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Robert Washington

Released
Gender:Male
Race:Black
Era:1930s
State:Alabama
Support
Labor Organizing
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Biography

Robert Washington was a Black leader in Selma, Alabama, jailed for four days in 1935 on a pretextual 'aggravated vagrancy' charge amid the Black-Belt anti-labor terror. On his release he was seized at gunpoint on the jail steps by eight vigilantes, driven into the country, stripped, and lashed unconscious — an atrocity the ILD publicized in 'Terror in Alabama.'

Case

Charges: Aggravated vagrancy (described as pretextual)
Arrested: 1935
Sentence: Held four days; flogged by vigilantes on release.
Convicted: Jailed, 1935