Willie James Howard
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Willie James Howard (July 13, 1928 – January 2, 1944) was a 15-year-old
African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
living in
Live Oak Live oak or evergreen oak is any of a number of oaks in several different sections of the genus ''Quercus'' that share the characteristic of evergreen foliage. These oaks are not more closely related to each other than they are to other oaks. ...
, Suwannee County, Florida. He was
lynched Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...
for having given Christmas cards to all his co-workers at the Van Priest Dime Store, including Cynthia Goff, a white girl, followed by a letter to her on New Year's Day.


New Year's Day letter

The New Year's Day letter read:


Reaction to letter and death of Willie James Howard

Cynthia was offended by the card and letter, and gave them to her father A.P. "Phil" Goff, the Live Oak postmaster and a former
state legislator A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United S ...
. Goff, along with S.B. McCullers and Reg H. Scott, allegedly went to Willie's house and took the youth from his mother at gunpoint. They picked up Willie's father, James Howard, at the Bond-Howell Lumber Company where he worked, then drove to the Suwannee River east of Suwannee Springs, where they bound Willie by the hands and feet, and forced the youth to choose between getting shot and jumping into the Suwannee River. After his father said he could do nothing to save him, Willie jumped into the river and drowned. Goff, McCullers, and Scott signed an affidavit which stated that they had only wanted James Howard to whip his son and, rather than be whipped by his father, Willie had committed suicide by jumping into the river. James Howard also signed the affidavit, but after selling his home and moving to Orlando, he recanted.
Harry T. Moore Harry Tyson Moore (November 18, 1905 – December 25, 1951) was an African-American educator, a pioneer leader of the civil rights movement, founder of the first branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in B ...
, of the NAACP, interviewed the parents. After a county grand jury failed to indict, Moore was able to get a federal investigation started, but no convictions followed. Goff, McCullers, and Scott died without having to face murder charges.


Aftermath

A documentary film on the murder, ''Murder on the Suwannee River'', was produced in 2006 by Marvin Dunn, a historian, who tried to get Charlie Crist, then attorney general and later governor of Florida, to reopen the case, but to no avail; neither was his case investigated under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. It is frequently cited as comparable to the case of Emmett Till, who was also lynched (at age 14) for allegedly making advances at a white woman at a grocery store. Tameka Hobbs wrote about the lynching and three other lynchings in her 2015 book '' Democracy Abroad, Lynching at Home: Racial Violence in Florida''.


See also

*
List of unsolved murders These lists of unsolved murders include notable cases where victims were murdered in unknown circumstances. * List of unsolved murders (before 1900) * List of unsolved murders (1900–1979) * List of unsolved murders (1980–1999) * List of u ...


References


External links


"Willie James Howard"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Willie James 1944 deaths 1944 in Florida 1944 murders in the United States African-American history between emancipation and the civil rights movement 1940s crimes in Florida Deaths by person in Florida Anti-black racism in Florida History of Suwannee County, Florida January 1944 events Lynching deaths in Florida Lynching victims in the United States Murdered African-American people People from Live Oak, Florida People murdered in Florida Racially motivated violence against African Americans Race-related controversies in the United States Suwannee County, Florida Unsolved murders in the United States