Biography
Ollie Dawson, also recorded as Ollie Dorson, was a Black laborer prosecuted in Princess Anne County, Virginia, for the murder of James T. Howe. He was arrested in December 1930 and held in the Norfolk jail, where labor organizer Archie Gibbs was confined nearby. Gibbs’s account in the Labor Defender condemned the prosecution and the speed of the trial. Dawson was sentenced to death and electrocuted at the state penitentiary in Richmond on February 3, 1931.
The prison statement dictated by Ollie Dawson to neighboring prisoner Archie Gibbs explicitly gives Dawson’s birth as April 23, 1890, in Greensboro, North Carolina. The magazine introduces the statement as Dawson’s own account before his execution. His existing execution and custody dates remain unchanged.
