The Groveland Four: Florida’s Shameful Legacy of Injustice

By Joe Marzo

In the summer of 1949, the quiet citrus town of Groveland, Florida, became the setting for one of the most infamous miscarriages of justice in American history. Four young Black men—Charles Greenlee, Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd, and Ernest Thomas—were accused of raping a white woman. What followed was a violent storm of racism, mob justice, political cover-ups, and a decades-long struggle for truth. Their story, long buried under the weight of segregation-era injustice, has only recently been acknowledged and corrected.

A Fateful Night in Groveland

On July 16, 1949, 17-year-old Norma Padgett and her estranged husband, Willie Padgett, claimed that their car broke down on a remote road in Groveland. According to Norma, four Black men stopped to help—but instead, she alleged, they beat her husband unconscious and raped her in the woods.

That accusation, in the Jim Crow South, needed no investigation. Within hours, Ernest Thomas, Walter Irvin, and Samuel Shepherd, all veterans recently returned from World War II, were named as suspects. Charles Greenlee, a 16-year-old who had the misfortune of being in the area, was also arrested. There was no physical evidence—no medical examination confirming rape, no fingerprints, no credible eyewitnesses. But in 1940s Florida, a white woman’s word was enough to send Black men to their graves.

A Mob and a Manhunt

Lake County Sheriff Willis McCall, an avowed segregationist with a notorious record of brutality, led the manhunt. Ernest Thomas fled, knowing what was likely to happen. He didn’t get far. A posse of over 1,000 white men tracked him down in Madison County and shot him over 400 times. His body was left riddled with bullets, a message to the others.

Irvin, Shepherd, and Greenlee were arrested, beaten with pipes and fists, and interrogated without attorneys. All three were coerced into confessions. Greenlee eventually recanted. Irvin and Shepherd insisted they were innocent.

A Sham Trial

The trial, held in Tavares, was swift and stacked. The courtroom was surrounded by armed guards. The jury was all white, as Black citizens were systematically excluded from jury rolls.

Thurgood Marshall, the legendary NAACP attorney who would later become the first Black Supreme Court Justice, stepped in to assist the defense. Despite his presence, the verdict was a foregone conclusion. Irvin and Shepherd were sentenced to death. Greenlee received life in prison.

Marshall filed appeals, and in 1951, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the convictions of Irvin and Shepherd, citing that their constitutional rights had been violated and that the atmosphere was too racially charged for a fair trial.

But what happened next was almost beyond belief.

Sheriff McCall’s Ambush

While transporting Irvin and Shepherd back to Groveland for a new trial, Sheriff McCall claimed his car had a flat tire, pulled off the road, and opened fire on both men. Shepherd died instantly. Irvin, though critically wounded, survived by playing dead.

At the hospital, Irvin told reporters and the FBI that McCall had executed them in cold blood, without provocation. But despite this, a coroner’s jury—made up of local white residents—ruled the shooting "justifiable."

McCall was never indicted.

A Second Injustice

Irvin was tried again in 1952. This time, he was convicted again and sentenced to death. But after intense pressure from the NAACP and the international press, Florida’s governor commuted his sentence to life imprisonment.

Greenlee remained in prison until 1962. Irvin was paroled in 1968, only to die a year later under suspicious circumstances while visiting Lake County.

The men’s families never gave up the fight to clear their names.

A State’s Reckoning—70 Years Later

For decades, Lake County refused to acknowledge its role in the frame-up and murders. McCall continued to serve as sheriff until 1972 and was re-elected multiple times. It wasn’t until the 2010s that momentum began to build for justice.

In 2012, author Gilbert King published Devil in the Grove, a Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the case that exposed new details and reignited national outrage.

In 2017, the Florida House and Senate passed unanimous resolutions apologizing to the families of the Groveland Four.

In 2019, newly elected Governor Ron DeSantis issued full pardons.

And in 2021, a Lake County judge vacated the original convictions, exonerating the Groveland Four. After 72 years, the state finally admitted what had been true all along: the Groveland Four were innocent.

Remembering Their Names

• Charles Greenlee was 16 and had nothing to do with the crime.

• Walter Irvin was a decorated soldier who survived a sheriff’s execution attempt.

• Samuel Shepherd was gunned down by the man sworn to uphold the law.

• Ernest Thomas never lived long enough to see a courtroom, murdered by a vigilante mob.

Their story is not just a cautionary tale. It is an indictment of a justice system that allowed racism to overrule truth. It is a reminder that historical injustice is not just history—it’s legacy, carried in the pain of families, in buried files, in broken lives.

But it’s also a story of resilience. Of a fight that spanned generations. Of sons and daughters who refused to let the names of their fathers be lost to time.

Florida cannot erase the past. But it can remember. And it must.

Sources:

• Gilbert King, Devil in the Grove (Harper, 2012)

• Florida Department of State Historical Resources

• Florida House of Representatives, Resolution 2017-233

• Associated Press, “Florida judge exonerates Groveland Four” (2021)

• NAACP Legal Defense Fund archives