A Little Known American Story!
Pamela A. Hairston
It is the story of the Martinsville Seven, the largest mass execution for rape in United States history.
In 1949 in Martinsville, Virginia, seven black men were arrested for the rape of a 32-year-old married white woman. Within 30 hours of this rape, all seven had signed written confessions. Within seven days, all had been tried, convicted and sentenced to death. Two were tried at the same time. The youngest was only 17 years old at the time of his arrest and the oldest was a 37-year-old WWII vet with a wife and five beautiful, young children.
Three times the Supreme Court refused to hear their case. During their appeals, Oliver W. Hill and future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, both NAACP lawyers, helped represent the Seven. Russia and China sent telegrams to the White House in defense of the Seven. Actors Ossie Davis and Paul Robeson rallied Hollywood to their defense, but to no avail. Then-President Harry Truman, an alleged Klansman, refused to grant clemency. For the record, no white man in Virginia had ever been executed for rape of any woman.
Two years later, 1951, eight men were executed in Richmond, Va., seven for the rape of one white woman. On Feb. 2, 1951, four black men were executed every 10 minutes. (They say the chair was too hot to touch) On the following Monday, Feb. 5, the remaining three were executed. Five were mere teenagers. The day before the youngest one died, he said: God knows I didn’t touch that woman and I’ll see ya’ll on the other side. Around the world, they became known as the Martinsville Seven, the largest mass execution in United States history.
The Seven case was the first time in an American court of law that lawyers appealed a death sentence on grounds of systematic discrimination against African Americans. Finally in 1977, over 25 years later, the Supreme Court ruled that rape is not punishable by death. The Martinsville Seven case was instrumental in helping change the rape laws that govern this great nation.
For the record, three of the Seven were Hairstons, relatives of mine, and I was born and raised in Martinsville. The true story of the Seven has yet to be told.
White Americans constantly tell us black Americans to stop whining, to "get over" our history.
Let us know our history before we have to forget it.