By Jane Feehan
I first wrote about this day of evil as a student at Virginia Commonwealth University during the 1970s. I had read about it in a book from their library and then presented the story in class. It was thought then to be one of the last such lynchings in the United States.
After years of near silence, news stories about this dark chapter in our history abound. Some may say Fort Lauderdale’s day of infamy was July 19, 1935.
On that day, African American Rubin Stacy (published also as Reuben Stacy, or Rubin Stacey) 37, was seized by a mob from the custody of six Broward County deputies as they were transporting him to a jail in Dade County for “safekeeping." He had been accused by a 30-year-old white woman of a knife attack in her Fort Lauderdale home,
Jones claimed Stacey knocked on her door asking for a glass of water and then followed her inside where he pulled a knife to her throat. Her screams, she said, frightened Stacey off. She later recanted the story. Some say Stacey was a homeless tenant farmer going from house to house asking for food.
It was widely believed that deputies, then led by the notorious Sheriff Walter Clark, were in collusion with the mob. They were, the story goes, angered by the slow legal proceedings of another case involving an African American.
Pictures of the lynching were shown to President Franklin Roosevelt in hopes of swaying him to support a federal anti-lynching law. It didn’t have the impact hoped for; Roosevelt did not endorse the law because he feared losing Southern votes.
Rubin Stacey is buried in Fort Lauderdale’s Woodlawn Cemetery. He was born in Georgia.
Copyright ©2010, 2020, 2022 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.
Copyright ©2010, 2020, 2022 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.
Sources:
Palm Beach Post, July 19, 1935
Miami News, July 21, 1935
Palm Beach Post, June 13, 1937
Tags: Fort Lauderdale lynching, Fort Lauderdale history,
Rubin Stacy, Reuben Stacey, Fort Lauderdale black history, history of Fort Lauderdale, Jane Feehan
