Cellos Harrison was an African American man in Marianna, Florida who was lynched on June 16, 1943, after being rearrested when his murder conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court of Florida because his confession was obtained under duress.
[1] He was twice convicted by an all-white jury of murdering a white man who was working as a gas station attendant and store clerk.
State and federal investigations were launched into the lynching but no one was ever indicted or convicted.
Harrison, a farm worker, was convicted of killing gas station attendant Johnnie Mayo in 1940.
[5] NAACP lawyer Harry T. Moore, who was later assassinated in a 1951 bombing of his home, wrote a letter to Florida governor Spessard Holland calling for an investigation and one was ordered.