Florida Judge Clears Charges Against ‘Groveland Four,’ Black Men Accused of 1949 Rape

A monument of the "Groveland Four" is pictured in front of the Lake County Historical Society Museum in Tavares, Fla., on July 7, 2020. Octavio Jones/Reuters

A Florida judge on Monday posthumously exonerated four black men, known as the “Groveland Four,” wrongly accused of raping a white teenager 72 years ago during the Jim Crow era of Southern U.S. racial segregation.

Lake County Circuit Court Judge Heidi Davis took a final step in the cases of Charles Greenlee, Walter Irvin, Sam Shepherd, and Ernest Thomas, the last gunned down by a posse before facing trial. The four men had been officially and posthumously pardoned in 2019.