The Jim Crow-era case attracted widespread attention in 1949. Shortly after the rape was reported, mobs of white residents set fire to homes and property belonging to black families in the Groveland area.
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Fla. Apologizes to ‘Groveland Four,’ Men Wrongly Convicted of Rape in 1949 – The Root
In 1949 in Groveland, Fla., four men—Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd, Charles Greenlee and Ernest Thomas—were wrongly convicted of raping 17-year-old Norma Padgett in Groveland. Three of the men were imprisoned and another was shot and killed by a group of white men. They became known as the Groveland Four.
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