{"id":45011,"date":"2021-05-29T16:44:56","date_gmt":"2021-05-29T16:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/?p=45011"},"modified":"2021-05-29T16:44:59","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T16:44:59","slug":"legal-lynching-of-willie-mcgee-in-mississippis-traveling-electric-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/?p=45011","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;\u2018Legal Lynching\u2019 Of Willie McGee In Mississippi\u2019s Traveling Electric Chair&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mississippifreepress.org\/12592\/legal-lynching-of-willie-mcgee-in-mississippis-traveling-electric-chair\/\" target=\"_blank\">MS Free Press<\/a>: &#8220;May 8, 2021, was the 70th anniversary of the electrocution of Willie McGee in Mississippi\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov\/images\/187.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">traveling electric chair<\/a>, a grim milestone in the history of civil rights in Mississippi. All these years later, McGee\u2019s family continues to mourn his life and confront the impact of the tragic and undoubtedly unjust circumstances surrounding his death.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the time of McGee\u2019s electrocution, news outlets across the United States, Europe and Asia covered what was dubbed a \u201clegal lynching.\u201d&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McGee\u2019s case captured the nation\u2019s attention as he had gone through three trials and three convictions between 1945 and 1951. As famed civil rights reporter&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/timesmachine.nytimes.com\/timesmachine\/1951\/05\/06\/121587858.html?pageNumber=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">John Popham wrote in The New York Times<\/a>: \u201cThe first verdict was reversed by the State Supreme Court and a change of venue was granted because of local public feeling. The second verdict was reversed by the United States Supreme Court on the ground that Negroes had been systematically excluded from Mississippi juries. The third verdict was affirmed by the State Supreme Court. The United States Supreme Court refused to review it.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beyond Mississippi\u2019s borders,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/washington_area_spark\/sets\/72157647008824138\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">protesters chained themselves to the columns of the Lincoln Memorial<\/a>&nbsp;in the hopes of halting McGee\u2019s execution. Ordinary citizens and major public figures commented on the case. William Faulkner, Albert Einstein, Josephine Baker, Jessica Mitford, Norman Mailer, Richard Wright and Frida Kahlo all weighed in on McGee\u2019s plight.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/voices.revealdigital.org\/?a=d&amp;d=IBJBJF1962-02.1.13&amp;e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN---------------1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lorraine Hansberry, the playwright, wrote a poem about McGee<\/a>, and Tennessee Williams referred to McGee\u2019s case in his play \u201cOrpheus Descending.\u201d&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MS Free Press: &#8220;May 8, 2021, was the 70th anniversary of the electrocution of Willie McGee in Mississippi\u2019s\u00a0traveling electric chair, a grim milestone in the history of civil rights in Mississippi. All these years later, McGee\u2019s family continues to mourn his life and confront the impact of the tragic and undoubtedly unjust circumstances surrounding his&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45012,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45011\/revisions\/45012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}