Some crimes are so heartbreaking or shocking, they change laws, change society, or even

earn the label, Crime of the Century. But the stories that made headlines and decades

past aren't necessarily remembered today.

I'm Amber Hunt, a journalist and author, and in each episode of this show,

I'll examine a case that's maybe lesser known today, but was huge when it happened.

This is Crimes of the Centuries.

Thank you. This is Crimes of the Centuries. On a quiet Sunday morning around 11 a.m. when most of the town was in church,

Ruby McCollum put her two youngest children in her new blue Chrysler Skylark sedan and drove to her doctor's office.

Dr. Clifford Leroy Adams was the head dock in a town of about 4,000, and given that parts of

town were traditionally a bit rowdy on Saturday nights,

he would open his office on Sunday morning to bandage up the damage. In Live Oak, Florida, in 52,

the white general practitioner had two waiting rooms and two treatment rooms. One was set

for his white patients, the other for his quote-unquote colored ones.

That's how the doors were marked.

When Ruby arrived, she parked her car, leaving six-year-old Sonia and 15-month-old Loretta inside.

Someone would remark more recently that in these days and times,

she could have been arrested

for that thoughtless abandonment as it was a hot August morning in the humid, sub-tropical

North Florida town. But no matter, this would not take long. Ruby, with $19, 100 bills in her

purse, entered the waiting room labeled colored and seemed to be pacing back and forth to see if the doctor was alone.

Three women were in chairs outside the exam rooms.

Here's the testimony of Carrie Daly, who was waiting when Ruby got there.

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