Four young Black men from Florida — known as the Groveland Four — who were falsely accused of raping a white woman 70 years ago were honored with a memorial at an event attended by their family members, the state governor and a large crowd.
The Groveland Four, Charles Greenlee, Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd and Earnest Thomas, were posthumously pardoned by unanimous vote slightly more than a year ago and their treatment considered “one of the worst episodes of racism in American history.”
In 2016, the City of Groveland and Lake County each apologized to survivors of the four men for the injustice against them. All four men were posthumously exonerated on April 18, 2017 by a resolution of the Florida House of Representatives.
“It’s hard to put into words and have you understand the pain and hardships this injustice has caused this family for 70 years,” said Gerald Threat, a nephew of Irvin’s.
“The only thing that can rectify this injustice is a full exoneration by the state,” Threat added. “We cannot pick and choose what we allow. It’s all or nothing.”
Racial profiling of suspects in the U.S. is still common as police in states like Florida target innocent Blacks on trumped-up charges, according to a report.
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who attended the unveiling of the memorial, called the conviction of the four a “miscarriage of justice” and said a pardon “brought justice to the historical record.”
The Groveland Four case has been analyzed in two books; the “The Groveland Four: The Sad Saga of a Legal Lynching“, published in 2004, and “Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America“, which won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 2013.
Today, Feb. 21, 2020, a memorial was presented to honor The Groveland Four.
71 years ago, lies and racism plagued my family (Shepherd-Irving) and the families of Charles Greenlee & Ernest Thomas. pic.twitter.com/jnMhMTfh0s
— $carfaceee. (@SpunkeeBrustaa) February 21, 2020
Charles Greenlee, Walter Irvin, Ernest Thomas and Samuel Shepherd — known as the #GrovelandFour — were wrongfully accused and convicted of rape in 1949. Last year, they were finally pardoned. Now they're being honored. https://t.co/7rwCAUoNBp
— Innocence Project (@innocence) February 23, 2020