17-year-old Virginia Christian was the first and last female juvenile to be executed in the electric chair in 1912. At a time when Jim Crow legislation and racial purity laws were in effect, Virginia, who was African American, was not granted a fair trial.
Even in this day and age, people of colour are disproportionately sentenced to death and there is an infectious presence of racism in the death penalty with racial disparities plaguing the justice system.
At the age of 13, Virginia dropped out of Hampton Whitter Training School to work as a laundress for Mrs. Ida Virginia Belote, a 51-year-old white woman from Hampton, Virginia.1 She was one of Hampton’s white aristocracy by way of her father’s prominence as the owner of a large grocery.2
Ida was known to frequently beat and berate Virginia and on the 18th of March, 1912, she accused her of stealing a locket and skirt. Virginia staunchly denied these claims before Ida threw a clay pot at Virginia, hitting her on the shoulder. When it fell and shattered, Ida threw the broken pieces at Virginia. The next item Ida attempted to retrieve to use as a weapon was a nearby broom. However, Virginia managed to grab it before her and cracked Ida over the head. Ida started to scream and in an attempt to muffle the screams, Virginia shoved a towel in Ida’s mouth, causing her to suffocate.
She readily confessed to the murder and contended that she didn’t want to kill Ida but was so terrified of her screaming. In fact, she didn’t even realise that Ida was dead.
The following morning, The Newport News Daily described Virginia as: “A full-blooded negress, with kinky hair done up in threads, with dark lustreless eyes and with splotches on the skin of her face. Her color is dark brown and her figure is short, dumpy and squashy. She has had some schooling but her speech does not betray it. Her language is the same as the unlettered members of her race.“
Virginia was not allowed to defend herself or explain her actions during her trial. The constant beatings from Ida were not taken into consideration or the evidence of self-defence. Virginia was found guilty on the 9th of April, 1912, and sentenced to die in the electric chair in the state penitentiary in Richmond.
Her mother wrote a pleading letter to Gov. William Hodges Mann in which she pleaded for her daughter’s life:
“My dear Mr. Governor: Please forgive me for bothering you … I have been paralyzed for more than three years and I could not look after Gennie as I wants to. I know she done an awful wicked thing when she killed Miss Belote and I hear that people at the penitentiary wants to kill her. But I am praying night and day on my knees to God that he will soften your heart. If you only save my child who is so little, God will bless you forever.”
After Mann refused to stop the execution, E. Val Putnam, a newspaper editor for The Chicago Evening World sent a telegram to him expressing his outrage that Virginia’s race, gender, and youth were all irrelevant. “If not the State of Virginia herself in part responsible; this child was left without training or education. The picture of her sitting alone in her cell, helpless and friendless, is an indictment against society for her condition and one that comes home to all of us,” wrote an article in the Daily Press in 1999.
In the months running up to her execution, Mann received hundreds of letters from people expressing their outrage at the execution. The day before she was sent to the electric chair, the headlines in the Evening Star read: “Mann Will not Save Negress.”
The state of Virginia is only second behind Texas in executions and five months after the crime, Virginia was executed. Her execution fell on the day after her 17th birthday. She “spent a comparatively restful night sleeping as though she were at peace with the world” and ate her breakfast of rolls, eggs and coffee before being escorted to the electric chair.3 “The 17-year-old negro murderess was led to her death in the state penitentiary at 7:25 o’clock this morning,” read The News Leader.
A tragic ending to a tragic tale: Following her execution, Virginia’s body was turned over to the state medical school as her parents could not afford to transport the body from Richmond.
Comments:
This made me feel such revulsion and despair that I got a bit nauseous. Well written, dear author, well written.
As God said that land that our ancestors served will he judge, and the country failed, so I’m glad God won’t have no plans for the children of Esau to be put on the new earth when the old earth dies, that in itself will be a relief, we don’t need grief in our lives anymore.
Planet earth would have been a better place without a Whiteman. Whiteman is the most evil creature that jehovah God has put on earth. Don’t get me wrong I hate no one just as much as I would never even entertain thoughts of killing a poor 17 year old just because she’s black. I hope that God almighty did not miss this evil and all other evils done to bantu people
Simply because other people think they are far more humans than the other.
Hello, I’m not sure if you really thought about your post. Us blacks are not the only mistreated race, what about the Jews during the Holocaust? Or the Armenian people who was being genocide. As long as Satan rules the earth, evil will be present. Our anger should be against the evil that is done not the person. We are not the Judge, God is!
I’m glad you pointed out that Saten is the God of this world and the evils will only grow throughout the world before he is locked away in the Abyss.
I’m 63 and I thaught that racism was
of every background and color.They were taught that religion was to be respected.
Jews were not the only ones persecuted at that time. Christians were as well.
The true “Christians” of the Bible were bloodline Hebrew Israelites. The moniker “Christian” was coined by the Romans, true Biblical nationality Edomites (Genesis 36:1). Acts 11:26, And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. The Romans (bloodline Edomites) were essentially mocking the Israelites that followed after their Hebrew Israelite Savior (Hebrews 7:14). These disciples followed their Israelite Savior by their obedience to the commandments/laws that were only shown or given to the twelve tribes of the Children of Israel (Deuteronomy 4, Leviticus 26 and Psalms 147:19-20). He was an Hebrew Israelite of the tribe of Judah. He was not… Read more »
This is Excilent, this is what Im talking about. Know your history be4 you tell someone else. What about the Jew’s & the Americans that got Genocide. Explain what your talking about when you say something. David Carolina you wrote the Perfect Respond. More People should know the the history behind what they say. Thank you Mr. David Carolina for your Perfect Explanation to what you said. I enjoyed reading it.
Blessings, Peace, Love To Everyone.
That’s what we’re saying to BUT GOD WHO HAS THE FINAL SAY *JAHOVA HAS THE FINAL SAY. God doesn’t sleep nor slumber and I know he doesn’t make mistakes 🙌🏽 THE EVIL ONE IS BURNING IN THE PITS OF HELL 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Who said the so-called Blacks are the only mistreated people? Us Blacks? I honestly don’t believe that you are a so-called Black Person. No intelligent person with a sense of Justice would think this way. To your point, our anger should be against the evil that is done not the person. Evil needs a catalyst. Evil is not just going to jump out of thin air. Only mankind knows the difference between good and evil. Evil has to be perpetrated by a person. So, the anger would be against the person who committed the evil. Go tell the judge that… Read more »
I did not get the impression in the article the author meant Black people were the only ones mistreated in history. We can make a list of countries that mistreated people of years past and now.
White people were enslaved by the Ottoman Empire even after slavery of black people was abolished.
The American Public School System leaves a lot to be desired. It is mind boggling how ignorant Americans are. They have zero knowledge of true history. Just like a parrot they just repeat what they hear. All Slavery is not the same. Indentured Servitude and Chattel Slavery is not the same. Indentured Servants only served a certain length of time. Your children were not perpetual servants. And they could receive pay. You didn’t lose your name, culture if you had any, language, history or religion, Chattel Slaves are the personal movable property of the Slaver. KJV Exodus 21:16, Chattel Slaves… Read more »
Judging by your use of the term “white man” I take it that you’re not caucasian! I strongly disagree with what you’re saying. Yes what happened to her is completely unfair but I don’t agree with what you said, at all! You’re choice of words really makes me think that you’re either very young or very under educated! I don’t believe that people think they are more “human” than another. That’s literally laughable!!!
I can tell from your response you aren’t a person of color. What is “laughable” is white people don’t think they are more human than a person of color! If that were the case slavery, Jim Crow and racism that continues today wouldn’t exist.
The black man was the one who sold his own people in to slavery. That woman needed killing she deserved it not the poor girl that died in the electric chair
And the white man took over after 1808.
I am Kaylin Gartland and this woman is my great great grandmother, I hope that she is looking down from heaven and that she can see how much the world has changed.
How can she be your great-great-grandmother when she was allegedly a 17-year-old, childless teen woman?!
I believe she was refering to Ida. The one abusing the girl.
You can really see the demographic of this website when the comments voted up are folks saying that white people were persecuted too 😛 All those awful things that happened to white people wasn’t ’cause they were white. It was because of religion, eugenics, fear of revolution and they didn’t enslave white people because they thought white people were inferior and thus it was ok to treat them like lesser or where mass murdered because they were specifically white. Black and Brown people are persecuted based on their skin color and literally everything else. Natives had to assimilate and forget… Read more »
Thank you mentioning my people. Our Native American people seem to be overlooked when it comes to being persecuted.
Back then, people thought that people who weren’t white were aliens, but now we know they aren’t so would ya’ll chill with the “Oh the Whiteman is the worst thing our Jehovah God put on this planet” God created us all equally so I would ask kindly for ya’ll to stfu😘
This is so weird because I live in Newport News Virginia, this article made me feel uneasy.
Poor girl… horrible injustice.
WHY WON’T THESE WHITE PEOPLE JUST KILL THEMSELVES . I KNOW SHE’S SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF SATAN BURING BURNING BURNING 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥IN THE PITS OF HELL *GOOD* I KNOW THAT I KNOW YOU ARE RESTING IN FAVOR AND PEFECT PEACE, UNTIL WE ALL MEET IN PARADISE REST.
The disgusting notion of these law officials to think they will get away with this. They knew this was a clear case of self defense. Our Creator sees and knows all. They will, according to Scripture, receive a Righteous judgment!
As people of color Black people, we are forever encased in a sadness, in a cloak of markings that the world will never be able to erase. We will forever be climbing up and out. And that is why we are so spirited and strong!
Y’all people are disgusting and will get your karma!