Ruby McCollum (1909-1992)

July 22, 2017 
/ Contributed By: Selorm Tamakloe

Ruby McCollum| |

Ruby McCollum

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Born Ruby Jackson on August 31, 1909, Jackson was a wealthy married African American woman in Live Oak, Florida, who was arrested and convicted for killing a prominent white doctor in 1952, who at the time was also a Florida State Senator-Elect. Born to Gertrude and William Jackson in Zuber, Florida, Jackson was the second child among six siblings. Although she started out attending the local segregated schools, she was moved to a private school where she excelled in bookkeeping.

In 1931, Jackson married Sam McCollum, and they moved to Nyack, New York. By the 1940s and early 1950s, the McCollums had amassed a fortune from selling burial policies and owning a funeral home, in addition to Sam and his brother running a gambling and liquor business. They owned a two-story house and a farm near Lake City, Florida. The couple raised four children, Sam Jr., Sonja, Kay, and Loretta whom Ruby said was the child of Dr. C. Leroy Adams.

African Americans were kept in second-class status until the passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s. White men taking sexual advantage of Black women had a long history, dating back to the time of slavery. This was called โ€œparamour rightsโ€ at the time of the trial.

On August 3, 1952, Ruby McCollum met Dr. Leroy Adams, a white physician and state senator-elect, in his office. She later admitted to shooting him four times in the chest after he wouldnโ€™t agree to leave her alone. Ruby stated that over a period, he had repeatedly forced her to submit to sex and that her youngest child, Loretta, was fathered by him. It was discovered in letters that Adams had abused her and that she was pregnant with another child by him during the time of the shooting.

An employee at the doctorโ€™s office confirmed seeing Adams accept large deliveries of cash in the examination room after McCollum made public his participation in her husbandโ€™s illegal gambling. A day after his wifeโ€™s arrest, Sam McCollum died of a heart attack in Zuber, where he had taken the children for protection. Black anthropologist and Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston was the first person to report on the trial outside of Florida. Her coverage led to national and international attention to the story.

McCollum presented her testimony in an all-white male jury, some of whom were former patients of the doctor, and was defended by Frank Cannon. Despite considerable evidence of the abuse of McCollum by Adams, she was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to the electric chair. Her case was appealed.

At the second trial, McCollumโ€™s attorney, Frank Cannon, had McCollum enter an insanity plea. McCollum was then declared mentally incompetent to stand trial and was sent to Florida State Hospital. She stayed there until 1974 when she was released.

McCollum lived in the New Horizon Rehabilitation Center, a rest home in Silver Springs, Florida, until her death from a stroke on May 23, 1992. She was eighty-two at the time of her death.

About the Author

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Selorm Tamakloe is currently a sophomore at the University of Washington, Seattle, pursuing a double degree in Biochemistry and Dance with the aspiration of becoming a pediatrician. Because Selorm was born and raised Ghana, she is still learning about the abundance and variety of culture available here in the United States with the African American community being one of the most fascinating to her. In her pursuit of this learning and understanding she realizes the old saying that we are similar and yet very different.

CITE THIS ENTRY IN APA FORMAT:

Tamakloe, S. (2017, July 22). Ruby McCollum (1909-1992). BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/mccollum-ruby-1909-1992/

Source of the Author's Information:

Crystal Coleman, โ€œThe Sad Story of Ruby McCollum.โ€ Persephone Magazine, Feb. 24, 2011;ย  http://persephonemagazine.com/2011/02/the-sad-story-of-ruby-mccollum/; Elana Elan, โ€œThe Strange Case of Ruby McCollum,โ€ย The Chicago Defender March 24, 2016, https://chicagodefender.com/2016/03/23/the-strange-case-of-ruby-mccollum/.

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