Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America

derived from this FBI file documenting the civil rights and domestic violence investigation into the beatings of Shepherd and Irvin (part of FBI file 44-4055). The FBI interviewed McCall, Hatcher, Yates, Shepherd, and Irvin, and their recollections and quotes are taken from the statements in this report.
    61  “We’re probably too far away”: Ibid.
    61  “What’s the trouble?”: Ibid.
    61  “Boy, I’ve never”: Ibid.
    61  “A white housewife”: Ibid.
    61  “pretty high feeling”: Ibid.
    62  “Call Yates and”: Ibid.
    63  “armed to the gills”: St. Petersburg Times , July 18, 1949.
    63  “Willis, we want”: “Murmur in the Streets,” Time , August 1, 1949.
    63  “husky, brash”: Ibid.
    63  “I can’t let you people”: Flores, Justice Gone Wrong , p. 15. Also author interview with Isaac M. Flores, February 9, 2011.
    63  “I may be in sympathy”: Flores, Justice Gone Wrong , p. 15. Also Corsair, The Groveland Four , p. 31.
    63  “Look, McCall”: Flores, Justice Gone Wrong , p. 15.
    63  “The prisoners you want”: Ibid.
    63  From the back: “Murmur in the Streets.”
    64  He had just arrived in town: MM 44-156, FBI. Also Corsair, The Groveland Four , p. 1. The descriptions and quotes by Charles Greenlee are largely derived from his interviews with Franklin Williams in the presence of stenographer Dorothy N. Marshall at Raiford State Prison, which are included in the FBI file MM 44-127 (part of FBI file 44-4055). Greenlee was also interviewed by agents Tobias E. Matthews, Jr., and John L. Quigley on August 8, 1949, as part of FBI file MM 44-156.
    64  In May, Charles’s: Corsair, The Groveland Four , pp. 1–2. Also MM 44-156, FBI.
    65  “Is there anywhere”: MM 44-156, FBI.
    65  “Hold still a minute”: Corsair, The Groveland Four , p. 3. Also MM 44-156, FBI.
    65  Charles said the gun: MM 44-156, FBI.
    65  “What road camp”: MM 44-127, FBI.
    65  “work out something”: MM 44-156, FBI.
    66  “Stand up, nigger”: Ibid.
    66  “I wasn’t in any car”: Ibid.
    66  “You’re lying”: Ibid.
    66  “what they would do”: Ibid.
    66  “He’s not one”: Ibid.
    66  “The boys what took”: MM 44-127, FBI.
    66  “No, sir”: Ibid.
    66  “Boy, if you don’t know it”: Ibid .
    66  “hurry up and take”: MM 44-156, FBI.
    67  “might cause some trouble”: Ibid.
    67  “two colored boys who were”: Ibid.
    67  “had a big hole”: MM 44-127, FBI.
    67  “Go ahead and try”: Corsair, The Groveland Four , p. 2.
    67  “That’s the boy”: Ibid., p. 32.
    67  “stout white man”: MM 44-156, FBI.
    68  “You’ve got families”: Flores, Justice Gone Wrong , p. 16.
    68  “Lake County Bride”: Orlando Sunday Sentinel , July 17, 1949.
    68  “Sheriff Staves Off”: Flores, Justice Gone Wrong , p. 17.
    68  “fast talking” sheriff: New York Times , July 18, 1949.
    68  The Miami Herald praised: Miami Herald , July 18, 1949.
    69  “all hell broke loose”: Sullivan, Lift Every Voice , p. 372.
    69  “dressed like a tweedy”: Greenberg, Crusaders in the Courts , p. 16.
    69  “Has Science Conquered”: Look , August, 1949.
    69  “whomever he wished”: Janken, Walter White , p. 371.
    69  “within the rail”: Greenberg, Crusaders in the Courts , p. 21.
    69  “Now look,” Marshall told him: COHP, Marshall.
    69  “See that fellow”: Greenberg, Crusaders in the Courts , p. 21.
    70  “So he won”: COHP, Marshall.
    70  “a sentence that had”: Greenberg, Crusaders in the Courts , p. 9.
    70  “crowd out other”: Ibid., p. 102.
    70  “people of the Negro”: Shelley et ux. v. Kraemer et ux. , 334 U.S. 1, May 3, 1948.
    70  “the Joe Louis of the courtroom”: Williams, Thurgood Marshall , p. 151.
    70  “wanted to lynch Walter”: Greenberg, Crusaders in the Courts , p. 18.
    Chapter 6: A Little Bolita
    73  “four niggers”: FOHP, Williams.
    73  “sullen, glint-eyed”: “Murmur in the Streets,” Time , August 1, 1949.
    73  “15 loads of buckshot”: Ibid.
    73  “Boy,” Leroy Campbell said: MM 44-127, FBI.
    74  “Were you one”: MM 44-156, FBI. Dialogue and details from Greenlee’s interrogation are mostly derived from the interview he gave to Franklin Williams, which appears in this report.
    75  “directing the traffic”: Corsair, The Groveland Four , p. 37.
    75  “Did you rape”: MM 44-156, FBI.
    75  “Better