In 1949, a 17-year old white woman didn’t come home one night. The next day, she and her husband said she had been raped by four black men.  Two of the men had helped the couple when they were stranded in their car. Two more were nowhere near the scene of the alleged crime-one was being arrested miles away. But that didn’t matter. The accusation of black hands sullying white maidenhood was enough to whip white Southerners in a frenzy. Only three of the accused […]