Florida apologizes to families of four black men who were wrongly accused of rape in 1949
From the State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory: This shows Lake County Sheriff McCall and shooting victims. In 1951, Samuel Shepherd and Walter Lee Irvin were shot by Sheriff Willis McCall while being transported from Raiford to Lake County. McCall said they had attacked him. Walter Irvin survived and accused McCall of forcing them from the vehicle in which they were being transported and shooting them down.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Legislature moved closer Tuesday to extending an historic apology to the families of four black men who were wrongly accused of rape in 1949 then tortured, murdered or unjustly imprisoned after one of the ugliest racist episodes in state history. Known as the Groveland Four, none of the four men —…