Lena Baker
| Lena Baker | |
|---|---|
Lena Baker's February 23, 1945 mugshot
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|
| Born |
June 8, 1900 Cuthbert, Georgia |
| Died | March 5, 1945 (aged 44) Reidsville, Georgia |
| Occupation | Maid |
| Criminal penalty | Death by electrocution |
| Criminal status | Executed |
| Children | 3 |
| Conviction(s) | Capital murder |
Lena Baker (June 8, 1900 – March 5, 1945) was an African American maid in Cuthbert, Georgia who was convicted of capital murder of her white employer, Ernest Knight. She was executed by the state of Georgia in 1945. Baker was the only woman in Georgia to be executed by electrocution.
The slaying and execution came during a decades-long period of state suppression of civil rights of black citizens in Georgia by the white-dominated society. It had disenfranchised blacks since the turn of the century, and imposed legal racial segregation and second-class status. At the time of the trial, a local newspaper reported that Baker was held as a "slave woman" by Knight, and that she shot him in self-defense during a struggle.
In 2005, sixty years after her execution, the state of Georgia granted Baker a full and unconditional pardon. A biography was published about Baker in 2001, and it was adapted for the feature film The Lena Baker Story (2008), chronicling the events of her life, trial, and execution.
Lena Baker was born June 8, 1900, to a family of sharecroppers and raised near Cuthbert, Georgia. Her family, which included three siblings, moved to the county seat when she was a child. As a youth, she and her siblings all worked as farm laborers; she chopped cotton for a farmer named J.A. Cox.
By the 1940s, Baker was the mother of three children and worked as a maid to support her family. In 1944, Baker started working for Ernest Knight, an older white man who had broken his leg. He owned a gristmill and, after they started a sexual relationship, he would keep her there imprisoned for days at a time in "near slavery." Knight's son and townspeople disliked their relationship, and tried to end it through threatening Baker. One night an argument between the two ensued, during which Knight threatened Baker with an iron bar. As she tried to escape, they struggled over his pistol and she shot and killed him. She immediately reported the incident and said she had acted in self-defense.
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