Jan. 2, 1944, Suwannee County, FL – Like most adolescents throughout history, Willie James Howard had a crush, and he had fantasies of how they could be together. Sadly, in the world Howard lived in this fantasy was more unrealistic than most. Willie James Howard was Black, his crush was a White girl, and one from a prominent family. Cynthia Goff was a 17-year-old cashier at the Van H. Fleet Dime Store where 15-year-old Willie James Howard worked as a delivery boy.
Howard was described by teachers, church members, and family as a friendly, respectful, and smart boy. He enjoyed singing and smiled at everyone he met and did play by the social rules of Jim Crow Florida being deferential to Whites. He had such a positive personality that his parents called him, “Giddy Boy.” It was these qualities that allowed him to work in the dime store with Whites and deliver to Whites. During the Christmas holiday of 1943 he worked fulltime, and as one with his personality would, he gave his co-workers Christmas cards.
Apparently, Cynthia Goff was raised with and deeply believed in the racial boundaries of the Jim Crow era. It was reported that she was offended by the card and when Howard heard this, he wrote a short note explaining that he had some deep feelings for her and wished they lived in the North where they might be free to explore those feelings, if she might possibly reciprocate at least friendship.
She did not. That’s what has always been said and noted. A typewritten copy of the handwritten note was later given to the sheriff by the girl’s father to explain why he took the actions he did. Alexander Philip Goth was the Live Oak and Suwannee County Postmaster and a former Florida State Representative. He was a very well-known man in the community with some level of power that came with his reputation and station. Whether his daughter showed him the Christmas card and follow up note or he discovered them is unknown. Cynthia never went on record as to her feelings about the matter. Because the note from Howard to Cynthia given to the sheriff was typed, there is in fact some question about its authenticity. Regardless, what Goff did next was murder and conspiracy to cover the murder up.
On Sunday Goff and two friends, Reg Scott and S. B. McCullers drove arrived at the Howard’s home on the East side of Live Oak, Family members say that Howard had heard that the men were looking for him, so he had run home from work. At Howard’s home Goff went to the door and was met by Lula Howard, Willie James’ mother. Goff demanded to know where the boy was and then saw him in the front room and grabbed him. Mrs. Howard attempted to hold on to her son, but Goff pulled a pistol from his belt.
The men left with Willie James Howard. Their next stop was at the Bond-Howell Lumber Company where they ordered his father James Howard into the car. They then drove out to a bluff along the Suwannee River. They bound the boy’s hands and feet then told James Howard to say a few last words to his son. Goff then put the gun to Willie James’ head and told him to either jump or feel what the gun had; the boy jumped.
The men then made the senior Howard get in the car and they dropped him back off at his work. His wife was waiting for him, but he couldn’t tell her what had happened. He was in shock and emotional, so he took her home and went back to work. Before the end of the day the sheriff and a police officer came and took him to the Suwannee County Courthouse, where Goff was and they threatened him unless he signed Goff’s legal statement.
Goff’s statement told a fabricated story of how the three men had brought James Howard and his son together, for punishment yes, but that they intended for Howard to whip his son with a switch for breaking the strict culture rules. Goff stated in his signed statement that Willie James refused to let his father or anyone whip him for flirting with a nice-looking girl and that when he and McCullers turned to cut the switch Willie James ran toward the river and before any of the 4 men could stop threw himself in the river.
Realizing the unspoken threat that he would probably be next, James Howard signed the agreement. He then went home and told Lula; they sold their house and had moved to Orlando within the week.
Significantly, there was nothing else for them to do at that moment. The sheriff had ordered a local Black mortician, Ansel Brown, to retrieve Willie’s body and take care of burial, which was done in an unmarked grave. The death of Willie James Howard didn’t make the local paper, or any paper in fact. As far as the White community was concerned this was the story of Black boy who made a sad mistake, knew it so he killed himself.
Normally that would be the end except in this case several Black men choose to try and find justice. It began with a letter from attorney Elbert C. Robinson who worked in Washington D.C. but grew up in Live Oak.
Robinson wrote to the NAACP in a letter dated January 4, 1944:
“While visiting in Florida during the Christmas holidays one of the most gruesome cases imaginable was called to my attention. The people who relayed the facts in this case to me asked that I withhold their names, but implored me to get the facts in this case through to the NAACP as soon as possible. It appears that the conditions there are so tense, and the colored people (high and low) are so frightened that they are afraid to have their names identified with cases of this type.”
Robinson’s letter was directed to the NAACP’s executive director Walter White who passed it on to Chief Counsel of the NAACP Thurgood Marshall. There were many other letters as well from the Black residents of Suwannee County including NAACP president Harry T. Moore also requested the NAACP and Marshall become involved. Moore was a significant figure in Florida and had been raised near Live Oak; he had known Lula Howard all her life in fact.
Marshall reached out to the Governor of Florida, Spessard Holland. Holland wrote back to Marshall and informed him that there would be a grand jury impaneled to investigate the Howard case. He promised that James Howard would be protected as he was subpoenaed to testify. Holland said in his letter that he was appointing Acting State Attorney David Lanier for the Third Judicial Circuit to lead the inquiry.
Marshall had also appealed to Florida’s liberal senator Claude Pepper, who was known to be a strong supporter of Roosevelt. However, Pepper had also taken part in a filibuster against antilynching laws in 1937. Pepper made it clear he had heard nothing of the lynching of a 14-year-old boy and was indifferent about it, this was in line with what Holland had said to Marshall in his correspondence. Holland had said that one Negro’s testimony against three White men and possibly a White girl would likely be unsurmountable.
The NAACP knew this; Marshall and the legal team had been involved in multiple lynching cases across the South. They knew testimony of Black victims meant little to the White juries who not only made judgements with their own prejudice but also considered the economics and politics of every case. The NAACP, especially Moore also knew that Suwannee County was part of a “Northern Loop" in Florida where there had been more lynchings and more White on Black violence than the rest of the state. This is very disturbing in retrospect given that Florida had surpassed Mississippi in per-capita lynching and was getting close in total numbers.
Holland was correct. Even though Lanier had interviewed both James and Lula Howard and had other evidence of the crime, the Grand Jury decided not to interview him. They also ignored James Howard in the Suwannee County Courthouse for 12 hours before calling him to testify, and then they only asked how old Willie James had been and if the boy had delivered his note to Cynthia Goff. The grand jury failed to bring charges against Goff, Scott, and McCullers. Marshall and the NAACP made two requests of the United States Department of Justice to investigate but the DOJ stated that they had no authority to intervene.
Once again, racial violence acted as a buttress to the racial hierarchy of the Jim Crow South. Once again White grand juries and White prosecutors failed to provide justice the Black residents and because of the powerful elites involved this time put all Blacks notice their lives were forfeit if they stepped even slightly over the cultural restrictive boundaries.
A.P. Goff got to live free for another 25 years dying in 1969 at the age of 70 with many grandchildren and a post office pension. Cynthia Goff married Homer L. Blankenship in 1948 and gave birth to one son in 1954. She apparently lived a quiet life leaving virtually no public record. She did have to live a few years without her son who died in 2003, she died in 2012.
James and Lula Howard remained in Orlando for the rest of their lives; there is no public record of when Mr. Howard died but Lula lived until 2004, her sister Mamie said she lived with the grief of her son’s death all of her life.
Mortician Ansel Brown buried Willie James Howard in an unmarked grave in the Eastside Cemetery in Live Oak in part to make sure his body wasn’t desecrated but also his parents couldn’t afford a stone, they didn’t come to the cemetery for his service out of fear. It took 60 years but in 2005 Douglas Udell, a Suwannee County Commissioner and owner of a funeral home in Live Oak, paid for a stone marker.
Sources:
Julie Buckner Armstrong. How my heart grows weary: Willie James Howard and the Suwannee River. Journal of Florida Studies, vol 0109 University of South Florida, 2021
Hobbs, Tameka Bradley. Democracy Abroad, Lynching at Home: Racial Violence in Florida. N.p.: University Press of Florida, 2016.
Steve Mitchell. Murder, Way Down Upon the Suwannee River: Willie J. Howard Born /13/28 Murdered 1/2/44 by 3 Racists. United States: Steve Mitchell, 2004.
Evans, Tammy D.. The Silencing of Ruby McCollum: Race, Class, and Gender in the South. United States: University Press of Florida, 2016.
Dunn, Marvin. The Beast in Florida: A History of Anti-Black Violence. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2013.
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