St. Petersburg Times: The lynching of Claude Neal

[seafan]

One of the most horrific acts in Florida's history is told in this gripping piece in the St. Petersburg Times today. Countless lives were destroyed in its wake, encompassing multiple generations.


Because no one was held accountable, it continues today.



The lynching of Claude Neal was an act of organized savagery witnessed by thousands that shocked the nation and left a stain on our state. The men responsible have never been named. After 77 years, is it too late for the truth?


Spectacle: The lynching of Claude Neal

By Ben Montgomery, Times Staff Writer
Sunday, October 23, 2011

Allie Mae Neal pushed through the screen door and found a shady spot on her porch where the summer sun didn't bite. Kittens purred at her feet and wasps flitted in and out of holes in the roof. The few neighbors who passed by saw an old woman in a wheelchair, blue eyes lazy and unfocused behind thick glasses. She'd wave and they'd wave back. Black or white. She has never held a grudge.

"I never blamed nobody," she said. "I never knew who to blame."

She never knew because nobody was ever charged with a crime, and because no man spent a single second in a cell for the things they did to her father, with knives and rope and hate.

Seventy-seven years have passed. She can't remember his face. If she ever wanted to look, she could study the single photograph of him that exists. But in it, he is hanging from a tree.

The story of her father's death ran in newspapers from New York to Los Angeles, detailing how a small band of men killed him, and how a mob mutilated his corpse. They called it a spectacle lynching, and historians say it was perhaps the worst act of torture and execution in 20th century America. The killing became Florida's shame. President Franklin D. Roosevelt knew her father's name.

Claude Neal.

.....

Lynching aftermath brings moral dilemma

Was Claude Neal guilty?



There is so much pain yet to heal in Florida.


Earlier this year, the notorious Marianna, Florida School for Boys was closed, ending another sordid chapter in its decades-long abuse of the state's children.


Again, there was no accountability for these savage acts.



May all of those who still suffer find peace.

[tblue]

1. Oh guy, that's giving me chills.

I've read a lot about various lynchings and other ugly racist acts in American history, but I don't remember hearing about this one.

"Witnessed by thousands"? Oh my gosh.

I'm watching the video now. I'm scared!