![]() His life for the past four or so years would have been neatly structured at Glens Mills, surrounded by faculty like Vida as well as other children. He was a gangly fifteen-year-old, with an open face and big eyes and mouth, weighing around 125 pounds. He would have looked quite small as he was escorted by police officers. When Alexander arrived at the Media Courthouse for his trial in December 1930, he would have seen a massive grayish-white stone building that dominated the surrounding community. And I’m sure people, many people in the neighborhood-particularly in the white community-wanted this case solved as quickly as possible. And it was an era in which blacks were not really permitted to serve on juries or even testify in many cases. In the midst of all of this you have this highly charged racial case. 1931 was the same year that the Scottsboro boys were arrested for again allegedly assaulting two white women on a train. So Ridley unfortunately was trapped, you know, as a victim in a sense of these highly charged racial times. And this could have been a very ugly riot that could have resulted from this allegation. In some ways it was, in some places it wasn't. ![]() So people tend to think of the North as being very progressive and very liberal. And in response, some groups of armed black men preparing themselves for what very likely could have been a very ugly race war in this part of the county. She was not sexually assaulted, but this resulted in groups of armed white men roaming the neighborhood looking for this assailant. She claimed that she didn't know the identity because she only saw a pair of brown hands reach from behind and choke her into unconsciousness. What had prompted this visit by the KKK was that this young white girl had alleged that she had been assaulted by a person of color. So these were definitely very highly charged times, racially. The Klansmen left Ridley's backyard, marched down Olive Street up to Sandy Bank and they held a cross burning ceremony up there. Keller Chris Rhoads Sean Kelley, Annie Anderson, and Sally Elk, all of Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site in Philadelphia. Sam Lemon (the great-grandson of Alexander’s original attorney) Teresa Smithers (a descendant of Fred Robare, Vida Robare’s husband) Osceola Perdue (Alexander’s great-niece) and her family Attorney Robert C. Susie Carter (Alexander’s sole surviving sibling) Dr. The producers wish to especially acknowledge the invaluable contributions of: Mrs. The podcast was generously supported by the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility and the Program on Urban Inequality and Incarceration, both at Swarthmore College the Swarthmore Black Alumni Network (SBAN) Keller, Lisgar & Williams, LLP. Based on the meticulously researched book, The Case That Shocked the Country: The Unquiet Deaths of Vida Robare and Alexander McClay Williams by Samuel Michael Lemon, Ed.D. Sandbox Atlas Blog Content Editors: Ben Meader and Emily Meader. Original Music by Hee Won Park and Tommy Neil. Executive Producers: Keith Reeves and Maggie O’Neil. Podcast Copyright © 2021 by Keith Reeves, Jack Pokorny, and Margaret O’Neil.
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