Ernest Thomas

Death by Force

Ernest Thomas, a 26-year-old African American man, was brutally lynched on July 26, 1949, in Madison County, Florida. Thomas was one of the so-called Groveland Four, a group of young Black men falsely accused of raping 17-year-old Norma Padgett and assaulting her husband in Groveland, Florida. The accusation came during a period of intense racial tension and systemic discrimination in the Jim Crow South, where African Americans were frequently subjected to violence and injustice based on unsubst ...Read More

Orlando Weekly: The terrible true story of the Orlando Sentinel’s involvement in the Groveland Four shootings

Tampa Bay Times: Almost 70 years later, Florida prepares apology to families of the Groveland Four

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