By Mary Russ Milligan© 2022
This article is about a painful message that was delivered to Rubin Stacy’s family members in Florida and Georgia in July of 1935.
Because of this message, Stacy’s family members have a very different perspective on why Rubin Stacy was lynched. The message tells of Rubin’s frightful nights in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in Broward County. It tells of the events leading up to the three-day horror Rubin Stacy endured before he was lynched by an organized vigilante mob. Note that there is evidence that the mob was spearheaded by the county Deputy Bob Clark, brother of Sheriff Walter Clark.
My research into the horrid events that led to the murder of Rubin Stacy has taken me into many dangerous pathways. I have traveled to remote areas of Florida and Georgia where relatives and friends of Rubin Stacy attempt to isolate themselves from the injustices and coverups that have concealed their view of the hardworking family head that they knew. I have gone into the record halls of cities that have a reputation of cruelty and racial intolerance. Yet, I am sure that my fears do not match what my sources have gone through over the years. I am inspired by the trust they have put in me to uncover the truth.
When the family shared this information with me, I could see that it was immensely divergent from the mainstream narratives that relate to the unlikely tales of many of the others who described the incidents. Based on the information given and passed down in the family. Rubin Stacy was not lynched for begging at the door of a white woman for a glass of water. He was not lynched because he was a rapist, nor was he lynched because he was a violent man with murder in his eyes.
The most shocking things about the message to the family is that Rubin Stacy is known to have had a personal relationship with the accuser, Marion Jones who alleged he assaulted her. Some of Rubin’s close family members at that time were also aware that his wife Williemae Stradford aka McCuthen was friendly with Marion Jones prior to the accusations. Rubin Stacy had a working relationship with the accuser and her husband James Lee Jones.
The messenger told the family about an argument over payment from work which broke out into a fight.
Family members heard of a close relationship that Rubin Stacy had with a white woman long before the lynching incident took place. Details were unclear. From my research, Marion Jones and Rubin Stacy were in their twenties, only a few years difference. Unfortunately, many false reports stated Rubin Stacy was 37 years of age. My resources show a different age that is much younger. Marion Jones was an attractive white woman and Rubin Stacy was a handsome tall mulatto African American descendant.
Mainstream media printed very different and often contradictory and inflammatory versions of the events.
Fort Lauderdale Daily News reported on the day following the accusation that there was a search for an “unidentified negro” who had assaulted a white mother of three.
The Miami Herald reported that officers arrived at James and Marion Jones’ home after she was attacked and bleeding from knife wounds. She also stated she feared for her life after she was thrown to the ground. In this version the assailant ran off after her screams alarmed the neighbors.
Three days later Rubin Stacy was arrested by a Deerfield constable after being observed by a passing truck driver traveling US 1 Federal highway, also known at that time as Dixie Highway. The driver claimed to have heard of the mainstream version of the assault.
In recent years, a witness came forth describing what she saw: it was said the entire lynching plan was orchestrated by a county deputy.
(None of the previous mainstream articles mention the fight or that the Stacys and the Joneses knew each other. More details of this conflicted story of Rubin Stacy, the messenger and family members will be revealed in my book coming soon.)
