John
Clabon Taylor were interrogated by police without the appointment of legal counsel and, under threats that they would be released to a lynch mob, confessed to involvement in the rape. After a succession of perfunctory trials before all-white, all-male juries, each was convicted and sentenced to death. Their sentences were carried out in the largest mass execution for rape in the history of the United States.
Seventy years later, family members of the men and legal advocates are spearheading an effort to posthumously pardon the men and redress a miscarriage of justice. In the January 21, 2021 episode of the
Discussions With DPIC podcast,
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Will Ralph Northam Give Posthumous Pardons to Seven Black Rapists?
Chris Roberts, American Renaissance, December 15, 2020
On January 8, 1949, a white woman named Ruby Stroud Floyd was raped in a black part of Martinsville, Virginia. At a hospital where she was examined for internal injuries, she told police that a group of black men raped her. Police soon arrested, Frank Hairston, Jr. and Booker Millner. Their confessions led to the arrest of five more blacks: Howard Hairston, James Hairston, John Taylor, Francis Grayson, and Joe Hampton. All seven were charged with rape and aiding and abetting rape, and all confessed at least to being present at the crime. At the time, rape and accessory to rape were punishable by death in Virginia, which is what prosecutors proposed for the “Martinsville Seven.” The six trials (two of the seven men were tried together) all returned guilty verdicts with death sentences. Four of the men were executed on February 2, 1951, and three on Februar
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