are to writers, but we c i,i prom is:* our long-suffering contributors at least that then wares will In displayed to better advantage...
...beautiful and peaceful citrus County of Lake, Florida, and were destined to be '.ried, not by "a fair and impartial tribunal'' with a "jury of his ueers," but by menus which were a travesty on deiTu>cratic justice...
...NAACP spokesmen have expressed confidence in the sincerity of the Attiirm y General and his determination that the Department of Jus tice will not be compromised by local officials who are motivated by emotion and racial piejmtne and who fall to fulfill tla ri : woiii obligations...
...Likewise, the warden of I he Slate Prison, who could not possibly have known anything about the beatings, as they had occur red in the 'i'ayares County Courthouse, testified to some unknown facts, * » • THIS...
...The writers of 7'/ic rVetc Leaner, who have given ol themselves sell lessly for many years and have greatly determined what success we enjoy, will re-appear in our new pages...
Vol. 33 • April 1950 • No. 17
