- Booker T. Spicely
Booker Thomas Spicely (
1909 -July 8 ,1944 ) was a victim of racial violence whose murder is considered to be one event in a series of events that contributed to theCivil Rights movement , much like whenIrene Morgan (also in July, 1944) was arrested and jailed inVirginia for refusing to give up her seat on an interstate bus to a white person, or whenEmmett Till was murdered by two white men inMississippi in 1955.Spicely was born in
Nottoway County , Virginia, in 1909, to Lazarus and Alberta Spicely. He was raised in the Belle Fonte (Virginia) area, and attended two years ofhigh school . He worked as an assistant business manager at theTuskegee Institute inAlabama before volunteering for theArmy onDecember 31 ,1943 inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania . His serial number was 33809308, and he was trained as a cook.In 1944, Private Spicely was stationed at
Camp Butner ,North Carolina . While on a pass into the nearby city ofDurham on July 8, 1944, he boarded a bus with a black family he was talking to at the bus stop, and sat in the front row behind the driver. The driver told them to go to the back of the bus. The family did, but Spicely refused, saying that he was a soldier and that he was fighting in the war. Soon afterwards, several white soldiers boarded the bus, and attempted to persuade Spicely to move to the back of the bus. Again, he protested, saying that he wore the same uniform as them and that he shouldn’t have to move seats.Spicely continued arguing with the bus driver until he departed the bus. When he did, the driver followed him off the bus and shot Spicely twice in the chest.
The driver, Herman Lee Council, was tried for the second-degree murder of Spicely but was acquitted. Spicely’s killing was found to be in self defense. Chief Counsel for the
NAACP Thurgood Marshall was involved in the case.After the trial, a riot ensued in the tobacco warehouse district of Durham, resulting in the destruction (via arson) of several of the white-owned
tobacco warehouses.The War Department conducted an investigation of Spicely’s death titled "Subject: Racial Incident, Shooting of Negro Soldier, Durham, N.C. on 8 July 1944 at about 1940", dated
July 12 ,1944 . His cause of death duringWorld War II is listed as DNB, or “Died, Non-Battle.”
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