Speaker 1: Right now, it's time for the Way Black History Fact.
Speaker 1: In today's Way Black History Fact is sponsored by Underground
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Speaker 1: Bleach Club anyway. I'm gonna share a little bit of
Speaker 1: a story. This is a story about a gentleman named
Speaker 1: Willie James Howard. This is something that happened before Emmitt Till.
Speaker 1: We talked about Ammettill on the show. We shared our
Speaker 1: visit to the National Museum of African American History and
Speaker 1: Culture and how emotional and eye opening it was to
Speaker 1: see Emmett Till's coffin, this original coffin. You know that
Speaker 1: little tiny body. It was that part a lot. It
Speaker 1: was a lot. And if you don't know about Immet Hill,
Speaker 1: please take a moment do this for us. We're we're
Speaker 1: your brothers. We're asking us, if a favor, please research
Speaker 1: that to know we do this Way Black History Fact,
Speaker 1: to give you context. Okay, why we are here, why
Speaker 1: we feel the way we feel, et cetera. So this
Speaker 1: came before Emmett Till. Willie James Howard was born July thirteen,
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty eight, in Live Oak, Florida, at fifteen years old.
Speaker 1: He was in the tenth grade and worked in the
Speaker 1: Van Priest five and dime store downtown. According to the story,
Speaker 1: he Willi sent Christmas cards to employees of the store
Speaker 1: the Christmas holiday. One of the employees, a popular white
Speaker 1: girl named Cynthia, was offended by the gesture. According to
Speaker 1: the account, which has just as many variations as Emmett's story,
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the cart for Cynthia, Willy indicated
Speaker 1: an L for love. Later, Willie wrote Cynthia a letter,
Speaker 1: this time apologizing. He signed this one with a little
Speaker 1: poem I love your name, I love your voice for
Speaker 1: an sh which is sweetheart. It's abbreviation you are my
Speaker 1: choice okay. On January Tewod nineteen forty four, Cynthia's father,
Speaker 1: Phil Goff, who saw the letter, most likely by Cynthia
Speaker 1: showing it to him, as some accounts suggest, and two
Speaker 1: of his friends, arrived at Willy's home, and the three
Speaker 1: men dragged the boy from his mother's arms. They also
Speaker 1: kidnapped his father. They drove to the Suwanee River and
Speaker 1: bound Willy James by his feet and hands and made
Speaker 1: him stand at the edge of the river, where, according
Speaker 1: to his father's testimony, he was told he could either
Speaker 1: jump in the river or be shot. The boy jumped
Speaker 1: in and drowned. By the way, this is leaving this
Speaker 1: part out. They brought his father there and made him watch,
Speaker 1: So his father watched his son son's last moments. All right,
Speaker 1: The Swanee County sheriff ordered Ansel Brown, the local black undertaker,
Speaker 1: to retrieved the boy's body from the river and buried immediately.
Speaker 1: To cover up the incident, Fill and his friends forced
Speaker 1: Willy's father to sign a document alleging that Willy jumped
Speaker 1: into the river on his own. Court According to their
Speaker 1: written statement, which was included in the Lanyear report, the
Speaker 1: three men admitted taking the boy from his home and
Speaker 1: tying him up on the way to the river, but
Speaker 1: they said he fell in accidentally. This conflicts with the
Speaker 1: first story that the boy jumped into the river. Either
Speaker 1: the boy jumped into the river on his own or
Speaker 1: he slipped accidentally. It was obvious the men were not
Speaker 1: telling the truth, but there was never an arrest. After
Speaker 1: signing the document, Willy's father, also named James, picked up
Speaker 1: his family and moved to Orlando. No death certificate was
Speaker 1: ordered for his only son, and the grave was unmarked
Speaker 1: for sixty years. It is marked now. THIRDD. Marshall demanded
Speaker 1: a full investigation after hearing about Willie's case. It was
Speaker 1: picked up by Harry T. Moore of the NAACP, who
Speaker 1: had gone to school with Lula Howard, Willie's mother. More
Speaker 1: received documented proof from Willie's parents explaining what really happened.
Speaker 1: They stated that Willy's father had been threatened and forced
Speaker 1: to sign the document. However, grand jury did not indict
Speaker 1: Golf and his friends and the prosecution was never achieved.
Speaker 1: More continued fighting through the case and in nineteen forty
Speaker 1: seven wanted to reopen it, but the Third Good Marshall
Speaker 1: was unwilling to dedicate any more. NAAC funded. Now. I
Speaker 1: say this because I don't want people to think that
Speaker 1: Emmett Till's story was just an isolated incident happened in
Speaker 1: the vacuum. There were stories like this that happened all
Speaker 1: the time, but this one came across our desk and
Speaker 1: we're like, Wow, this is something that we didn't know.
Speaker 1: I certainly didn't know, and I felt like we should
Speaker 1: share it. With you, so thank you for listening to
Speaker 1: our way Black history fact