Janice R. Andrews
At the age of 92, Norma Padgett Upshaw, the White lady who in 1949 falsely accused four Black men of rape in the South during the Jim Crow era, has away. When Padgett Upshaw was seventeen years old, she said that she was abused in Groveland, Florida, by Ernest Thomas, Samuel Shepherd, Charles Greenlee, and Walter Irvin. One of the most well-known miscarriages of justice in Florida during the Jim Crow period resulted from her claim.
Probate court documents reveal that Padgett Upshaw died on July 12 in Taylor County, Georgia, of natural causes. Her death was initially reported by The Washington Post.
There were questions about Padgett Upshaw’s evidence right from the start. But in the Jim Crow period, a jury found the men guilty in the absence of any proof. Judge Heidi Davis of the Circuit Court in Lake County, Florida, annulled the convictions of Greenlee and Irvin and posthumously dismissed the indictments against Shepherd and Thomas in November 2021.
The Groveland Four received complete posthumous pardons from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in 2019. These four men’s histories have been falsely recorded for crimes they did not commit for seventy years. It’s never too late to make the correct decision, as I have always maintained, even though it is a long time to wait, according to DeSantis.
Padgett Upshaw said that four men stopped and sexually assaulted her when her automobile broke down in Groveland on July 16, 1949. Irvin, Greenlee, and Shepherd were taken into custody, tortured, and forced to make confessions. Thomas managed to get out of hand, but a manhunt resulted to his death.
Shepherd and Irvin received death sentences, while Greenlee was given a life term. The sheriff shot both men while transporting them for a retrial, saying it was in self-defense. Irvin pretended to be dead in order to survive, but Shepherd passed away at the scene. Later on, his sentence was reduced to life in prison.
A sobering reminder of the racial injustices that afflicted the American South during the Jim Crow period may be found in the story of the Groveland Four. The 2021 exoneration was a pivotal milestone in righting historical wrongs. At a tearful press conference, Carol Greenlee, the father of Greenlee, addressed following the men’s official exoneration by the judge. “I will love and welcome everyone who did not know at the time that my father was a kind, loving, and sensitive guy who did not rape anybody. I would not hate. I’m here today to express my gratitude,” she remarked.
