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D’Angelo for Vibe Magazine, April 2000 🌹

Repost from @black_history_buff_777 • Ever heard of the unfortunate story of Martinsville Seven? Read this!⁠ ⁠ The Martinsville Seven were a group of Black men executed in 1951 after being convicted of raping a white woman. ⁠ ⁠ On the evening of January 8, 1949, Ruby Stroud Floyd accused 13 black men of raping her while she passed through a Black neighborhood in Martinsville, Virginia. These accused men who had no real criminal history soon became known as the Martinsville Seven. Most of the men were between 18 and 20 years old and worked as laborers in small-scale furniture factories and warehouses. At age 37, World War II veteran Francis DeSales Grayson was the oldest of the defendants. ⁠ ⁠ Not all of the defendants were able to read the confessions they signed, and none of them had a lawyer with them as they were questioned. Under threats that they would be released to a lynch mob, each confessed to involvement in the rape. ⁠ ⁠ By early 1951, legal strategies to save the Martinsville Seven were exhausted and the NAACP turned towards a public relations campaign. Despite campaigns, editorials, and local vigils, newly-installed Virginia Governor John S. Battle refused clemency. ⁠ ⁠ After a succession of perfunctory trials before all-white, all-male juries, each was convicted and sentenced to death. They were executed in 1951 in the largest mass execution for rape in U.S. history.⁠ ⁠ On August 31, 2021, the state of Virginia granted posthumous pardons to all seven men, 70 years after their deaths.⁠ ⁠ tag someone that needs to read this!⁠ ⁠ Discover more @blackhistorybuff⁠ Follow @blackhistorybuff⁠ ⁠ ⁠ #endsexualassault #webelievesurvivors #victimblaming #ibelieveyou #blackkings #blackmanmagic #blackpeople #blackmensmiling #darkskinmen #blackrelationships #blackmenmatter #blackmenkillingit #blackfamily #standinsolidarity #nojustice #useyourprivilege #blackarchives #movement4blacklives #endwhitesupremacy #blacklivesmattermovement #racismisavirus #systemicoppression #reparations #antiblackracism #historychannel #historyfacts⁠ #blackhistorymonth #365daysofblackhistory #blackhistorymatters #blackhistoryfacts https://www.instagram.com/p/CYZIhBErAeT/?utm_medium=tumblr

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