Devil in the Grove

The police comb the swamps of northern Florida in pursuit of Ernest Thomas, assumed to be the fourth Groveland rapist. Upon investigating the house of Thomas’s wife, Willis McCall discovers a letter from Ernest stating where he is hiding out. McCall forms a search party and converges on the hiding place. After a lengthy chase, they apprehend Thomas and shoot him dead. His last words are reputed to be “Don’t shoot, white man” (118).

Richard Carter, a reporter from a New York newspaper, investigates the case and suspects that Thomas’s involvement peddling bolita was the real reason for his fleeing Lake County and the reason why police, including Willis McCall, wanted him dead.

Back at the NAACP, Marshall assigns Franklin Williams to argue the Groveland case, with the hope that if they don’t win it in the South, they will take it to the Supreme Court, which they consider a far more level playing field (123).

Before being transported, Shepherd and Irvin are beaten by the police with blackjacks and fists. 

Marshall requests a federal investigation into the Groveland case. Franklin Williams recruits a young Florida lawyer named Horace Hill, and the two prepare to argue the case. The two lawyers meet with Shepherd, Irvin, and Greenlee, who recount what happened on the night of July 15. The lawyers take due note of the young men’s injuries from their beating by the police and promise to arrange a physician’s visit.

Terence McCarthy, a British economist who studies labor issues in the South, concludes that the Groveland case has more to do with the citrus industry and social status than with Norma Padgett’s alleged rape (132). He discovers that local white residents widely resent upwardly mobile blacks, including those like Shepherd and Irvin who are World War II veterans. Williams agrees with McCarthy that Shepherd and Irvin were framed as a pretext for Willis McCall to “do some heavy housecleaning with regard to black troublemakers and potential instigators” (133).

In New York, Williams and Marshall begin putting together a legal strategy and enlist Harry Moore to rouse local public support for the case (135). Moore calls upon Florida governor Fuller Warren to suspend Sheriff McCall, who denies the charges of unlawful beating. The FBI sends two special agents, John Quigley and Tobias Matthews, to Florida to investigate the Groveland case. After interviewing dozens of people, the agents conclude that Lake County is effectively controlled by the Ku Klux Klan, which is determined to keep black residents in a lower social status and deny them basic rights.

Williams and Hill search for another defense lawyer in the little time that remains before the trial. They recruit Alex Akerman, an Orlando attorney and member of the Florida legislature. Akerman arranges for Williams and Hill to meet Jesse Hunter, their opposing counsel on the case.

We learn the backstory of Hunter, who overcame his lack of education to become an attorney and eventually state attorney of Florida.

On August 25 the pretrial hearings begin with Judge Truman Futch presiding. By now the beatings endured by the defendants have been well reported in the press, which has laid the blame on Willis McCall and his deputies (147).

Before the trial, a tropical storm sweeps through Florida, wreaking havoc on homes and businesses and costing the defense team valuable time and preparation.

Hunter intends to call Samuel Shepherd’s brother James as a witness and orders McCall to hold James in the county jail. McCall also jails the parents of Samuel, Charles Greenlee, and Ernest Thomas to prevent the families from conspiring together. A bolita thrower named Henry Singleton, who frequently clashed with Ernest Thomas, is called as a witness for the prosecution.

A medical report by Dr. Geoffrey Binneveld casts doubt on Norma Padgett’s claim of having been raped.

Contributing to the trial’s difficulties, an atmosphere of anticommunist ferment pervaded 1949 and 1950. Marshall seeks to safeguard the reputation of NAACP from the taint of communism (153).

The trial begins on September 2 at the Lake County Courthouse, with black journalists Ted Poston and Ramona Lowe reporting. The jury, not surprisingly, is all-white, with three black potential jurors having been excused for various reasons.

Willie Padgett and Norma Padgett testify, the latter carrying herself in an extravagant manner. Willis McCall’s deputy, James Yates, also testifies, citing a series of plaster casts he made of tire tracks and footprints at the scene of the crime supposedly demonstrating the defendants’ guilt. Meanwhile, Williams learns in secret that Sheriff McCall wants to “get him.”

The jury finds the defendants guilty but recommends mercy for Charles Greenlee; this means that Shepherd and Irvin will die by the electric chair, but Greenlee will go to prison for life. As Williams, Hill, Poston, and Ramona Lowe drive away from the trial, they are chased at high speed by three cars from the Ku Klux Klan. After a long and terrifying chase, they succeed in shaking their pursuers and arrive safely at their lodgings.

Willis McCall talks to the defendants in private, recording their conversations in an effort to obtain a statement.

The NAACP now focuses on raising funds to take the Groveland case to the Supreme Court. Marshall urges the FBI to investigate the beatings of the Groveland Boys, the actions of deputies James Yates and Leroy Campbell, and the rioting and terrorism against blacks. The Justice Department writes to the U.S. attorney in Tampa to prosecute, but the attorney demurs, making a number of rationalizations. Ted Poston publishes an award-winning series of articles about the Groveland trial, including one describing the high-speed chase by the KKK.

When he isn’t working on the Groveland case, Marshall takes on cases in defense of black citizens denied admission to law schools—most notably, the cases Sweatt v. Painter and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents.

Franklin Williams’s stature grows both within the NAACP and as a lawyer arguing cases at the Supreme Court; he is praised by Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. At the same time, a certain tension exists between Williams and Marshall at the NAACP, rooted in differences of approach and style. As Marshall’s mentor Walter White is on leave from the organization, Williams somewhat reluctantly departs for Florida to argue the Groveland case at the Florida Supreme Court.

Williams tries to argue to the Florida Supreme Court, to no avail, that Charles Greenlee could not have been at the scene of the alleged rape since he was already in jail miles away. The court upholds the Lake County verdict but grants Shepherd and Irvin a 90-day stay of execution, which allows the NAACP enough time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, no indictments are brought against McCall or Yates.

Marshall’s mentor and NAACP colleague Charles Hamilton Houston dies; at his funeral, a eulogy describes him as the “Moses” who helped lead black people to the “promised land” of full rights and equality (197).

Marshall wins the Sweatt and MacLaurin cases at the Supreme Court, which rules that denying black applicants admission to the law schools on the basis of their race is unconstitutional.

A Florida journalist named Norman Bunin publishes articles in the St. Petersburg Times detailing his reconstruction of the Groveland case. He tracks down Lawrence Burtoft, the watchman who spoke with Norma Padgett at his father’s café the night after the alleged rape. According to Burtoft, Padgett appeared perfectly calm that morning and mentioned nothing about having been raped or harmed in any way by the black men. Franklin Williams reads Bunin’s articles and files them away for future use.

Walter White returns to work at the NAACP, which is suffering from financial problems and a decline in membership. Harry Moore campaigns avidly for the NAACP in Florida and for discussion of topics of interest to black citizens. Tension grows between Marshall and Williams at NACCP headquarters: Marshall fires Williams, who then gets a job as West Coast director and regional counsel for the NAACP in San Francisco. Williams feels he is being “exiled” and desires to return to New York so he can again argue cases before the Supreme Court.

Marshall and other black leaders carve out a plan to send a private investigator, “Miss L.B. De Forest,” to Groveland to gather leads.

NAACP lawyer Jack Greenberg files an appeal to the Supreme Court about the Groveland case, citing unconstitutional jury exclusion practices in particular. The court accepts the appeal.

Marshall declares at an NAACP convention that “the complete destruction of all segregation is now in sight” (205). He tries to thwart the communist faction of the NAACP, then travels to Korea to handle cases of black soldiers complaining of unjust practices on the part of the U.S. Army in the Korean War.