In July 1949, four black boys were falsely accused of raping a white woman in Groveland, Florida, USA.
Racism was prevalent in the American South at that time. During World War II , a large number of blacks and whites were drafted into the U.S. army to fight against the German, Japanese, and Italian fascists. After the war, many demobilized black soldiers and even officers were inevitably abused by violent white racist mobs after returning home.
In the 19th century, the United States expanded its territory to the east coast of the Pacific Ocean. For mineral development and railway construction, the United States introduced a large number of immigrants from European countries and East Asia, including a large number of Chinese workers. The gold rush and stimulated the influx of immigrants. Chinese workers were resented by many white immigrants because of their obedience and diligence. This jealousy eventually developed into violence, exclusion, robbery, and expulsion that almost all Chinese in the United States could not escape. To this end, the U.S. government introduced the shameful Chinese Exclusion Act (which lasted until 1943).
And this also means that white racists have the right to define who is an American and the freedom to expel non-Americans from the United States or "evaporate" them. Although blacks and Indians were granted citizenship rights by U.S. law during the Civil War, whites obviously did not see it that way. The experience of expelling and expelling Chinese, as well as the privilege of indiscriminate lynching without being punished, made them begin to treat blacks as inferiors. A focused target.
At that time, as long as a black person was accused of assaulting a white person, regardless of whether it was true or not, he might first face lynching by a white racist mob, and in many cases his life would be lost.
The Groveland case emerged in this context, involving former U.S. Army soldiers Samuel Sheffield and Walter Owen, as well as Ernest Thomas and Charles Greenlee, who were only 16 years old. When they were driving through a wooded area on the evening of July 16, they found that the car of Norma Padgett, a white woman, and her husband had broken down, and they reached out to help push the car. Norma Padgett's husband was drunk and had a conflict with Samuel Sheffield.
But the next day, Norma Padgett accused the four black men of raping her. In fact, the next year, she gave birth to a white child.
This meant disaster for Sheffield, Owen, Ernest and Charles. The local police chief McCall is even more evil than the dirtiest gangsters we have seen in police movies from Hong Kong, China and even the United States - McCall not only dominates the local gambling and other black gold businesses, but also cooperates with Big politicians from town to state are all connected.
McCall initially prevented the racist mob from lynching the four men mentioned above, but he also did his best to use torture to force the four men to admit to the rape. Moreover, in the future, when the Groveland case received national attention in the United States, civil rights lawyers intervened, and the case was remanded for retrial, which might expose the truth of the case and endanger McCaul's status; he also carried out a fishing trip Law enforcement, that is, during the process of escorting Sheffield and Irving, they shot them. Sheffield died, and Irving escaped by pretending to be dead.
McCall's bad behavior aroused strong dissatisfaction with Harry Moore, the early leader of the democratic movement in the South of the United States at the time. The latter requested the governor of Florida to remove the former from office. But soon after, a bomb was planted in Moore's home, killing the couple. McCall, as well as the grassroots police, even chief executives and judges in many places in the southern United States at that time, all had a strong background in the Ku Klux Klan. This is also an important reason why McCall's overstepping of authority and criminal behavior have not been punished.
The Groveland case ended with Ernest Thomas being shot while escaping from prison, Charles Greenlee being sentenced to life imprisonment , Sheffield dying unexpectedly, and Irving being sentenced to life imprisonment instead of lynching. In November 2021, the Lake County Circuit Court in Florida officially dismissed the case and acquitted the four aforementioned people, pointing out that the alleged rape did not occur.
translated by Lin Publishing House recently introduced and published the book "The Evil in the Woods" written by the famous American writer Gilbert King. This book, which won the Pulitzer Prize, restores the story of the Groveland case to readers.There are two main lines in the book. One is the detection and trial of the above-mentioned case and the political and legal shock it caused; the other is how the famous black civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall in the United States at that time came forward and how he faced racism. The emotionally charged South of the United States braved the personal threats of Ku Klux Klan thugs and white "black police" to collect evidence bit by bit, raise questions, and strive for political and legal resolution of the Groveland case at both the federal and state levels. focus on.
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was not able to clear the four defendants who were falsely accused at the time, but his efforts did make the case enter the public opinion forum in the United States and even around the world, and then made There was a chance that the case would be sent back for retrial by the U.S. Supreme Court, allowing Irving to change his sentence and avoid being immediately sentenced to electrocution. Moreover, the highly egregious, unimaginable details and pressure of this case actually tempered Thurgood Marshall, making him even more fearless in the defense, investigation, and fighting of similar cases.
It must be pointed out that the Groveland case has greatly damaged the face of the United States, which prided itself on freedom, democracy, and human rights after World War II and proudly initiated the Cold War , both politically and legally. The Soviet Union publicly criticized the rule of law and human rights in the United States on this matter more than once.
Obviously, because of this, Thurgood Marshall, a symbolic elite of ethnic minorities and civil rights defender, has become an important reliance for the United States to regain ground in international and domestic public opinion. In 1961, he was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals by President John F. Kennedy and later served as Deputy Attorney General of the United States. In October 1967, Thurgood Marshall was appointed as a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by President Johnson. He was also the first Supreme Court justice of color in U.S. history.
In November 2021, Florida The news that a Florida judge "vindicated" the four wronged persons in the Groveland case has also triggered a certain degree of discussion in the Chinese-speaking world. This case clearly proves that correcting judicial errors is extremely difficult, and that correcting errors requires breaking down more obstacles than avoiding them.
The relatives of the four wronged in the Groveland case have never given up their efforts to fight for the truth
Through the narrative of the book "The Evil in the Woods", we certainly admire Thurgood Marshall's strong will and fighting spirit. He took it as his responsibility to change the social destiny of black people and tried his best to do so. But it is also clear that Thurgood Marshall and other black civil rights elites were quite comfortable in their game and battle with the discriminatory U.S. national racial policies because they were familiar with the U.S. Constitution, laws and political rules; When the object of the game and battle is replaced by the rejection of the white people's psychology, concepts, interest needs, traditions and other factors, they are just a small boat in the vast ocean.
In the past few decades, American politics and law have indeed been effectively reshaped. Even Hollywood has established similar "political correctness" rules, that is, black people cannot act as villains alone (only positive black characters can be used as villains); but How much have racial hatred and tolerance changed compared to a few decades ago? From the Groveland case to the death of George Floyd , everything seems to have changed, and everything seems to have stayed the same. Generalized racial hatred, this is the real banal evil , Lin The evil in it.
Book reviewed:
Book title: "The Evil in the Woods"
Author: (American) Gilbert King
Translator: Zhang Zhimei
Publisher: Yilin Publishing House
Publishing date: June 2022
