Jim Crow-era shooting revisited in new documentary

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2015/01/01/4056040/jim-crow-era-shooting-revisited.html

BY JASON DEAREN
Associated PressJanuary 1, 2015 Updated 16 minutes ago



In this Thursday, Dec. 18, 2014 photo, Alonzo Philmore, left, Harry Campbell, center, and Suwannee County NAACP president Leslie White stand in front of their church in Live Oak, Fla. In 1952 a wealthy black woman named Ruby McCollum was found guilty by an all-male, white jury for the murder of a prominent white doctor and state senator-elect, Clifford Leroy Adams. A new documentary “You Belong To Me” compiles a decade of research and first-time interviews with surviving family members on both sides, and has reopened some old wounds in the small town. JASON DEAREN — AP Photo


LIVE OAK, FLA. — On a sticky hot Sunday in August 1952, a wealthy black woman named Ruby McCollum walked through the "colored entrance" of a doctor's office in the small north Florida town of Live Oak and fatally shot a white doctor, state Sen.-elect Clifford Leroy Adams.

Prosecutors told the all-white, all-male jury that McCollum shot the doctor after an argument over a $116 bill. Yet she was the wife of a prominent businessman who ran a gambling outfit, and she was carrying around $1,800 in her purse on the day she was shot.

She testified that Adams, the son of a powerful political family who was known around town for caring for the poor, had forced her into a long sexual relationship that resulted in an unwanted child, and that she shot him in self-defense.

The case is the focus of a new documentary titled "You Belong To Me," which compiles a decade of research and interviews with family members, reopening old wounds in this small Southern town nestled amid farm country.

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