A Florida judge on Monday posthumously exonerated four Black men, known as the 'Groveland Four,' wrongly accused of raping a white teenager 72 years ago during the Jim Crow era of Southern U.S. racial segregation.
A monument of the "Groveland Four" is pictured in front of the Lake County Historical Society Museum in Tavares, Florida, U.S. July 7, 2020. REUTERS/Octavio JonesNov 22 - A Florida judge on Monday posthumously exonerated four Black men, known as the "Groveland Four," wrongly accused of raping a white teenager 72 years ago during the Jim Crow era of Southern U.S. racial segregation.
"We followed the evidence to see where it led us and it led us to this moment," Gladson told a news conference on Monday. Days after the four were accused of abducting and sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl in 1949 near Groveland, Florida, Thomas was hunted down by a posse of over 1,000 men and shot 400 times.