Rubin Stacy, Long-Ago Lynching Victim, Memorialized In Fort Lauderdale

A Miami Times Staff Report

Feb 11, 2022

Rubin Stacy was lynched in Fort Lauderdale in 1935. Fast-forward to 2022 and the city has renamed a portion of Davie Boulevard running from I-95 to U.S. 441 Rubin Stacy Memorial Boulevard.

Like many of the incidents in the South at the time, the facts are unclear as to what lead to this young man’s death. Much of the available information indicates that Stacy was a tenant farmer in the area. From there things become murky, but Stacy found himself at the door of Marion Jones, a white woman.

Some stories claim that Jones offered Stacy a glass of water and he forced his way into her house and threatened her with a penknife. She screamed and one of her children ran off to get help. Later in life, Jones recanted that story.

A few days after the alleged incident, local law enforcement captured Stacy and turned him over to Broward County Sheriff Walter Clark, a notoriously violent racist. While he was incarcerated, rumors spread about what crimes Stacy may have committed and news of a lynch mob being formed to come after him and take him from the jail grew. In response, a decision was made to move Stacy to a cell in Dade County.

During the transit south, the lynch mob – numbering between 50 to 100 people – stopped the six-deputy detail and seized Stacy. He was hung from a pine tree near the Jones’ house with a wire clothesline belonging to the family. Stacy was reportedly also shot more than dozen times while he hung as a group gathered to watch, including several children. No one was ever charged in his death.

Pictures were taken of the grisly sight and the NAACP tried to use them to get President Franklin D. Roosevelt to support an anti-lynching bill that was stuck in the U.S. Senate, filibustered by several senators from Southern states. FDR refused to voice support for the bill, fearing losing votes for the future.

Members of Stacy’s family were present at the naming ceremony held in Fort Lauderdale last week. Speaking to NBC6, Reffernita Shaw, a grand-niece of Stacy, said it was a bittersweet moment in light of the tragedy that happened that day. The family kept the story of his unjust killing alive, passing it down through each generation.

Stacy was a husband, a father, and now Fort Lauderdale has recognized him as a martyr of the area’s hateful past.

The Miami Times is the largest Black-owned newspaper in the south serving Miami's Black community since 1923. The award-winning weekly is frequently recognized as the best Black newspaper in the country by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.