Martinsville Seven

The Martinsville Seven were a group of seven African-American men from Martinsville, Virginia who were convicted and executed in 1951 for raping a white woman in 1949. At the time of their arrest, all but one was between the ages of 20 and 23. They were quickly tried in six separate trials (two agreed to be tried together) and each was sentenced to death. It was the largest mass execution for rape that had been reported in the United States. Under Virginia law, only black men were executed for rape convictions. According to historian Eric W. Rise, this case "demonstrated the power of the southern legal system to enforce codes of racial behavior."

The Civil Rights Congress defended the men originally, and later conducted two marches and other attempts to raise awareness and conduct a public campaign on behalf of their agenda, and over the objections of NAACP, who feared further backlash because of the CRC's Communist affiliations, as many thought eventually occurred. Martin A. Martin and other NAACP attorneys defended the men on appeals, attempting to ensure fair trials, set due process precedents, and gain clemency or sentence reductions. The case attracted national newspaper coverage. The NAACP appeals also noted that since Virginia started use of the electric chair, only black men had been executed for rape in the state for what was a non-lethal crime. Though Governor William Tuck initially agreed to a stay during appellate litigation, by late July 1950, newly elected Governor John S. Battle refused to commute the men's sentences, saying he was horrified by the rapes. The appellate courts upheld the convictions and sentences, and the US Supreme Court twice refused to hear the cases, but would in 1977 finally adopt those arguments with respect to other cases.

The rapes occurred on Saturday, January 8, 1949, after Ruby Stroud Floyd, a 32-year-old white woman, entered a black neighborhood in Martinsville, Virginia to collect money for clothing she had sold. She previously distributed Jehovah's Witnesses materials in the neighborhood. Residents warned her not to stay too long, noting the time as late afternoon. She passed four men at the railroad tracks and continued into the neighborhood, where she was later assaulted by some of those four and other men. At 7:30 p.m., after dark, she went to Mary Wade's house for shelter, showing signs of an assault. The Wades called an ambulance for her.

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