20: To Simplicity
142Wiggins on the stand: Crump, Folder 6, trial transcript pp. 127–145.
143“Enshrouded in trees . . . to simplicity”: Roundtree and McCabe, Mighty Justice, p. 211.
143Wiggins back on the stand: Crump, Folder 8a, trial transcript pp. 204–281.
146“Witness Identifies Crump . . .”: William Chapman, Washington Post, July 22, 1965, p. A3.
146“Witness Says Defendant . . .weighing 185 pounds”: William Basham, Evening Star, July 21, 1965, p. A15.
147Ray’s height and weight on driver’s license and in DC Jail: Janney, Mary’s Mosaic, p. 115.
21: Hair Is Not Like Fingerprints
148Branch on the stand: Crump, Folder 8a, trial transcript pp. 291–318.
148Cops on the stand: They were Robert E. Decker and Harry L. Beagle, both with the Metropolitan Police. Crump, Folder 8a, trial transcript pp. 282–290b and pp. 318–329.
148Sylvis on the stand: Crump, Folder 8b, trial transcript pp. 340–355.
149Warner on the stand: Crump, Folder 8b, pp. 355–388.
149Weber on the stand: Crump, Folder 3, trial transcript pp. 422–458.
150Perkins on the stand: Crump, Folder 3, trial transcript pp. 467–477 and 484–507.
151“I am a one-woman office”: Crump, Folder 3, trial transcript p. 392.
151“There will be all . . . weekend”: Crump, Folder 3, trial transcript pp. 542–543.
151“some 40 policemen . . . shorter and slender”: William Basham, “Meyer Witness Links Cap to Crump,” Evening Star, July 23, 1965, p. A14.
152Mitchell on the stand: Crump, Folder 4, trial transcript pp. 653–667.
153Semmes on the stand: Crump, Folder 5, trial transcript pp. 781–792.
153Stombaugh on the stand: Crump, Folder 5, trial transcript, pp. 798–809, and pp. 831–865.
154“Your Honor please . . .”: Crump, Folder 5 trial transcript, p. 866.
22: Exhibit A
155Dovey’s opening statement: “Opening Statement on Behalf of the Defendant,” Crump, Folder 7, trial transcript pp. 881–883.
156Dovey’s witnesses on the stand: Crump, Folder 7, trial transcript pp. 883–892.
156“At this time, if it please the Court . . .”: Crump, Folder 7, trial transcript p. 892.
156“There wasn’t a sound . . .”: Roundtree and McCabe, Mighty Justice, p. 214.
156Sidebar: Crump, Folder 7, trial transcript pp. 893–899a.
157“I hate to keep this jury . . .”: Crump, Folder 7, trial transcript p. 896.
157Corcoran to the jury: Crump, Folder 7, trial transcript p. 899a.
23: Adler Heels
158Hantman’s closing: “Argument to the Jury on Behalf of the Government,” Crump, Folder 7, trial transcript pp. 903–926.
159Dovey’s closing: “Argument on Behalf of the Defendant,” Crump, Folder 7, trial transcript pp. 927–944.
162Hantman’s rebuttal: “Rebuttal Argument on Behalf of the Government,” Crump, Folder 7, trial transcript pp. 944–958.
24: If Justice Is to Be Done
164Corcoran’s thanks and charge to the jury: “Charge to the Jury,” Crump, Folder 7, trial transcript pp. 963–986.
165Jury’s first note to Corcoran and his response: Crump, Folder 7, trial transcript pp. 991–992.
166Jury’s second note to Corcoran and his response: Crump, Folder 7, trial transcript p. 993.
166Martha Crump: William Chapman, “District Court Jury Ponders Meyer Slaying,” Washington Post, July 30, 1965, p. A3.
25: Wept
168Verdict and “Raymond Crump. . .”: “Verdict of the Jury,” Crump, Folder 7, trial transcript p. 995.
168“cried out . . . from church”: Roundtree and McCabe, Mighty Justice, p. 216.
168“Is there anywhere . . . home”: Roundtree and McCabe, Mighty Justice, p. 216.
168“swayed forward . . .”: William Chapman, “Crump Free in Murder on Towpath,” Washington Post, July 31, 1965, p. A1.
168“wept”: “Laborer Acquitted of Murder,” The (Columbia, South Carolina) State, July 31, 1965, p. 3A.
Coda
169“There were so many . . . ”: Chapman, “Crump Free in Murder on Towpath,” p. A1.
169Ray’s letter to Dovey: DJR Papers, NABWH, Folder 3, pdf pp. 34–36.
170Ray’s post-acquittal crimes: Burleigh, A Very Private Woman, pp. 278–280.
170Ray Crump’s death: Crump Raymond, Jr., Washington Post, June 13, 2005. https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/washingtonpost/obituary.aspx?n=raymond-crump&pid=14253303.
170“heartsick . . . afterward”: Roundtree and McCabe, Mighty Justice, p. 218.
170National Enquirer story: Don Oberdorfer, “JFK Had Affair With D.C. Artist, Smoked ‘Grass,’ Paper Alleges,” Washington Post, February 23, 1976, pp. A1, A9.
171“author and lecturer”: Roundtree and McCabe, Mighty Justice, p. 189.
171On Cord Meyer: Ben A. Franklin, “Woman Painter Shot and Killed on Canal Towpath in Capital,” New York Times, October 14, 1964, p. 40.
171“took a vacuum cleaner . . .”: Bennett, In the Ring, p. 36.
171“impossible for the matter . . . gratified”: Roundtree and McCabe, Mighty Justice, p. 217.
172“the kind of success . . .”: Roundtree and McCabe, Mighty Justice, p. 217.
172“for other men . . .”: Roundtree and McCabe, Mighty Justice, p. 217.
172BADC endorsement: Jacob A. Stein to John N. Mitchell, March 12, 1969, DJR Papers, NABWH, Folder 15, pdf pp. 1–2.
172Letters of recommendation: DJR Papers, NABWH, Folder 15.
173“for seminars . . . July 1965”: Roundtree and McCabe, Mighty Justice, p. 217.
173“More and more . . . one from another”: Roundtree and McCabe, Mighty Justice, p. 220.
173Address to cosmetologists: Lillian Wiggins, “Attorney Says Beauty Is Within,” Washington Afro-American, June 29, 1974, pp. 1, 9, DJR Papers, NABWH, Folder 8, pdf pp. 12–13.
173Address to Tots and Teens: “Attorney Roundtree Speaks at Founders Day Celebration,” Washington Afro-American, June 21, 1975, p. 8, DJR Papers, NABWH, Folder 8, pdf p. 14.
173Address at US Army Military History Institute: Kellie Patrick, “WAC Veteran Recalls Pain of Discrimination,” The Sentinel, August 25, 1992, p. A4.
SELECTED SOURCES
Burleigh, Nina. A Very Private Woman: The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer. New York: Bantam, 1999.
Earley, Charity Adams. One Woman’s Army: A Black Officer Remembers the WAC. College Station: Texas A&M University, 1996.
Flono, Fannie. Thriving in the Shadows: The Black Experience in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. Charlotte, NC: Novello Festival Press, 2006.
Janney, Peter. Mary’s Mosaic: The CIA Conspiracy to Murder John F. Kennedy, Mary Pinchot Meyer, and Their Vision for World Peace. 3rd edition. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2016.
Jones, Dr. Ida E. Mary McLeod Bethune in Washington, DC: Activism and Education in Logan Circle. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2013.
Lunsford, Brandon. Charlotte Then and Now. London: Pavilion Books, 2013.
Putney, Martha S. When the Nation Was in Need: Blacks in the Women’s Army Corps During World War II. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2001.
Roundtree, Dovey Johnson. Dovey Johnson Roundtree Papers, NABWH_005. National Archives of Black Women’s History, Mary McLeod Bethune Council House, Washington, DC.
——. Dovey J. Roundtree Spelman Alumna File. Spelman College Archives, Atlanta, Georgia.
——, and Katie McCabe. Mighty Justice: My Life in Civil Rights. Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 2019.
United States v. Raymond Crump Jr., Criminal No. 930–64, US District Court for the District of Columbia, 1965.
PICTURE CREDITS
2Reprinted with permission of the DC Public Library, Star Collection © Washington Post
14Courtesy of the Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library
17Courtesy of th
e Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library
23Courtesy of the Spelman College Archives
27Courtesy of the Spelman College Archives
28Courtesy of the Spelman College Archives
34Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, National Archives for Black Women’s History
40State Archives of Florida
48Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, National Archives for Black Women’s History
52Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
55Library of Congress
60Courtesy of the Spelman College Archives
67Newberry Library
74Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University
90State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC
107Reprinted with permission of the DC Public Library, Star Collection © Washington Post
117National Archives and Records Administration
122National Archives and Records Administration
125Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
160Richard Darcey/The Washington Post/Getty Images
174The Washington Post/Getty Images
INDEX
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.
Note: Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.
Acheson, David C., 106, 117
African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, 12, 113–14
Allen Chapel AME, DC, 114, 173
Alpha Kappa Alpha, 62
AmeriCorps VISTA, 103
AME Zion Publishing House, 13–14
Angleton, Cicely, 134
Angleton, James, 170
Army, US, 60, 63, 173
Army Air Corps, US, 63–64
Army Military History Institute, 173
Army Nurse Corps, 60, 64
Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, 18
Atlanta University Center Consortium, 24
Baltimore Afro-American, 47
Bar Association of the District of Columbia (BADC), 88, 172
Barber, Betty W., 17
Basham, William, 151–52
Bennett, Robert S., 134, 140, 170, 171
Bethune, Mary McLeod, 36, 40, 55, 65, 66, 75
death of, 114
and Grandma Rachel, 41
influence of, 42, 61, 87, 172, 173
and NCNW, 40–42, 61, 87
and NYA, 39–40, 41, 42
and WAAC, 46, 50, 54–55, 61
Bethune-Cookman College, 39
Birmingham, Alabama, church bombing, 103
Book of Knowledge, The, 16
Boynton, Amelia and Samuel, 96
Boynton, Bruce Carver, 96–97
Boynton v. Virginia, 96–97
Bradlee, Ben, 3, 130–32, 134, 135
Branch, Bill, 148
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, 67
Brown, Rev. Jesse A., 156
Brown, Thelma M., 57
Brown v. Board of Education, 94–95
Bryant, John, 15
Burleigh, Nina, 109, 134
A Very Private Woman, 108
Caine, Lindsey W., 86
California, diversity in, 71
California Law Review, 75
Cameron, Dale C., 115
Campus Mirror, 26–29, 28
Carolina Trailways (Carolina Coach), 89, 90, 92, 93
Carpenter, Evelyn S., 123, 165
Carver, George Washington, 96
Cayton, Irma Jackson, 54–55
Chaney, James, 104
Chapman, William, 169
Chmielewski, Cecilia, 123, 165
citizenship, and US Constitution, 7–8, 93
Civil Aeronautics Act (1938), 97–98
Civil Rights Act (1866), 7–8
Civil Rights Act (1875), 8
Civil Rights Act (1964), 102, 103
civil rights movement:
activism in, 36, 80, 81, 96, 97
and constitutional amendments, 7–8
and employment practices, 39
and Freedom Riders, 97
and Jim Crow, see Jim Crow
occasions to weep and mourn in, 103–4
in Oxford, Mississippi, 101–4
in Selma, Alabama, 119
and separate but equal facilities, 8, 54, 73, 96–98, 102
and Supreme Court, 8, 75, 90–91, 93, 94–95, 97–98
Coast Guard, US, 64
Coast Guard Women Reserve (SPARs), 64
Commission on Civil Rights, 102
Constitution, US:
and citizenship, 7–8, 93
commerce clause of, 90
and education, 94–95
and slavery, 7
and voting rights, 8
Cooper, Ollie Mae, 82
Corcoran, Judge Howard Francis, 120, 134
see also Crump, Raymond Jr., trial of
Coston, William M., 121
Crisis, 91
Crump, Helena, 133, 151
Crump, Martha, 4–5, 115, 133, 138, 166, 168
Crump, Raymond Jr., 1–5, 2, 105–11
after the trial, 168, 169–71
alibi in Meyer killing, 132–33
arraignment of, 108
bail denied for, 108–9
competence to stand trial, 111, 115
Court of Appeals ruling on, 118, 119
death of, 170
Dovey as lawyer for, 1, 5, 105–6, 108, 109–11, 114, 115–18, 119, 126–27, 170, 171–72
grand jury indictment of, 108, 110
in jail, 1, 5, 104, 105, 106, 111, 115, 133, 170
and Meyer killing, 2–4, 106, 107, 108
preliminary hearing denied to, 110, 127
prosecution evidence against, 106, 115–17, 117, 124–26, 135, 137, 151–52, 156, 158–59, 169–70, 171
psychiatric evaluation of, 111, 115
as scapegoat, 170
shoes of, 162
trial of, see Crump, Raymond Jr., trial of
and writ of habeas corpus, 109–10
Crump, Raymond Jr., trial of, 124–68
closing statements in, 157–62
Crump as defense “Exhibit A” in, 155–56
date set for, 119
and death penalty, 121, 133
and defendant as free man, 168, 169–71
defense witnesses in, 156, 163
Dovey as defending attorney in, 126–27, 135, 136–40, 143, 155–57, 159–62, 168, 170, 171
Dovey’s cross-examinations in, 131–32, 139, 140, 145–47, 148–50, 151–52, 153, 171
Dovey’s opening statement in, 128–29, 154, 155–56
introduction of reasonable doubt in, 160–62, 169
Judge Corcoran in, 120, 127–29, 136–37, 138, 139, 142–45, 151, 156–57, 164–66, 167–68
judge’s charge to jury in, 164–65
jury procedure in, 127–28
jury selection (voir dire) for, 120–23, 122
jury’s questions in, 165–66
and murder victim, see Meyer, Mary Pinchot
newspaper stories about, 123, 146–47, 151–52, 166, 168, 169
prosecution’s opening statement in, 124–26, 128, 129, 156
prosecution’s rebuttal in, 162–63
prosecution’s witnesses in, 130–40, 141–47, 148–54, 158–59, 160–61
prosecutor’s disbelief at defense brevity in, 156–57
prosecutor’s responsibility in, 128
venue for, 120, 174
verdict in, 167–68, 169, 171–72
Cyr, Cecilia L., 121
Dailey, Phyllis Mae, 64
Dalinsky, Harry Alexander, 134–35
Daniels, Cleopatra, 51
Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School, Florida, 40
DC Women’s Bar Ass
ociation, 118–19
defense industry:
Black employment in, 67–68
discrimination in, 38–39, 66
Double V campaign, 46
Douglass, Frederick, 75
Du Bois, W. E. B., 24, 68, 75
Duncan, Charles T., 108, 115–16, 117
Earley, Charity Adams, 51
East Stonewall African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 12
Ebenezer Baptist Church, 112
Economic Opportunity Act (1964), 103
education, segregation in, 16–17, 80, 94–95
E. P. Johnson Night School, 25
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), 102
Evening Star (DC), 100, 107, 146–47, 151–52, 169
Evers, Medgar, 103
Executive Order 8802: discrimination in defense industry, 38–39, 66
Executive Order 11063: discrimination in housing, 101
Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC), 39, 66–70, 71–72, 74, 77
Federal Council of Negro Affairs, 41
Fifteenth Amendment, 8
Finley High School, Chester, South Carolina, 37
First Forty, 46, 50
Fort Des Moines, Iowa, 47, 49–50, 52, 54, 60–61
four freedoms, 53, 63
Four Freedoms (training film), 61
Fourteenth Amendment, 8, 93
Freedom Riders, 97
Freeman, Ruth, 51, 77
Friendship Baptist Church, Atlanta, 17
Georgetown University, 85, 161
GI Bill, 75–76
Giles, Sarah E., 18
Goodman, Andrew, 104
Grace AME Church, Atlanta, 19
Graham, Ally, 47
Graham, Bessie, 47
Graham, Rev. Clyde Leonard (Grandpa Clyde), 12–13, 16, 113
illness and death of, 37–38, 112
as preacher, 12, 20
Graham, Rachel (Grandma Rachel), 25, 37
and Bethune, 41
birth and early years of, 7, 8, 102
church activities of, 12, 113
death of, 112, 114
and Dovey’s childhood, 12, 13, 15, 16
and Dovey’s work, 21–22, 69–70
“poor broken feet” of, 9–10, 85
on public transportation, 84–85, 92
work of, 13, 20
Grant, Zalin, 130
Great Depression, 19–20, 39
Great Society, 102
Green, Joyce Hens, 119
Greyhound Bus Company, 89–90
Hantman, Alfred L., 117–18, 127
chewing gum, 134, 171
as trial prosecutor, see Crump, Raymond Jr., trial of