179: Blanket of Silence: Ruby McCollum

Southern Fried True Crime

Erica Kelley

True Crime, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 10.5K Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2023

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In August of 1952, 43-year-old Ruby McCollum, a black woman, was two months pregnant. The father was a 48-year-old white politician named Dr. Clifford Leroy Adams, Jr. For seven years, Dr. Adams had manipulated, bullied, and raped Ruby. He forced her to bear one of his children already, and this unborn child would be the second. On Sunday, August 3rd, Ruby entered Dr. Adams’ medical practice for help with an ailing shoulder. But when Dr. Adams tried to force himself on Ruby once more, she snapped. And the State of Florida believed she should face the electric chair for it.

Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/ruby-mccollum

Hosted and produced by Erica Kelley
Researched and written by Andrea Marshbank
Additional writing by Erica Kelley
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison of Gamma Radio
Edited & Mixed by Brandon Schexnayder of Southern Gothic & Erica Kelley
Case requested by Rachel, Tracy, and Danita

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Southern Fried True Crime covers cases that are not suitable for young listeners, and there may also be some explicit language used.
0:09.0	As an additional trigger warning, this episode is about racism, misogyny, and rape in the 1940s and
0:16.3	50s. And some archaic and defensive language will be quoted.
0:21.2	Listener discretion is strongly advised.
0:24.0	Before the Civil War and the end of slavery, many southern states had an unwritten
0:31.8	law known as Paramore Rights.
0:35.0	Paramore Rights referred to the God-given right of a white man to rape a black woman,
0:40.3	force her to have his children, and not take any responsibility as either the rapist or the father.
0:46.4	When slavery ended in the southern United States,
0:50.0	Paramour Rights did not. Although Parramore rights were never officially
0:55.2	legalized, they were accepted by the general public and enabled by Jim Crow laws
1:01.6	which allowed racism and misigination, especially in Florida.
1:06.6	For almost a hundred years after slavery ended, there was an unspoken understanding among Florida law enforcement, court officials, and politicians.
1:17.0	White men could rape black women and face no consequences.
1:21.0	This made black women a target. If a white man wanted to commit
1:26.1	violence he need only choose a black woman to get away with it. And if the result of
1:31.6	that violence was a child, well it certainly wasn't the white man's problem.
1:36.0	This may seem far off to you, ancient history, slavery, Jim Crow laws, racism.
1:44.2	But it wasn't.
1:45.3	It was barely a lifetime ago.
1:47.8	There are people alive today who remember the United States before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
1:54.0	These people are in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, but they remember.
	...

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