Ruby McCollum

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Ruby McCollum, born Ruby Jackson (August 31, 1909 – May 23, 1992), was a wealthy married African-American woman in Live Oak, Florida, who is known for being arrested and convicted in 1952 for killing Dr. C. Leroy Adams, a prominent white doctor and state senator–elect. She testified as to their sexual relationship and his paternity of her child.^{[citation needed]} The judge prohibited her from recounting her allegations of abuse by Adams. She was sentenced to death for his murder by an all-white jury.^{[citation needed]} The sensational case was covered widely in the United States press (including a press report written by Zora Neale Hurston, as well as by international papers). McCollum was subjected to a gag order. Her case was appealed and overturned by the State Supreme Court.^{[citation needed]}

Before the second trial, McCollum was examined and found mentally incompetent to stand trial. She was committed to the state mental hospital (Florida State Hospital) at Chattahoochee, Florida. In 1974 her attorney, Frank Cannon, obtained her release under the Baker Act, as she was not considered a danger to herself or others.^{[citation needed]}

In the 21st century, McCollum and her case received renewed attention, with books and four film documentaries exploring the issues of race, class, sexual violence, gender, and corruption in local politics from a modernist perspective.^{[opinion][citation needed]} McCollum's case is considered a landmark trial by these people in the struggle for civil rights as they believe she was the first black woman to testify against a white man's sexual abuse and paternity of their child.^{[citation needed][by whom?]} It is considered to have helped change attitudes about the practice of "paramour rights”.^[1] McCollum's attorney, Releford McGriff, became part of a team who worked to change Florida's Jim Crow practice of selecting all-white juries. (Black people were still disenfranchised at that time and thus not eligible to serve as jurors, who were limited to voters.)^{[citation needed]}