In 1949 four young African-American men (Samuel Shepherd, Walter Irvin, Charles Greenlee, and Ernest Thomas) were charged with raping a 17-year-old white farm girl in Groveland, Florida.

The case was appealed to the Florida Supreme Court which found that:Two witnesses for the State testified as to the identity of the four [men].

[12] In addition to the eyewitness testimony, there was physical evidence linking the car in which the young men were riding to the crime.

Attorney Thurgood Marshall, then the special counsel with the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund, represented the four men, on the briefs, taking their case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Court found that sensational headlines in the local papers ("Night Riders Burn Lake Negro Homes" and "Flames From Negro Homes Light Night Sky in Lake County"), and newspaper reports of the sheriff's statement that the young men had confessed while in custody, resulted in an unfair trial.

"These defendants were prejudged as guilty and the trial was but a legal gesture to register a verdict already dictated by the press and the public opinion which it generated."

[13] In 1949, Harry T. Moore, the executive director of the Florida NAACP, organized a campaign against the conviction of the Groveland Four.

Soon afterward, Sheriff Willis V. McCall of Lake County, Florida, shot Shepherd and Irvin.

Moore demanded that the sheriff be indicted for murder and requested that the Governor suspend McCall from office.

Although members of the Ku Klux Klan were suspected of the crime, the people responsible were never brought to trial.

[15] The Florida Senate quickly passed a similar resolution; lawmakers called on Governor Rick Scott to officially pardon the men.

On November 22, 2021, Judge Heidi Davis granted the state's motion to posthumously exonerate the men.

[22] The City of Groveland continues to work with new residents, potential developers and neighboring communities to raise awareness about the importance of natural night skies, to improve safety and quality of life, and to protect the natural environment for all living things.