Biography
Francis Williams was a Black woman convicted of murder in Raleigh County, West Virginia. A Beckley March 1 dispatch in the Daily Worker of March 2, 1935, page 5, reports her death sentence and a planned March 15 hanging at Moundsville. Black residents organized an appeal fund and petitions for commutation, alleging inadequate defense and systematic exclusion of Black people from the jury. These are attributed contemporary civil-rights objections, not a finding of innocence. The scheduled hanging is not evidence of an actual execution; arrest, admission, sentencing day and eventual outcome are unreported. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n053-NAT-mar-02-1935-DW-Q.pdf
