Robert E. Lee Folkes (June 20, 1922 – January 5, 1945) was an African American man who was convicted and executed in 1945 for the murder of Martha James, a white woman.
At approximately 4:30 am, near the town of Tangent, OR, occupants of the car awoke to Martha James screaming, "Oh my God, he's killing me.
[1] As a result of this description, investigators turned their attention to Robert E. Lee Folkes, an African American cook on the train.
[3] Linn Country District Attorney Harlow L. Weinrick failed to provide the defense with copies of the confessions Folkes supposedly stated, and Dr. Joseph Beeman, head of the Oregon State Police crime lab, refused to give the defense attorney copies of the autopsy.
Throughout the trial, the prosecution articulated the motive behind the crime to be that Folkes killed James because all black men possess a violent sexual attraction to white women.
[3] Judge L. Guy Lewelling sentenced him to death, and after several unsuccessful appeals, Folkes was executed in the gas chamber at the Oregon State Penitentiary on January 5, 1945.
The Oregon Journal stated that "the defendant was given the benefit of every legal protection, including counsel, the right to appeal - a fair trial," and expressed relief that "the racial question apparently was not raised at all - at least in a way that would tend to awaken dormant prejudices or excite ill-advised violences.
G. Geier, chairman of the History department at Western Oregon University and author of The Color of Night: Race, Railroaders and Murder in the Wartime West, has stated, "I think it's a campaign of intimidation against the union.
The trial took place during World War II as the population in Oregon urban areas expanded, which included the expansion of Portland's African American community[3] Tens of thousands of African Americans migrated to the West Coast to find work in the shipyards and factories during World War II.