Were nine students who,in 1961 while undergraduates at Tougaloo College,staged sit-ins at the all-white Jackson Main Library in Jackson,Mississippi.Prior to the sit-ins,African Americans were prohibited from using the city's library.The nine-Meredith Coleman AndingJr., James Cleo Bradford,Alfred Lee Cook,Geraldine Edwards,Janice Jackson,Joseph Jackson Jr., Albert Earl Lassiter,Evelyn Pierce, and Ethel Sawyer-were members of the Jackson Youth Council of the NAACP.Medgar Evers,who was who then president of the Jackson Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP),trained the Tougaloo nine for sit-in
protest.
On March 27,1961,the Tougaloo Nine began their protest by entering the Jackson Main Library.Typical of civil rights demonstrations of the era,the
women wore dresses and the men wore shirts and ties.The Nine visted the
George Washington Branch (Colored) to request books they knew would not
be in that facility.When they were told the books were not there,they went to
Jackson Public Library where they attempted to stage a " read-in." They sat at different tables across the library reading library books quietly.
The Librarian called the Jackson police who arrived and asked them to leave.
When they did not,the nine were arrested,charged with of breach of the peace,
and jailed.
Later that day,students from Jackson State College,a predominantly African American college,organized a prayer vigil which was broken up by Jackson State College President Jacob Reddix,who was backed by city police.Three students-Joyce and Dorie Ladner and student body President Walter Williams,who organized the prayer vigil-were expelled from Jackson State College for their support of the Tougall Nine.
On March 28,other Jackson State Students boycotted classes in protest,held
another rally,and marched to the Jackson City Jail were the nine being held.
They were joined by townspeople led by Medgar Evers,Jackson Police used tear gas and dogs against the protesters which included women and children.
An 81-year old man suffered a broken arm from an attack by a police officer
with a nightstick.Medgar's supporters raised bail for the protesters who were
arrested.They were later represented by local civil rights attorney Jack Harvey Young Sr.
The Tougaloo Nine went to trial on March 28,1961 and were all found guilty
of breach of the peace.Each student was sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined
$100.The Judge however suspended the sentences on the condition that there
would be no further demonstrations.There were none.
Nonetheless the Tougaloo nine's action action led the NAACP to file a class action lawsuit on January 12,1962 against the Jackson Public Library,calling for its integration.In June 1962 U.S. District Court William Harold Cox ordered the Library to desegregate.Although the Tougaloo Nine episode was one of the first desegregation victories in the 1960s civil rights campaign in Mississippi,the story was largely ignored at the time.On August 17,2017,the Tougaloo Nine was honored for their contributions with a freedom trail marker in Jackson,Mississippi.
Unlike the Freedom Riders,Friendship Nine,and Little Rock Nine,the Tougaloo Nine are not as well known historically.Sammy Bradford,one of the Tougaloo Nine,said on the occasion of the read in anniversary: "It seems that everybody
Showing posts with label Events.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Events.. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
"The Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation"
The 1842 Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation,then located in Indian territory (Oklahoma) west of the Mississippi River,was the largest escape of a group of slaves to occur among the Cherokee.The slave revolt started on November 15,1842,when a group of 20 African Americans slaves owned by the Cherokees escaped and tried to reach Mexico,where slavery had been abolished in 1836.Along their way south,they were joined by 15 slaves escaping from the Creek Indian Territory.
The fugitives met with two slave catchers taking a family of eight slave captives back to Choctaw territory.The fugitives killed the hunters and allowed the family to join their party.Although an Indian party had captured and killed some of the slaves near the beginning of their flight,the Cherokee sought reinforcements.They raised an armed group of more than 100 of their and Choctaw warriors to pursue and capture the fugitives.Five slaves were later executed for killing the two slave catchers.
What has been described as "the most spectacular act of rebellion against slavery" among the Cherokee,the 1842 event inspired subsequent slave rebellions in the Indian Territory.In the aftermath of this escape,the Cherokee Nation passed stricter slave codes,expelled freedmen from the territory,and established a ' rescue' (slave-catching) company to try to prevent additional loses.
Prior to European contact,the Cherokee had a practiced of enslaving prisoners of war from other Native American Tribes.In the late 18th
century,some Cherokee set up European-American style plantations on
their Cherokee Nation land,which occupied territory near parts of Georgia and Tennessee.They purchased African-American slaves to work this land.In 1819, the Cherokee Nation passed slave codes that regulated slave trade;forbade intermarriage;enumerated punishment for runaway slaves;and prohibited slaves from owning private property.An 1820 law regulated trading with slaves,requiring that anyone who traded with a slave without the master's permission was bound to the legal owner for the property,or its value,if the traded property proved to be stolen.Another code declared that a fine of fifteen dollars was to be levied for masters who allowed slaves to buy or sell
liquor.
The Cherokee adopted the practice of using enslaved African Americans on their plantations from European Americans. Most Cherokee held fewer slaves and labored with them at subsistence agriculture.Slaves worked primarily as agricultural laborers,cultivating both cotton for their master's profit and food for consumption.Some slaves were skilled laborers,such as seamstresses
and blacksmiths. Like other slaveholders,affluent Cherokee used slaves
as a portable labor force.They developed robust farms,salt mines,and trading post created with slave labor.
The Cherokee brought many of their slaves with them to the West in the Native American Removal of the 1820s and 1830s,when the federal
government forcibly removed them from the Southeastern states.
Joseph Van was described as taking 200 slaves with him.African American slaves in each of the tribes performed much of the physical
labor involved in the removal.For example,they loaded wagons,cleared
the roads,and led the teams of livestock along the way.
By 1835,the time of removal,the Cherokee owned and estimated total of
1500 slaves of African ancestry (the most African American slaves of any of the Five Civilized Tribes).Within five years of removal,300 mixed-raced Cherokee families,most descendants of European traders and Cherokee women for generations,made up an elite class in Indian Territory.Most owned 25-50 slaves each.Some of their plantations had 600 to 1,000 acres; cultivating wheat,cotton,corn,hemp, and tobacco.
Most of the also had large cattle and horse herds.
By 1860,the Cherokee held an estimated 4,600 slaves,and depended on
them as farm laborers and domestic servants.At the time of the Civil War,a total of more than 8,00 slaves were held in all of the Indian Territory,where they comprised 14 percent of the population.
Events of the revolt-
The mass escape of 20 enslaved African Americans from the Cherokee
territory began on November 15,1842,and has been called "the most spectacular act of rebellion against slavery" among the Cherokee.Most
of the 20 slaves were from the plantations of "Rich Joe" Vann and his daddy James; they gathered and raided local stores for weapons,ammunition,horses,and mules.Escaping from Webbers Falls without casualties,the slaves headed south for Mexico,where slavery had been prohibited since 1836.Along the way they picked up another
15 slaves escaping from Creek territory.Some Cherokee and Creek pursued the fugitives,the slaves partially held them off.In one altercation,14 slaves were either killed or captured,the remaining 21 continued south.The Cherokee and Creek pursuers returned to their nations for reinforcements.
Along the way,the fugitives encountered two slave catchers,James Edwards,a white man,and Billy Wilson,a Lenape (Delaware Native American),who were returning to Choctaw territory with an escaped slave family of three adults and five children.The family had been headed west into plain Indian territory.The fugitive party killed the bounty hunters to free family.Together they continued South,slowed somewhat by traveling with five children.
On November 17,the Cherokee National Council in Tahlequah passed a resolution authorizing Cherokee Militia Captain John Drew to raise a company of 100 citizens to "pursue,arrest,and deliver the African slaves to Fort Gibson." (The resolution also relieved the government of the Cherokee Nation of any liability if the slaves resisted arrest and had to be killed.) The commander at Fort Gibson loaned Drew 25 pounds of
gunpowder for the militia.
The large force caught up with the slaves seven miles north of the Red River on November 28.The tired fugitives, weak from hunger,offered no resistance.They were forced to return to their owners in the Choctaw,Creek and Cherokee reservations.The Cherokee
later executer five slaves for the murders of Edwards and Wilson.Vann
putt most of his surviving slaves to work on his steamboats,shoveling coal.
The fugitives met with two slave catchers taking a family of eight slave captives back to Choctaw territory.The fugitives killed the hunters and allowed the family to join their party.Although an Indian party had captured and killed some of the slaves near the beginning of their flight,the Cherokee sought reinforcements.They raised an armed group of more than 100 of their and Choctaw warriors to pursue and capture the fugitives.Five slaves were later executed for killing the two slave catchers.
What has been described as "the most spectacular act of rebellion against slavery" among the Cherokee,the 1842 event inspired subsequent slave rebellions in the Indian Territory.In the aftermath of this escape,the Cherokee Nation passed stricter slave codes,expelled freedmen from the territory,and established a ' rescue' (slave-catching) company to try to prevent additional loses.
Prior to European contact,the Cherokee had a practiced of enslaving prisoners of war from other Native American Tribes.In the late 18th
century,some Cherokee set up European-American style plantations on
their Cherokee Nation land,which occupied territory near parts of Georgia and Tennessee.They purchased African-American slaves to work this land.In 1819, the Cherokee Nation passed slave codes that regulated slave trade;forbade intermarriage;enumerated punishment for runaway slaves;and prohibited slaves from owning private property.An 1820 law regulated trading with slaves,requiring that anyone who traded with a slave without the master's permission was bound to the legal owner for the property,or its value,if the traded property proved to be stolen.Another code declared that a fine of fifteen dollars was to be levied for masters who allowed slaves to buy or sell
liquor.
The Cherokee adopted the practice of using enslaved African Americans on their plantations from European Americans. Most Cherokee held fewer slaves and labored with them at subsistence agriculture.Slaves worked primarily as agricultural laborers,cultivating both cotton for their master's profit and food for consumption.Some slaves were skilled laborers,such as seamstresses
and blacksmiths. Like other slaveholders,affluent Cherokee used slaves
as a portable labor force.They developed robust farms,salt mines,and trading post created with slave labor.
The Cherokee brought many of their slaves with them to the West in the Native American Removal of the 1820s and 1830s,when the federal
government forcibly removed them from the Southeastern states.
Joseph Van was described as taking 200 slaves with him.African American slaves in each of the tribes performed much of the physical
labor involved in the removal.For example,they loaded wagons,cleared
the roads,and led the teams of livestock along the way.
By 1835,the time of removal,the Cherokee owned and estimated total of
1500 slaves of African ancestry (the most African American slaves of any of the Five Civilized Tribes).Within five years of removal,300 mixed-raced Cherokee families,most descendants of European traders and Cherokee women for generations,made up an elite class in Indian Territory.Most owned 25-50 slaves each.Some of their plantations had 600 to 1,000 acres; cultivating wheat,cotton,corn,hemp, and tobacco.
Most of the also had large cattle and horse herds.
By 1860,the Cherokee held an estimated 4,600 slaves,and depended on
them as farm laborers and domestic servants.At the time of the Civil War,a total of more than 8,00 slaves were held in all of the Indian Territory,where they comprised 14 percent of the population.
Events of the revolt-
The mass escape of 20 enslaved African Americans from the Cherokee
territory began on November 15,1842,and has been called "the most spectacular act of rebellion against slavery" among the Cherokee.Most
of the 20 slaves were from the plantations of "Rich Joe" Vann and his daddy James; they gathered and raided local stores for weapons,ammunition,horses,and mules.Escaping from Webbers Falls without casualties,the slaves headed south for Mexico,where slavery had been prohibited since 1836.Along the way they picked up another
15 slaves escaping from Creek territory.Some Cherokee and Creek pursued the fugitives,the slaves partially held them off.In one altercation,14 slaves were either killed or captured,the remaining 21 continued south.The Cherokee and Creek pursuers returned to their nations for reinforcements.
Along the way,the fugitives encountered two slave catchers,James Edwards,a white man,and Billy Wilson,a Lenape (Delaware Native American),who were returning to Choctaw territory with an escaped slave family of three adults and five children.The family had been headed west into plain Indian territory.The fugitive party killed the bounty hunters to free family.Together they continued South,slowed somewhat by traveling with five children.
On November 17,the Cherokee National Council in Tahlequah passed a resolution authorizing Cherokee Militia Captain John Drew to raise a company of 100 citizens to "pursue,arrest,and deliver the African slaves to Fort Gibson." (The resolution also relieved the government of the Cherokee Nation of any liability if the slaves resisted arrest and had to be killed.) The commander at Fort Gibson loaned Drew 25 pounds of
gunpowder for the militia.
The large force caught up with the slaves seven miles north of the Red River on November 28.The tired fugitives, weak from hunger,offered no resistance.They were forced to return to their owners in the Choctaw,Creek and Cherokee reservations.The Cherokee
later executer five slaves for the murders of Edwards and Wilson.Vann
putt most of his surviving slaves to work on his steamboats,shoveling coal.
The slave revolt inspired future slave rebellions in the Native American
territory.By 1851,a total of nearly 300 African Americans had tried to escape from Native American territory.Most headed for Mexico or the area of the future Kansas Territory,where residents prohibited slave
Economic Impact-
Native American slaveholders bought and sold slaves,often doing business with white slaveholders in the neighboring states of Texas
Arkansas.The owners in both areas always considered enslave African Americans to be property.
Aftert the revolt,the Cherokee often hired non-slave holding Native Americans to catch runaway slaves.In the past, some of these people
had struggled to eat,while slave-owing families flourished in a market economic driven by slave labor.Some among these poor Cherokee became weathly by providing services to the 'rescue' company in catching fugitives slaves.When slave catching expeditions were mounted, suck trackers were paid.They were also authorized to buy
ammunition and supplies for the hunt,at the expense of the nation (provided that the expedition was not "unnecessarily"protracted and did not incur needless expenses").
Outcome-
The slave revolt had threatened the security of the labor force and owners' profits.The Nation passed a stricter slave code and required
expulsion of free African American from the territory,as they were
considered to foster discontent among slave.After the Civil War,planters
and the upper class of the Cherokee Nation shifted from plantation agriculture to developing manufacture of small-scale products,which were sold interally,instead of being exported.
As a mass escape that resulted in casualties and death of both slaves and other,the 1842 slave revolt was widely reported by newspapers.
Even 50 years later,when the Fort Smith Elevator of Arkansas published an anniversary article about the escape,the account had a kind of mythic power.It recounted a morning when Cherokee slaveholders could not hold find their slaves and said that "hundreds" had disappeared overnight,rather than 20 of fact.
Native American slaveholders bought and sold slaves,often doing business with white slaveholders in the neighboring states of Texas
Arkansas.The owners in both areas always considered enslave African Americans to be property.
Aftert the revolt,the Cherokee often hired non-slave holding Native Americans to catch runaway slaves.In the past, some of these people
had struggled to eat,while slave-owing families flourished in a market economic driven by slave labor.Some among these poor Cherokee became weathly by providing services to the 'rescue' company in catching fugitives slaves.When slave catching expeditions were mounted, suck trackers were paid.They were also authorized to buy
ammunition and supplies for the hunt,at the expense of the nation (provided that the expedition was not "unnecessarily"protracted and did not incur needless expenses").
Outcome-
The slave revolt had threatened the security of the labor force and owners' profits.The Nation passed a stricter slave code and required
expulsion of free African American from the territory,as they were
considered to foster discontent among slave.After the Civil War,planters
and the upper class of the Cherokee Nation shifted from plantation agriculture to developing manufacture of small-scale products,which were sold interally,instead of being exported.
As a mass escape that resulted in casualties and death of both slaves and other,the 1842 slave revolt was widely reported by newspapers.
Even 50 years later,when the Fort Smith Elevator of Arkansas published an anniversary article about the escape,the account had a kind of mythic power.It recounted a morning when Cherokee slaveholders could not hold find their slaves and said that "hundreds" had disappeared overnight,rather than 20 of fact.
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
"Nelson-Gant"
In November,Nelson returned to Virginia in an attempt to buy his wife.
The offer was refused.Maria,managed to simply walk away from the plantation.
Nelson and his wife were later caught in Washington, D.C.,and they were put in jail.A month later,they were taken to Virginia.
Maria was returned to her owner and Nelson was put in jail.On December 12,1846,Nelson was put on trail for stealing his wife.He was acquitted of the charges since a wife could not be compelled to testify against her husband.Two months
later,he returned to buy Maria's freedom.The Couple arrived back in Zaneesville in 1850 with their daughter.
Nelson eventually owned three hundred acres of land and began making a living farmer.He also owned a salt lick and a coal mine.The couple actively assisted fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad.
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Ernest-Gideon-Green" September 22 1941.
Made history as the only senior of the Little Rock Nine,the nine African-American students who in 1957,desegregated Central High School in Little Rock (Pulaski County).The world watched as they brave constant intimidation and threats from those who opposed desegregation of the formerly all-white high school.Ernest place in Arkansas's civil rights history was solidified when he became the first African-American to graduate from the previously all-white Central High School.
He was was born in Little Rock to Lothaire & Ernest Green Sr. he has two siblings: one brother,Scott,and one sister,Treopia Washington.
An active member of the community from an early age,Ernest regularly attended church and was involved the Boy Scouts,eventually becoming an Eagle Scout.He was a student at Dunbar Junior High School until he transferred to Horace Mann the year before volunteering to integrate all-white Central High School.Ernest persevered through a year of daily harassment by some of his fellow students to become the first African-American Central High School graduate on May 27,1958.Sitting with Ernest family at the event was Martin Luther King Jr., who attended the graduation virtually unnoticed.In an interview ,Ernest said "It's been an interesting year I've had course in human relations first hand."
After graduating from Central,he attended Michigan State University,earning a BA in social science in 1962 and an MA sociology in 1964.Afterward,Ernest served as the director for the
A Philip Randolph Education Fund from 1968-1977.He then was appointed as the Assistant Secretary of Labor during the Jimmy Carter administration from 1977-1981.In 1987,Ernest joined Lehman Brothers,an investment banking firm in WashingtonDC, where he is currently a Senior Managing Director.He has served on numerous boards,such as the NAACP and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.
In 1958,Ernest- along with other members of the Little Rock Nine and Daisy Bates-was awarded the prestigious Spingarn Medal,which is presented annually for outstanding achievement of African-American by the NAACP.In 1999,President Bill Clinton presented the nation's highest
civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal,to the members of the Little Rock Nine.He is married to Phyllis Green,with whom he had a daughter,in addition to two children from a previous marriage.Ernest is the subject of a Disney Movie called The Ernest Green Green Story.
produced in 1992 and starting Morris Chestnut & Monica Calhoun.Ernest was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County).
He was was born in Little Rock to Lothaire & Ernest Green Sr. he has two siblings: one brother,Scott,and one sister,Treopia Washington.
An active member of the community from an early age,Ernest regularly attended church and was involved the Boy Scouts,eventually becoming an Eagle Scout.He was a student at Dunbar Junior High School until he transferred to Horace Mann the year before volunteering to integrate all-white Central High School.Ernest persevered through a year of daily harassment by some of his fellow students to become the first African-American Central High School graduate on May 27,1958.Sitting with Ernest family at the event was Martin Luther King Jr., who attended the graduation virtually unnoticed.In an interview ,Ernest said "It's been an interesting year I've had course in human relations first hand."
After graduating from Central,he attended Michigan State University,earning a BA in social science in 1962 and an MA sociology in 1964.Afterward,Ernest served as the director for the
A Philip Randolph Education Fund from 1968-1977.He then was appointed as the Assistant Secretary of Labor during the Jimmy Carter administration from 1977-1981.In 1987,Ernest joined Lehman Brothers,an investment banking firm in WashingtonDC, where he is currently a Senior Managing Director.He has served on numerous boards,such as the NAACP and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.
In 1958,Ernest- along with other members of the Little Rock Nine and Daisy Bates-was awarded the prestigious Spingarn Medal,which is presented annually for outstanding achievement of African-American by the NAACP.In 1999,President Bill Clinton presented the nation's highest
civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal,to the members of the Little Rock Nine.He is married to Phyllis Green,with whom he had a daughter,in addition to two children from a previous marriage.Ernest is the subject of a Disney Movie called The Ernest Green Green Story.
produced in 1992 and starting Morris Chestnut & Monica Calhoun.Ernest was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County).
Sunday, September 11, 2016
"Aba-Women's Riot" [November-December 1929]
OThe "riots" or the war,led by women in the provinces of calabar and owerri in southeastern Nigeria in November and December of 1929, became known as "Aba Women's Riots of 1929" in British colonial history,or as the "Women's War" in Igbo history. Thousands of Igbo women organized a massive revolt against the policies imposed by British colonial administrators in southeastern Nigeria,touching of the most serious challenge to British rule in the history of the colony.The "Women's War" took months for the government to suppress and became example of feminist and anti-colonial protest.
The roots of the riots evolved from January 1,1914,when the first Nigerian colonial governor,Lord Lugard,instituted the system of indirect rule in Southern Nigeria.Under this plan British administrators would rule locally through "warrant chief," essentially Igbo individuals appointed by the governor.Traditionally Igbo chiefs had been elected.
Within a few years the appointed warrant chiefs became increasingly oppressive.They seized property,imposed draconian local regulations,
and began imprisoning anyone who openly criticized them.Although much of the anger was directed against the warrant chiefs, most Nigerians knew the source of their power,British administrators. Colonial administrators added to the local sense grievance when they announced plans to impose special taxes on the Igbo market women.
These women were responsible for supplying the food to the growing urban populations in Calabar,Owerri,and other Nigerian cities.They feared the taxes would drive many market women out of business and seriously disrupt the supply of food and non-perishable goods available to the populace.
In November of 1929,thousands of Igbo women congregated at the Native Administrator centers in Calabar and Owerri as well as smaller towns to protect both the warrant chiefs and the taxes on the market women.Using the traditional practice of censoring men through all night
song and dance ridicule (often called "sitting on a man"),the women chanted and danced,and in some locations warrants chiefs to resign their positions.The women also attacked European owned stores and Barclays Bank and broke into prisons and released prisoners.They also attacked Native Courts run by colonial officials,burning many of them to the ground.Colonial Police and troops were called in.They fired into the crowds that had gathered at Calabar and Owerri,killing more than 50 women and wounding over 50 others.During the two month month "war" at least 25,000 Igbo women were involved in protest against British officials.
The Aba Women's war prompted colonial authorities to drop their plans to impose a tax on the market women,and to curb the power of the warrant chiefs. The women's uprising is seen as the first major challenge to British authority in Nigeria and West Africa during the colonial period.
The roots of the riots evolved from January 1,1914,when the first Nigerian colonial governor,Lord Lugard,instituted the system of indirect rule in Southern Nigeria.Under this plan British administrators would rule locally through "warrant chief," essentially Igbo individuals appointed by the governor.Traditionally Igbo chiefs had been elected.
Within a few years the appointed warrant chiefs became increasingly oppressive.They seized property,imposed draconian local regulations,
and began imprisoning anyone who openly criticized them.Although much of the anger was directed against the warrant chiefs, most Nigerians knew the source of their power,British administrators. Colonial administrators added to the local sense grievance when they announced plans to impose special taxes on the Igbo market women.
These women were responsible for supplying the food to the growing urban populations in Calabar,Owerri,and other Nigerian cities.They feared the taxes would drive many market women out of business and seriously disrupt the supply of food and non-perishable goods available to the populace.
In November of 1929,thousands of Igbo women congregated at the Native Administrator centers in Calabar and Owerri as well as smaller towns to protect both the warrant chiefs and the taxes on the market women.Using the traditional practice of censoring men through all night
song and dance ridicule (often called "sitting on a man"),the women chanted and danced,and in some locations warrants chiefs to resign their positions.The women also attacked European owned stores and Barclays Bank and broke into prisons and released prisoners.They also attacked Native Courts run by colonial officials,burning many of them to the ground.Colonial Police and troops were called in.They fired into the crowds that had gathered at Calabar and Owerri,killing more than 50 women and wounding over 50 others.During the two month month "war" at least 25,000 Igbo women were involved in protest against British officials.
The Aba Women's war prompted colonial authorities to drop their plans to impose a tax on the market women,and to curb the power of the warrant chiefs. The women's uprising is seen as the first major challenge to British authority in Nigeria and West Africa during the colonial period.
Monday, August 8, 2016
"The Rescue-of-Charlotta-Gordon-Pyles and her-Twelve-Children"
She was in Bardstown Kentucky.She and her twelve children were
enslaved by Hugh & Sarah Gordon.When the slaver,Hugh,died in 1834,
he left Charlotta and some of her children to his only, daughter, Frances,with the expectation that she would give them their freedom
Under the laws of the day,the children's legal status was the same as
the mama's,so the Pyles' children were all enslaved.
In spite of the unambiguous wishes of their daddy,Frances' brothere were not of the same mind about freeing Charlotta and her children.
In 1853 Frances' brothers,kidnapped one of Charlotta's sons, Benjamin,and took him to Mississippi.This act convinced Frances that she would have to leave Kentucky and head north in order to free Charlotta and her children.
When the brothers learned of her plans,they sued Frances,claiming that
she was competent to manage her own affairs.Frances stood firm,and argued in a Kentucky court that as the legal owner of Charlotta and her children,she was allowed to move the enslaved family wherever she pleased.
She won the case.
A month later her brothers (and a few other relatives) sued Frances again.
This time,the sheriff arrested Charlotta arrested and her children and hauled them to jail.
Frances followed them it took her two days to get them released,plus
she was given a bill for $51.35 for the sheriffs expenses.
The case against Frances was thrown out in March 1854 she and Charlotta's family were long gone by then.
Fearing that her brothers might try to kidnap other members Charlotta's family,Frances,then 80 loaded the family-Harry,Charlotta,11 of her 12 children,and 5 grandchildren-and their supplies into a prairie schooner.
The route through Missouri,a slave state,was fraught and unfamiliar,so,
for $100 fee (nearly $3,000 in 2013 dollars),they hired Nat Stone in St.
Louis to guide them across the terrain.After they were well on their way,Nat decided that his service were worth more than his initial quote,so he asked for another $50; in return for the extra money he promised that wouldn't turn the family over to slave traders in Missouri.
They arrived safely.
Two sons-in-law were still enslaved in the south; if they were to join the family and find work,the family just might make it.Charlotta contacted their owners and learned that she could purchase their freedom for $1,500 each,an enormous of money at that time (equivalent to nearly $40,000 today).
Charlotta embarked on a speaking tour around the East Coast to raise
the needed $3,000.In Churches,private homes,and public halls like
Independence Hall in Philadelphia she preached about the evils of slavery.Along the way,she befriended Susan B.Anthony and Frederick
Douglass.In six months she raised the $3.000 and bought freedom for the two men.
Charlotta and Harry were finally legally married on April 2,1857,in Keokuk Iowa and,with most of the family back together and their finances more stable,Charlotta offered her home as shelter to enslaved
African-Americans escaping on the Underground Railroad to Canada.
The first school for African-Americans in Keokuk was built in 1869,it was meant mostly for primary school aged children.
When Charlotta's daughter,Charlotta Smith,tried to enroll her son, Geroid, in the all-white public high school,officials refused to admit.
Charlotta and other African-American families field a lawsuit against the school and,in 1875,the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in their favor,ordering all state's integrated.School officials in Keokuk didn't fight the decision,and began enrolling African-American students in 1876.
he left Charlotta and some of her children to his only, daughter, Frances,with the expectation that she would give them their freedom
Under the laws of the day,the children's legal status was the same as
the mama's,so the Pyles' children were all enslaved.
In spite of the unambiguous wishes of their daddy,Frances' brothere were not of the same mind about freeing Charlotta and her children.
In 1853 Frances' brothers,kidnapped one of Charlotta's sons, Benjamin,and took him to Mississippi.This act convinced Frances that she would have to leave Kentucky and head north in order to free Charlotta and her children.
When the brothers learned of her plans,they sued Frances,claiming that
she was competent to manage her own affairs.Frances stood firm,and argued in a Kentucky court that as the legal owner of Charlotta and her children,she was allowed to move the enslaved family wherever she pleased.
She won the case.
A month later her brothers (and a few other relatives) sued Frances again.
This time,the sheriff arrested Charlotta arrested and her children and hauled them to jail.
Frances followed them it took her two days to get them released,plus
she was given a bill for $51.35 for the sheriffs expenses.
The case against Frances was thrown out in March 1854 she and Charlotta's family were long gone by then.
Fearing that her brothers might try to kidnap other members Charlotta's family,Frances,then 80 loaded the family-Harry,Charlotta,11 of her 12 children,and 5 grandchildren-and their supplies into a prairie schooner.
The route through Missouri,a slave state,was fraught and unfamiliar,so,
for $100 fee (nearly $3,000 in 2013 dollars),they hired Nat Stone in St.
Louis to guide them across the terrain.After they were well on their way,Nat decided that his service were worth more than his initial quote,so he asked for another $50; in return for the extra money he promised that wouldn't turn the family over to slave traders in Missouri.
They arrived safely.
Two sons-in-law were still enslaved in the south; if they were to join the family and find work,the family just might make it.Charlotta contacted their owners and learned that she could purchase their freedom for $1,500 each,an enormous of money at that time (equivalent to nearly $40,000 today).
Charlotta embarked on a speaking tour around the East Coast to raise
the needed $3,000.In Churches,private homes,and public halls like
Independence Hall in Philadelphia she preached about the evils of slavery.Along the way,she befriended Susan B.Anthony and Frederick
Douglass.In six months she raised the $3.000 and bought freedom for the two men.
Charlotta and Harry were finally legally married on April 2,1857,in Keokuk Iowa and,with most of the family back together and their finances more stable,Charlotta offered her home as shelter to enslaved
African-Americans escaping on the Underground Railroad to Canada.
The first school for African-Americans in Keokuk was built in 1869,it was meant mostly for primary school aged children.
When Charlotta's daughter,Charlotta Smith,tried to enroll her son, Geroid, in the all-white public high school,officials refused to admit.
Charlotta and other African-American families field a lawsuit against the school and,in 1875,the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in their favor,ordering all state's integrated.School officials in Keokuk didn't fight the decision,and began enrolling African-American students in 1876.
Sunday, May 29, 2016
"Notting-Hill-Race-Riots 1958"
Were a series of racially motivated riots that took place in Notting Hill,England,between August 30,-September 5,1958.
The end of World War II had seen a marked increase in Caribbean migrants to Britain.By the 1950s, white working-class "Teddy Boys" were beginning to display towards black families in the area,a situation exploited and inflamed by groups such as Oswald Mosley's Union Movement and other far-right groups such as the White Defence League,who urged disaffected white residents to "Keep Britain White"
There was an increase in violent attacks on black people through the summer.On August 24 1958 A group of 10 white youths commited a serious assaults on 6 West Indian men in 4 separate incidents. At 5:40 am,the youth's car was spoted by two police officers who pursued them into the White City estate,where the gang abandoned the car.Uing the car as a lead,investigating detectives arrested 9 of the gang the next day after working non-stop for 20 hours.
Just prior to the Notting Hill riots,there was racial unrest in Nottingham,which began on August 23,and continued intermittently for two weeks.
The riot is popularly believed to have triggered by an assault against Majbritt Morrison,a white Swedish woman,on August 29,1958.Majbritt had been arguing with her Jamaican husband Raymond Morrison at the Latimer Road Tube Station.A group of various white people attempted to intervene in the argument and a small fight broke out between the invening people and and some of Raymond friends.The following day Majbritt was verbally and physically assaulted by a gang of white youths that had recalled seeingher the night before.According to one report,the youths threw milk bottles at Majbritt and called her racial slurs such as "Black Man's trollop,while a later report stated that she had been struck in the back with an iron bar.
Later that night a mob of 300-400 white people,ofof them Teddy Boys,were seen on
Bramley Road attacking the houses of West Indian residents.The disturbances,rioting and attacks continued every night until September 5.
The Metropolitan Police Service arrested more than 140 people during the two week disturbances,mostly white youths also many black people found carrying weapons.A report to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner stated that of the 108 people charged with crimes such as grievous bodily harm,affrayand riot and possessing offensive weapons,72 were white and 36 were black.
The sentencing of the nine youths arrested during the riots has passed into judicial lore as an example of "exemplary sentencing" - a harsh punishment to act as a deterrent to others.Each of the youths received five years in person and they were to also pay 500.
A "Carribean Carnival" precursor of the Notting Hill Carnival was held on January 30 1959 in St.Pancras Town Hall,organised by activist Claudia Jones as response to the riots and the state of race relations in Britain at the time.
The riots caused tension between the Metropolitan Police and the British African-Caribbean community,which claimed that the police had not taken their reports of
racial attacks seriously.In 2002,flies were released that revealed that senior police officers at the time had assured the Home Secretary,Rad Butler,that there was little or no racial motivation behind the disturbance,despite testimony from individual police officers to the contrary.
In 1964 Majbritt wrote about the riots in her autobiography,Jungle West 11.
The end of World War II had seen a marked increase in Caribbean migrants to Britain.By the 1950s, white working-class "Teddy Boys" were beginning to display towards black families in the area,a situation exploited and inflamed by groups such as Oswald Mosley's Union Movement and other far-right groups such as the White Defence League,who urged disaffected white residents to "Keep Britain White"
There was an increase in violent attacks on black people through the summer.On August 24 1958 A group of 10 white youths commited a serious assaults on 6 West Indian men in 4 separate incidents. At 5:40 am,the youth's car was spoted by two police officers who pursued them into the White City estate,where the gang abandoned the car.Uing the car as a lead,investigating detectives arrested 9 of the gang the next day after working non-stop for 20 hours.
Just prior to the Notting Hill riots,there was racial unrest in Nottingham,which began on August 23,and continued intermittently for two weeks.
The riot is popularly believed to have triggered by an assault against Majbritt Morrison,a white Swedish woman,on August 29,1958.Majbritt had been arguing with her Jamaican husband Raymond Morrison at the Latimer Road Tube Station.A group of various white people attempted to intervene in the argument and a small fight broke out between the invening people and and some of Raymond friends.The following day Majbritt was verbally and physically assaulted by a gang of white youths that had recalled seeingher the night before.According to one report,the youths threw milk bottles at Majbritt and called her racial slurs such as "Black Man's trollop,while a later report stated that she had been struck in the back with an iron bar.
Later that night a mob of 300-400 white people,ofof them Teddy Boys,were seen on
Bramley Road attacking the houses of West Indian residents.The disturbances,rioting and attacks continued every night until September 5.
The Metropolitan Police Service arrested more than 140 people during the two week disturbances,mostly white youths also many black people found carrying weapons.A report to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner stated that of the 108 people charged with crimes such as grievous bodily harm,affrayand riot and possessing offensive weapons,72 were white and 36 were black.
The sentencing of the nine youths arrested during the riots has passed into judicial lore as an example of "exemplary sentencing" - a harsh punishment to act as a deterrent to others.Each of the youths received five years in person and they were to also pay 500.
A "Carribean Carnival" precursor of the Notting Hill Carnival was held on January 30 1959 in St.Pancras Town Hall,organised by activist Claudia Jones as response to the riots and the state of race relations in Britain at the time.
The riots caused tension between the Metropolitan Police and the British African-Caribbean community,which claimed that the police had not taken their reports of
racial attacks seriously.In 2002,flies were released that revealed that senior police officers at the time had assured the Home Secretary,Rad Butler,that there was little or no racial motivation behind the disturbance,despite testimony from individual police officers to the contrary.
In 1964 Majbritt wrote about the riots in her autobiography,Jungle West 11.
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
"Mayflower of Liberia" 1820.
It been when 86 free African Americans left New York Harbor aboard the ship the Elizabeth,which was called the Mayflower of Liberia.They were bound for the British colony of Sierra Leone, a country that welcomed free African Americans as well as fugitive slaves.It arrived on March 9th of that year.Saturday, April 2, 2016
"Denmark-Vessey"(December 31,1767-July 2,1822)
He was an African American abolitionist who planned the most extensive slave revolt in U.S. history,in Charleston,in 1822.
Born in St.Thomas,the Danish West Indies,he was sold in 1781 to a Bermunda slave captain named Joseph Vesey.Denmark who was self-educated assumed his master's surname,accompained him on numerous voyages and in 1783 settled with his owner in Charleston.
In 1799 Denmark was allowed to purchase his freedom with $600 he had won in a street lottery.Denmark was already familiar with the great Haitian slave revolt of the 1790's,and while working as a carpenter he read anti-slavery literature.Dissatisfied with his second-class status as a freedman and determined to help relieve the far more oppressive conditions of others he knew,Denmark planned and organized an uprising of city and plantation African Americans.
The plan reportedly called from the rebels to attack guardhouses and arsenals,seize their arms,kill all Whites burn and destroy the city,and free slaves.As many as 9,000 African Americans may have been involved though some scholars dispute this figure.Warned by a house servant,white authorities on the eve of the scheduled outbreak made massive military preparations,which forestalled the rebellion.During the ensuing two months,some 130 African Americans were arrested.
In the trials that followed 67 were convicted trying to raise an insurrection; of these,35 including Denmark,were hanged,July 2,1822,in Charleston and 32 were condemned to exhile.In addition,four White men were fined and imprisioned for encouraging the plot.
Born in St.Thomas,the Danish West Indies,he was sold in 1781 to a Bermunda slave captain named Joseph Vesey.Denmark who was self-educated assumed his master's surname,accompained him on numerous voyages and in 1783 settled with his owner in Charleston.
In 1799 Denmark was allowed to purchase his freedom with $600 he had won in a street lottery.Denmark was already familiar with the great Haitian slave revolt of the 1790's,and while working as a carpenter he read anti-slavery literature.Dissatisfied with his second-class status as a freedman and determined to help relieve the far more oppressive conditions of others he knew,Denmark planned and organized an uprising of city and plantation African Americans.
The plan reportedly called from the rebels to attack guardhouses and arsenals,seize their arms,kill all Whites burn and destroy the city,and free slaves.As many as 9,000 African Americans may have been involved though some scholars dispute this figure.Warned by a house servant,white authorities on the eve of the scheduled outbreak made massive military preparations,which forestalled the rebellion.During the ensuing two months,some 130 African Americans were arrested.
In the trials that followed 67 were convicted trying to raise an insurrection; of these,35 including Denmark,were hanged,July 2,1822,in Charleston and 32 were condemned to exhile.In addition,four White men were fined and imprisioned for encouraging the plot.
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
"Amanda-America-Dickson"
The daughter of a slave and her owner,one of the wealthiest African
American women in nineteenthcentury she was born on the Hancock County plantation of her daddy,the famous white agricultural reformer,David Dickson (1809-85).Her birth was the result of the rape of slave mama,Julia Frances Lewis Dickson,when Julia was twelve.At the time,David was forty and the wealthiest planter in the county.Amanda spent her childhood and adolescence in the house of her white grandma and owner,Elizabeth Sholars Dickson,where she learned to read and write play the piano-the survival skills of a young lady but not ordinarily the opportunities of a slave.According to the Dickson family oral history,David doted on Amanda,and Julia openly became his concubine and housekeeper.
In 1865 or 1866 she married her white first cousin,Charles Eubanks,a rencently returned Civil War (1861-65) veteran.The union produced two sons:Julian Henry (1866-1937), who married Eva Walton,the daughter of Isabella & George Walton of Augusta;and Charles Green (1870ca-1900),who married Kate Holsey,the daughter of Harriet & Bishop Lucius Holsey of Augusta.Amanda left Charles in 1870 and with her sons returned to her daddy's plantation.At that time she and her children took the last name of Dickson.
From 1876-1878 she left the plantation to attend the Normal School of Atlanta University.In the Winter of 1885 David died,leaving the bulk of his estate to Amanda,and subsequently to her children after her death.Executors appraised the estate,which included 17,000 acres of land in Hancock and Washington counties,at $309,000.In his will,David stated that the administration of his estate was to be left to the sound judgment and unlimited discretion of Amanda without interference from any quarter,including any husband she might have.A host of David's white realtives contested the will,the superior court of Hancock County ruled in favor of Amanda in November 1885. The disgrunited relatives then appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court,which upheld the lower court decision in 1887. The higher court stated that the "rights of each race are controlled and governed by the same enactments or principles of law-in other words,whatever rights and privileges belonged to a bastard white child belonged to a mixed-race child as well.
Before the supreme court decision,Amanda purchased a large house at 452 Telfair Street,in the wealthiest section of the then integrated city of Augusta. By the time the courts settled the Dickson will case,she had firmly ensconced herself in this new home and decorated it with Brussels carpets,oil paintings,a walnut dinning room table and chairs,and books. Members of the Dickson family went about their private lives.
In 1892 Amanda married Nathan Toomer of Perry.Their marriage lasted until her death of neurastheria,or nervous exhaustion.
In 1865 or 1866 she married her white first cousin,Charles Eubanks,a rencently returned Civil War (1861-65) veteran.The union produced two sons:Julian Henry (1866-1937), who married Eva Walton,the daughter of Isabella & George Walton of Augusta;and Charles Green (1870ca-1900),who married Kate Holsey,the daughter of Harriet & Bishop Lucius Holsey of Augusta.Amanda left Charles in 1870 and with her sons returned to her daddy's plantation.At that time she and her children took the last name of Dickson.
From 1876-1878 she left the plantation to attend the Normal School of Atlanta University.In the Winter of 1885 David died,leaving the bulk of his estate to Amanda,and subsequently to her children after her death.Executors appraised the estate,which included 17,000 acres of land in Hancock and Washington counties,at $309,000.In his will,David stated that the administration of his estate was to be left to the sound judgment and unlimited discretion of Amanda without interference from any quarter,including any husband she might have.A host of David's white realtives contested the will,the superior court of Hancock County ruled in favor of Amanda in November 1885. The disgrunited relatives then appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court,which upheld the lower court decision in 1887. The higher court stated that the "rights of each race are controlled and governed by the same enactments or principles of law-in other words,whatever rights and privileges belonged to a bastard white child belonged to a mixed-race child as well.
Before the supreme court decision,Amanda purchased a large house at 452 Telfair Street,in the wealthiest section of the then integrated city of Augusta. By the time the courts settled the Dickson will case,she had firmly ensconced herself in this new home and decorated it with Brussels carpets,oil paintings,a walnut dinning room table and chairs,and books. Members of the Dickson family went about their private lives.
In 1892 Amanda married Nathan Toomer of Perry.Their marriage lasted until her death of neurastheria,or nervous exhaustion.
Sunday, March 6, 2016
"Opelousas-Massacre" (September 28,1868)
oThe Massacre occurred in Opelousas St.Landry Parish,Louisiana.The event is also referred as the Opelousas Riot by some historians.There is debate as to how many people were killed.Conservative estimate made by contemporary observers indicated about 30 people killed from the political violence.Later historians had place the total closer to 150 or more.
While most Reconstructions-era violence was sparked by conflicts between African American Republicans and white Democrats,the initial catalyst for the Massacre was the attempt by some Opelousas African Americans to join a Democratic political group in the neighboring town of Washington.White Democratics in Opelousas,mainly members of the Seymour Knights,the local unit white supremacist organization Knights of the White Camellia,visited Washington to drive them out of the Party.In response Emerson Bentley,an Ohio-born white school teacher and editor of The Progress,a Republican newspaper in Opelousas,wrote what many local whites through was racially inflammatory article which described the violence that the Seymour Knights had used against the African American Democrats in Washington.Emerson argued that such violence should persuade the African Americans to remain loyal to the GOP.
Shortly after the article appeared,Emerson was assaulted by a group of whites while he taught his class.He was severely beaten and whipped although he survived the assault.In response he fled the town,literally running for his life for nearly three weeks before escaping back to the North.
Meanwhile numerous reports circulated that Emerson had been killed in retaliation for his news article.His mysterious absence was enough to support rumors of his death.Now African Americans Republicans urged retaliatory violence on the Knights,who in turn viewed this as beginning of the long anticipated,and inevitable,"Black Revolt" and race war.The Knights of the White Camellia mobilized thousands of members.Both sides were armed and prepared for conflict as they gathered in Opelousas.
It is unclear as to initiated the battle that began on September 28.What is clear is that the white Democrats had the overwhelming advantage in numbers and weapons. By the afternoon of September 28 the battle had become a massacre.A number of African Americans were shot and killed or captured and later executed.Those who were not captured were chased into swamps and killed on sight.Twelve leaders of the African American Republicans who surrendered were executed the next day on the edge of town.Those executions seemed to encourage a wave of anti-African American violence that spread throughout the parish.No one would ever know how many people were killed but the estimate is that the number at least 150 and may have exceeded that total.
Shortly after the article appeared,Emerson was assaulted by a group of whites while he taught his class.He was severely beaten and whipped although he survived the assault.In response he fled the town,literally running for his life for nearly three weeks before escaping back to the North.
Meanwhile numerous reports circulated that Emerson had been killed in retaliation for his news article.His mysterious absence was enough to support rumors of his death.Now African Americans Republicans urged retaliatory violence on the Knights,who in turn viewed this as beginning of the long anticipated,and inevitable,"Black Revolt" and race war.The Knights of the White Camellia mobilized thousands of members.Both sides were armed and prepared for conflict as they gathered in Opelousas.
It is unclear as to initiated the battle that began on September 28.What is clear is that the white Democrats had the overwhelming advantage in numbers and weapons. By the afternoon of September 28 the battle had become a massacre.A number of African Americans were shot and killed or captured and later executed.Those who were not captured were chased into swamps and killed on sight.Twelve leaders of the African American Republicans who surrendered were executed the next day on the edge of town.Those executions seemed to encourage a wave of anti-African American violence that spread throughout the parish.No one would ever know how many people were killed but the estimate is that the number at least 150 and may have exceeded that total.
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
"The-Case-of-Thomas-Mattox" (July 11,1942)
On July 11,1942,16-year-old Thomas Mattox was riding in the car with his sisters,19-
year-old Emmie and 22-yearold Gussie,from their home in Bowman,Georgia to a show in Elberton,12 miles away.While traveling on the highway,the group passed a white motorist,19-year-old Wilbur Cornell,who also lived in Bowman.
Wilbur became enraged that an African American had passed him on the road.Therefore,he overtook the Mattox car,blocked the road ,and got out of his car yelling at Thomas and his sisters.Gussie stepped out of the car and asked Wilbur to allow them to pass,instead Wilbur took his car jack and beat both her and Emmie to the ground.
Thomas tried to stop the attack.After Wilbur hit him with the Jack,he pulled out out a knife and cut Wilbur.Injured,Wilbur ran to his car and later receive stiches at a local hospital.
Thomas knew what happened to young African American men who got into altercations with white men,so he fled to Philadelphia.Elbert county police officers soon arrested both,sisters, who were held hostage for three months.Thomas,who had nothing to do with the altercation,also arrested,and threatened with mob violence.Neither sister revealed the whereabouts of their brother.
In order to find out where Thomas was hiding,white local residents also threatened his mama.Once the mob wrapped a chain around her neck,she gave up the whereabouts of her son.There were no actions whatsoever taken against Wilbur.
On October 14,1942,Judge Claire G.Fenetry refused the state of Georgia's request extradite Thomas back to Georgia on charges of assault and battery and attempted murder.Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld Judge Fenetry's decision on April 16,1943,stating [Thomas Mattox] will receive a fair and impartial trial and is in grave danger of being lynched or abused by mob action."
Wilbur became enraged that an African American had passed him on the road.Therefore,he overtook the Mattox car,blocked the road ,and got out of his car yelling at Thomas and his sisters.Gussie stepped out of the car and asked Wilbur to allow them to pass,instead Wilbur took his car jack and beat both her and Emmie to the ground.
Thomas tried to stop the attack.After Wilbur hit him with the Jack,he pulled out out a knife and cut Wilbur.Injured,Wilbur ran to his car and later receive stiches at a local hospital.
Thomas knew what happened to young African American men who got into altercations with white men,so he fled to Philadelphia.Elbert county police officers soon arrested both,sisters, who were held hostage for three months.Thomas,who had nothing to do with the altercation,also arrested,and threatened with mob violence.Neither sister revealed the whereabouts of their brother.
In order to find out where Thomas was hiding,white local residents also threatened his mama.Once the mob wrapped a chain around her neck,she gave up the whereabouts of her son.There were no actions whatsoever taken against Wilbur.
On October 14,1942,Judge Claire G.Fenetry refused the state of Georgia's request extradite Thomas back to Georgia on charges of assault and battery and attempted murder.Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld Judge Fenetry's decision on April 16,1943,stating [Thomas Mattox] will receive a fair and impartial trial and is in grave danger of being lynched or abused by mob action."
Monday, December 21, 2015
"Queen-Nanny" (?-1733)
Known as Granny Nanny,Grandy Nanny,and Queen Nanny was a Maroon
leader and Obeah woman in Jamaica during the late 17th and early 18th centuries.Maroons were a cultural mix of Africa slaves and the native Arawak Indian tribes that predated European colonization.Nanny herself was an escaped slave who had been shipped from Western Africa.It has been widely accepted that she came from the Ashanti tribe of the present-day Ghana.
Nanny and her four brothers (all of whom became Maroon leaders) were sold into slavery and later escaped from their plantations into the mountains and jungles that still make up a large proportion of Jamaica.Nanny and one brother Quao,founded a village in the Blue Mountains,on the Eastern (or Windward) side of Jamaica,which became known as Nanny Town.Nanny has been described as a practitioner of Obeah,a term in the Caribbean to describe folk magic and religion based on West Africa influences.
Nanny Town,placed as it was in the mountains away from European settlements and difficult to assault,thrived.Nanny limited her attacks on plantations and European and preferred instead to farm and trade peacefully with her neighbours.She did however make numerous and successful raids to free slaves and held on plantations and it has been widely accepted that her efforts contributed to escape of almost 1,000 slaves over lifetime.
While Nanny lived,Nanny town and the Windward Maroons thrived and multiplied.The British colonial administration became embarrassed and threatened by the successes of the Maroons.Plantation owners who were losing slaves and having equipment and crops burned by Maroons demanded that colonial authorities act.Hunting parties,made up of British regular army soldiers,militiamen,and mercenaries (many from the free black community),scoured the Jamaica jungles.
William Cuffee known known as Captain Sambo,is credited as having killed in Nanny in 1733 during one of many and bloody engagements of the war.The war itself lasted from 1720 until a truce was declared in 1739;Cudjoe,a leader during a leader during the the Maroon War,was the driving force behind the treaty.After Nanny's death,mony of the Windward Maroons moved across the island to the more sparsely inhabited Western (or Leeward) side of Jamaica.
Nanny's life and accomplishments have been recognised by the Government of Jamaica and she has been honoured as a National Hero and awarded the title of "Right Exellent".Currently,there are only seven such National Heroes and Nanny is conspicuous as the only woman.A modern portrait of Nanny,based on her description,appears on the Jamaica $500 note,the largest banknote in circulation in Jamaica.
Nanny and her four brothers (all of whom became Maroon leaders) were sold into slavery and later escaped from their plantations into the mountains and jungles that still make up a large proportion of Jamaica.Nanny and one brother Quao,founded a village in the Blue Mountains,on the Eastern (or Windward) side of Jamaica,which became known as Nanny Town.Nanny has been described as a practitioner of Obeah,a term in the Caribbean to describe folk magic and religion based on West Africa influences.
Nanny Town,placed as it was in the mountains away from European settlements and difficult to assault,thrived.Nanny limited her attacks on plantations and European and preferred instead to farm and trade peacefully with her neighbours.She did however make numerous and successful raids to free slaves and held on plantations and it has been widely accepted that her efforts contributed to escape of almost 1,000 slaves over lifetime.
While Nanny lived,Nanny town and the Windward Maroons thrived and multiplied.The British colonial administration became embarrassed and threatened by the successes of the Maroons.Plantation owners who were losing slaves and having equipment and crops burned by Maroons demanded that colonial authorities act.Hunting parties,made up of British regular army soldiers,militiamen,and mercenaries (many from the free black community),scoured the Jamaica jungles.
William Cuffee known known as Captain Sambo,is credited as having killed in Nanny in 1733 during one of many and bloody engagements of the war.The war itself lasted from 1720 until a truce was declared in 1739;Cudjoe,a leader during a leader during the the Maroon War,was the driving force behind the treaty.After Nanny's death,mony of the Windward Maroons moved across the island to the more sparsely inhabited Western (or Leeward) side of Jamaica.
Nanny's life and accomplishments have been recognised by the Government of Jamaica and she has been honoured as a National Hero and awarded the title of "Right Exellent".Currently,there are only seven such National Heroes and Nanny is conspicuous as the only woman.A modern portrait of Nanny,based on her description,appears on the Jamaica $500 note,the largest banknote in circulation in Jamaica.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
"Wilmington-10"
Include the Rev.Benjamin Chavis,one social worker and eight school students.They were accused,and later convicted,of conspiring to
firebomb Mike's Grocery and then firing at resonding firefighters during the racial unrest that hit Wilmington,North Carolina, in 1971.The racial tension exploded and when forced integration of New Hanover County Schools resulted in a boycott by African-American students.As the students protested and white supremacist groups patrolled Wilmington streets,two people were killed and extensive property damage was caused by rioting.The 10 were convicted a year later after a controversial trial that include testimony by key witnesses who later recanted.The 10 were sentenced to a combined total of more than 280 years in jail.
After Amnesty International took up the case and "60 Minutes" suggested that evidence used in court was fabricated,Government Jim Hunt reduced their prison sentences.The charges against the 10 were overturned in 1980 by an appellate court.
In December 2012,outgoing North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue pardoned the ten."These convictions were tainted by naked racism and represent an ugly stain on North Carolina's criminal justice system that cannot be allowed to stand by any longer." Beverly said."Justice demands that this stain finally be "removed."
The 10 are pictured in the above photo at a 1976 news conference.Front row: The Rev.Benjamin Chavis (from left),William "Joe" Wright II,Connie Tindall and Jerry Jacobs.Back row: Wayne Moore (from left),Anne Turner,James McKoy,Willie Vereen,Marvin Patrick and Regnald Epps.
After Amnesty International took up the case and "60 Minutes" suggested that evidence used in court was fabricated,Government Jim Hunt reduced their prison sentences.The charges against the 10 were overturned in 1980 by an appellate court.
In December 2012,outgoing North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue pardoned the ten."These convictions were tainted by naked racism and represent an ugly stain on North Carolina's criminal justice system that cannot be allowed to stand by any longer." Beverly said."Justice demands that this stain finally be "removed."
The 10 are pictured in the above photo at a 1976 news conference.Front row: The Rev.Benjamin Chavis (from left),William "Joe" Wright II,Connie Tindall and Jerry Jacobs.Back row: Wayne Moore (from left),Anne Turner,James McKoy,Willie Vereen,Marvin Patrick and Regnald Epps.
Saturday, August 8, 2015
"Barney & Betty Hill" (July 20,1922)
Barney was born in Newsport News,Virginia,the youngest of four children
whose daddy was a shipyard worker.After the family moved to Philadelphia,he graduated from high school,attended Temple University,and enlisted in the Army.He married Ruby Horn and they had two children.He later divorced and was remarried,to Betty Hill,a white woman.They moved to her hometown of Portsmouth,New Hampshire.
They were returning to New Hampshire from vacation in Nigara Falls on the night of September 19,1961.Traffic was sparse as Barney drove through the White Mountains on Route 3.Close to midnight the couple noticed a strange light in the sky that started to move.Barney stopped the car and Betty exercised their dog,Delsey,he observed the object through binoculars.Barney told Betty that it was probably an airplane.
As they continued their journey,the object seemed to remain with the car.They definitely moving so they ruled out a star or a planet.The object changed direction and drew closer.Betty looked at the object through the binoculars and saw that it was a dis-shaped object with a band of light around its circumference.They stopped the car once again and Barney got out to get a better look at the object.The object got so close to Barney that he was able to see several beings staring down at him through lighted windows.
Suddenly he panicked,crying out,"They're going to capture us!" He ran back to the car and they raced off.The next thing the couple was aware of were several "bleeps" like the sound of a microwave oven.The next day Barney noticed some unexplained blotches on the body of the car,soreness at the back of his neck,and scuff marks on his shoes.Some time later the Hills realized they could not account for two hours and 35 miles of their journey.They began to suffer stress,but they had no idea why.Betty experienced horrible nightmares in which she was taken into a room and examined by strange beings.Within a year,the Hills saw two doctors,and were finally referred to Dr. Benjamin Simon,a Boston psychiatrist who specialized in hypnotic therapy.Dr.Simon regressed the Hills using hypnosis,but he hypnotized them separately,so that neither would know what the other said.A terrifying story emerged that filled in the period of amnesia.
Over a number of months an account was put together which told how their car was stopped by a group of strange looking "men" with pear-shaped heads and large wrap-around eyes.The beings forcibly carried the Hills into the lighted objects,where they were taken into separate rooms.During their separation,the couple underwent various tests by the 'aliens" which included taking hair and skin samples.While inside the craft Betty remembers seeing a "star map." Later,under post-hypnotic suggestion,she was able to reproduce the map.
In 1974,Ohio schoolteacher and amateur astronomer Majorie Fish published the results of her studies of the map.After five years of studying,Ms Fish found a match,the Zeta Reticuli system.When noted,astrophysicist Carl Sagan compared the Fish map using a more accurate computer program,he found there was little similarity.The Hill aduction case is now the alien aduction equivalent of the Roswell incident.
Barney died of a cerebral hemorrhage on Febrauary 25,1969,and Betty died October 17,2004 after battling cancer for a year.
They were returning to New Hampshire from vacation in Nigara Falls on the night of September 19,1961.Traffic was sparse as Barney drove through the White Mountains on Route 3.Close to midnight the couple noticed a strange light in the sky that started to move.Barney stopped the car and Betty exercised their dog,Delsey,he observed the object through binoculars.Barney told Betty that it was probably an airplane.
As they continued their journey,the object seemed to remain with the car.They definitely moving so they ruled out a star or a planet.The object changed direction and drew closer.Betty looked at the object through the binoculars and saw that it was a dis-shaped object with a band of light around its circumference.They stopped the car once again and Barney got out to get a better look at the object.The object got so close to Barney that he was able to see several beings staring down at him through lighted windows.
Suddenly he panicked,crying out,"They're going to capture us!" He ran back to the car and they raced off.The next thing the couple was aware of were several "bleeps" like the sound of a microwave oven.The next day Barney noticed some unexplained blotches on the body of the car,soreness at the back of his neck,and scuff marks on his shoes.Some time later the Hills realized they could not account for two hours and 35 miles of their journey.They began to suffer stress,but they had no idea why.Betty experienced horrible nightmares in which she was taken into a room and examined by strange beings.Within a year,the Hills saw two doctors,and were finally referred to Dr. Benjamin Simon,a Boston psychiatrist who specialized in hypnotic therapy.Dr.Simon regressed the Hills using hypnosis,but he hypnotized them separately,so that neither would know what the other said.A terrifying story emerged that filled in the period of amnesia.
Over a number of months an account was put together which told how their car was stopped by a group of strange looking "men" with pear-shaped heads and large wrap-around eyes.The beings forcibly carried the Hills into the lighted objects,where they were taken into separate rooms.During their separation,the couple underwent various tests by the 'aliens" which included taking hair and skin samples.While inside the craft Betty remembers seeing a "star map." Later,under post-hypnotic suggestion,she was able to reproduce the map.
In 1974,Ohio schoolteacher and amateur astronomer Majorie Fish published the results of her studies of the map.After five years of studying,Ms Fish found a match,the Zeta Reticuli system.When noted,astrophysicist Carl Sagan compared the Fish map using a more accurate computer program,he found there was little similarity.The Hill aduction case is now the alien aduction equivalent of the Roswell incident.
Barney died of a cerebral hemorrhage on Febrauary 25,1969,and Betty died October 17,2004 after battling cancer for a year.
Monday, August 3, 2015
"Ruby-McCollum (August 8,1952)
In 1952,an African American woman murdered a white man in Florida.Ruby murdered Dr. C.Leroy Adams.This shooting was a noted in African American as the O.J.Simpson murder trial 43 years later.
It happened in Live Oak,a small farming town in north Florida.After the shooting Ruby put her nickel-plated Smith & Wesson away,locked up his office,and walked to her 1951 two-toned Chrysler.Checking on her two small children in the back seat,she drove home.In less than an hour,every law enforcement vehicle in Suwannee County was was parked in front of the McCollum home.Accompanied by a squad of Florida Highway Patrol cars,and under direct orders from Governor Fuller Warren in Tallahassee,Ruby was rushed over 50 miles away to the Florida State Prison Farm in Raiford,the home of the Florida's electric chair.She had driven there with her two younger children in the car.She later admitted that she shot him four times revolver,after he would not agree to leave her alone.Ruby said that over a period of years,he had repeatedly forced her to submit to sex and bear his child and that her two-year-old daughter,Loretta,was his.
In notes and letters,Ruby said that he abused her,and that she was pregnant with another child by him when she killed him.Ruby also said that Leroy took part in her husband Sam's "illegal gambling operation."Employees at the doctor's office later described seeing the doctor accept "large deliveries of cash examination rooms." The day after Ruby's arrest,her husband Sam died of heart attack in Zuber,Florida,where he had taken his children for safekeeping with Ruby's mama.The case was first covered for a newspaper outside of Florida.This was by anthropologist and writer Zora Neale Hurtson,assigned from the Pittsburgh Courier.She had to sit upstairs in the segregated gallery,in view of Ku Klux Klan members who were present.Her coverage helped Ruby gain a national and even international during her two trails.
In the first trial,Frank Cannon,a district Attroney from Jacksonville,Florida,defended Ruby.The case was prosecuted by by state's attorney Keith Black,and presided over by Florida's Third Circuit Court judge,Judge Hal W.Adams (not related to the doctor,but an honorary pallbearer at his funeral).The jury was made up of all white men,some who had been Dr.Adam's patients.Ruby testified that Dr.Adams had forced sex upon her,that they had sex at her home and in his office (located immediately across the street from the courthouse),and that he insisted that she bear his child,but her defense attorney was prevented from presenting their relationship more completely.All of Frank's efforts to introduce the doctor's pattern of repeated physical abuse of her at the office were objected to by the prosecutor and upheld by the judge,except for her testimony about events on the day of the murder.She said he had struck her repeatedly that day and they struggled.Essentially Ruby was silenced in court regarding additional testimony that would have established mitigating circumstances.
According Zora, who reported on the trial for the Pittsburgh Courier: Ruby was allowed to describe how,about 1948,during an extended absence of her husband,she had,in her home,submitted to the doctor.She was allowed to state that her youngest child was his.Yet thirty-eight times Frank Cannon attempted to proceed from this point;thirty-eight times Judge Adams sustained these objections." The judge also imposed a gag order on Ruby,preventing the press from interviewing her,and preventing her attroneys the opportunity to determine whether speaking with the press or not would be to her advantage.
Zora wrote that defense attorney Frank Cannon frustrated by the persistence of the state prosecuting attorney in objecting to have all of the evidence introduced about her relationship with Dr.Adams without objection,turned to the judge and said,"May God forgive you,Judge Adams,for robbing a human being of life in such a fashion." While this is written by Zora,and quoted by Huie,there is no record of the statement in the trial transcript,as there is no record of Zora's reporting of Thelma Curry,a witness,being thrown of the witness stand and being told to go back where she belongs.The prosecuting attorney said that Ruby had shot Leroy in anger over a disputed bill,which was supported by three witnesses during the trial.Ruby herself testified that she had discussed a bill with Leroy that day,but maintained that she fired at the doctor in self-defense when he attacked her.Residents of Live Oak knew that Ruby was a wealthy woman,and she and her husband were known to pay their bills promptly.The jury with the first-degree murder charge convicted Ruby on December 20,1952.Ruby was sentenced to death in the electric chair.
Her case was appealed.During that period before the appeal was decided,Ruby was held in the Suwannee County Jail.The Florida Supreme Court overturned her conviction and death sentenced on a technicality on July 20,1954.The court cited Judge Hal W.Adams,the presiding judge,for falling to be present at the jury's inspection of the scene of the crime.Concerned for mental health,defense attorney Frank Cannon arranged for Ruby to be examined in the county jail,where had been held for two years.
At the second trial,he entered a plea of insanity.Upon receiving the results of an examination of Ruby by court-appointed physicians,including Dr.Adams' associate Dr.Dillard Workman,the state attorney Randall Slaughter agreed to the plea.Ruby was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial.She was committed to the Florida State Hospital for mental patients at Chattahocchee,Florida.Had Ruby been an ordinary colored woman,she would have been promptly transported a mile away to the Suwannee County Jail,a two-story red brick building on the grounds of the county courthouse in downtown Live Oak.Ms.Ruby was ordinary colored woman she was married to "Bolita Sam,the gambling kingpin of Suwannee County.Sam's business operated under their full police protection for "cash money," paid in return.Also many prominent members of the white community were aware that their names were recorded in Ruby's ledger,along with a record of no-interest "loans" from Sam.
After the funeral,the town's weekly newspaper,the Suwannee Democrat,ran the story of the murder with the headline,Dr.Adams murdered by Negress." Adams' campaign photograph appeared beneath the headline with the caption,"Murdered."Needless to say,this caption had a tremendous impact on readers who had grown to associate Adams' image with campaign promises of no new taxes,free medical care for the elderly,exemption of barren land from taxes for 10 years,better schools,a medical school in the state,and a greater share of South Florida's race track taxes.The newspaper referred to the "beloved Dr.Adams" as "noble," and characterized the murder as a senseless slaying by an angry "Negress" over her doctor bill.Newspapers around the country picked up the story,echoing the assertion that the murder, perpetrated by Ruby the "Negress" in question happened during a heated dispute over the her doctor bill.While the newspapers perpetuated the officially sanctioned versions of the story,the citizens of Live Oak.
In 1974,attroney Frank Cannon visited Ruby in the mental hospital.Without asking for any legal fees,he filed legal papers to have her released under the Baker Act,which allowed mental patients who were considered not a danger to be released to their families.Her initial commitment was due to her being found mentally incompetent to stand trial.After her released to their families.Her initial commitment was due to her being found mentally incompetent to stand trial.After her release,Ruby lived in a rest home in Silver Springs,Florida,funded by a trust set up by author William Bradford Huie.He had paid her $40,0000 for the right to feature her in a movie he hoped to have adopted from his book about the case,Ruby McCollum:Woman in the Suwannee Jail ( 1964,4th edition).Rudy did get to see her children again.But, Sam Jr.Followed his daddy into gambling,and in 1975 was convicted in federal court on 10 counts of gambling.He had been living in the Ruby homestead,from which the FBI deducted appropriate taxes and penalties.Ruby's daughter Sonja & Kay both married and lived in Ocala,Florida.Kay hope died in a car accident in 1978 and Sonja Wood died of a heart attack in 1979.
In November 1980,Al Lee of the Ocala Star Banner interviewed Ruby at the rest home in Silver Springs.Al wrote that Ruby had no memory of her ordeal and that psychiatrists said she may have suffered from Ganser syndrome,or the suppression of painful memories.In those years,the State Mental Hospital at Chattahoochee was investigated more than once over issues of patient treatment, overuse of medications including Thorazine,and administration of electroshock therapy.Which can affect memory.On May 23,1992,at 4:45 a.m.Ruby died of a stroke at the New Horizon Rehabilitation Center,at the age of eighty-two.Her brother Matt Jackson,had died less than a year before.The family arranged for to be buried beside him and his wife in the cemetery behind Hopewell Baptist Church,Live Oak.
It happened in Live Oak,a small farming town in north Florida.After the shooting Ruby put her nickel-plated Smith & Wesson away,locked up his office,and walked to her 1951 two-toned Chrysler.Checking on her two small children in the back seat,she drove home.In less than an hour,every law enforcement vehicle in Suwannee County was was parked in front of the McCollum home.Accompanied by a squad of Florida Highway Patrol cars,and under direct orders from Governor Fuller Warren in Tallahassee,Ruby was rushed over 50 miles away to the Florida State Prison Farm in Raiford,the home of the Florida's electric chair.She had driven there with her two younger children in the car.She later admitted that she shot him four times revolver,after he would not agree to leave her alone.Ruby said that over a period of years,he had repeatedly forced her to submit to sex and bear his child and that her two-year-old daughter,Loretta,was his.
In notes and letters,Ruby said that he abused her,and that she was pregnant with another child by him when she killed him.Ruby also said that Leroy took part in her husband Sam's "illegal gambling operation."Employees at the doctor's office later described seeing the doctor accept "large deliveries of cash examination rooms." The day after Ruby's arrest,her husband Sam died of heart attack in Zuber,Florida,where he had taken his children for safekeeping with Ruby's mama.The case was first covered for a newspaper outside of Florida.This was by anthropologist and writer Zora Neale Hurtson,assigned from the Pittsburgh Courier.She had to sit upstairs in the segregated gallery,in view of Ku Klux Klan members who were present.Her coverage helped Ruby gain a national and even international during her two trails.
In the first trial,Frank Cannon,a district Attroney from Jacksonville,Florida,defended Ruby.The case was prosecuted by by state's attorney Keith Black,and presided over by Florida's Third Circuit Court judge,Judge Hal W.Adams (not related to the doctor,but an honorary pallbearer at his funeral).The jury was made up of all white men,some who had been Dr.Adam's patients.Ruby testified that Dr.Adams had forced sex upon her,that they had sex at her home and in his office (located immediately across the street from the courthouse),and that he insisted that she bear his child,but her defense attorney was prevented from presenting their relationship more completely.All of Frank's efforts to introduce the doctor's pattern of repeated physical abuse of her at the office were objected to by the prosecutor and upheld by the judge,except for her testimony about events on the day of the murder.She said he had struck her repeatedly that day and they struggled.Essentially Ruby was silenced in court regarding additional testimony that would have established mitigating circumstances.
According Zora, who reported on the trial for the Pittsburgh Courier: Ruby was allowed to describe how,about 1948,during an extended absence of her husband,she had,in her home,submitted to the doctor.She was allowed to state that her youngest child was his.Yet thirty-eight times Frank Cannon attempted to proceed from this point;thirty-eight times Judge Adams sustained these objections." The judge also imposed a gag order on Ruby,preventing the press from interviewing her,and preventing her attroneys the opportunity to determine whether speaking with the press or not would be to her advantage.
Zora wrote that defense attorney Frank Cannon frustrated by the persistence of the state prosecuting attorney in objecting to have all of the evidence introduced about her relationship with Dr.Adams without objection,turned to the judge and said,"May God forgive you,Judge Adams,for robbing a human being of life in such a fashion." While this is written by Zora,and quoted by Huie,there is no record of the statement in the trial transcript,as there is no record of Zora's reporting of Thelma Curry,a witness,being thrown of the witness stand and being told to go back where she belongs.The prosecuting attorney said that Ruby had shot Leroy in anger over a disputed bill,which was supported by three witnesses during the trial.Ruby herself testified that she had discussed a bill with Leroy that day,but maintained that she fired at the doctor in self-defense when he attacked her.Residents of Live Oak knew that Ruby was a wealthy woman,and she and her husband were known to pay their bills promptly.The jury with the first-degree murder charge convicted Ruby on December 20,1952.Ruby was sentenced to death in the electric chair.
Her case was appealed.During that period before the appeal was decided,Ruby was held in the Suwannee County Jail.The Florida Supreme Court overturned her conviction and death sentenced on a technicality on July 20,1954.The court cited Judge Hal W.Adams,the presiding judge,for falling to be present at the jury's inspection of the scene of the crime.Concerned for mental health,defense attorney Frank Cannon arranged for Ruby to be examined in the county jail,where had been held for two years.
At the second trial,he entered a plea of insanity.Upon receiving the results of an examination of Ruby by court-appointed physicians,including Dr.Adams' associate Dr.Dillard Workman,the state attorney Randall Slaughter agreed to the plea.Ruby was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial.She was committed to the Florida State Hospital for mental patients at Chattahocchee,Florida.Had Ruby been an ordinary colored woman,she would have been promptly transported a mile away to the Suwannee County Jail,a two-story red brick building on the grounds of the county courthouse in downtown Live Oak.Ms.Ruby was ordinary colored woman she was married to "Bolita Sam,the gambling kingpin of Suwannee County.Sam's business operated under their full police protection for "cash money," paid in return.Also many prominent members of the white community were aware that their names were recorded in Ruby's ledger,along with a record of no-interest "loans" from Sam.
After the funeral,the town's weekly newspaper,the Suwannee Democrat,ran the story of the murder with the headline,Dr.Adams murdered by Negress." Adams' campaign photograph appeared beneath the headline with the caption,"Murdered."Needless to say,this caption had a tremendous impact on readers who had grown to associate Adams' image with campaign promises of no new taxes,free medical care for the elderly,exemption of barren land from taxes for 10 years,better schools,a medical school in the state,and a greater share of South Florida's race track taxes.The newspaper referred to the "beloved Dr.Adams" as "noble," and characterized the murder as a senseless slaying by an angry "Negress" over her doctor bill.Newspapers around the country picked up the story,echoing the assertion that the murder, perpetrated by Ruby the "Negress" in question happened during a heated dispute over the her doctor bill.While the newspapers perpetuated the officially sanctioned versions of the story,the citizens of Live Oak.
In 1974,attroney Frank Cannon visited Ruby in the mental hospital.Without asking for any legal fees,he filed legal papers to have her released under the Baker Act,which allowed mental patients who were considered not a danger to be released to their families.Her initial commitment was due to her being found mentally incompetent to stand trial.After her released to their families.Her initial commitment was due to her being found mentally incompetent to stand trial.After her release,Ruby lived in a rest home in Silver Springs,Florida,funded by a trust set up by author William Bradford Huie.He had paid her $40,0000 for the right to feature her in a movie he hoped to have adopted from his book about the case,Ruby McCollum:Woman in the Suwannee Jail ( 1964,4th edition).Rudy did get to see her children again.But, Sam Jr.Followed his daddy into gambling,and in 1975 was convicted in federal court on 10 counts of gambling.He had been living in the Ruby homestead,from which the FBI deducted appropriate taxes and penalties.Ruby's daughter Sonja & Kay both married and lived in Ocala,Florida.Kay hope died in a car accident in 1978 and Sonja Wood died of a heart attack in 1979.
In November 1980,Al Lee of the Ocala Star Banner interviewed Ruby at the rest home in Silver Springs.Al wrote that Ruby had no memory of her ordeal and that psychiatrists said she may have suffered from Ganser syndrome,or the suppression of painful memories.In those years,the State Mental Hospital at Chattahoochee was investigated more than once over issues of patient treatment, overuse of medications including Thorazine,and administration of electroshock therapy.Which can affect memory.On May 23,1992,at 4:45 a.m.Ruby died of a stroke at the New Horizon Rehabilitation Center,at the age of eighty-two.Her brother Matt Jackson,had died less than a year before.The family arranged for to be buried beside him and his wife in the cemetery behind Hopewell Baptist Church,Live Oak.
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