Biography
Willie McGee was a Black laborer from Laurel, Mississippi accused November 1945 of raping Willette Hawkins, a white housewife — a charge his defense (led by young Bella Abzug for the Civil Rights Congress) argued masked a long-running consensual relationship and was a frame-up. Convicted three times before all-white juries (the first jury deliberated only 2½ minutes). Case became a global cause célèbre with appeals from Albert Einstein, William Faulkner, Josephine Baker, and Jessica Mitford. Executed in Mississippi's portable electric chair on May 8, 1951 in the Laurel courthouse before a cheering white crowd.
The May 23, 1951 National Guardian discusses McGee’s May 8 execution and the suppression of his own account during years of proceedings. Its rounded six-year language is not used to calculate a precise first admission. The execution was a death in custody, not an ordinary release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/national-guardian/1951-05-23-3-31-nat-guardian.pdf#page=2
