Booker T. Spicely facts for kids
Booker Thomas Spicely (born December 1, 1909 – died July 8, 1944) was an African American soldier whose murder in North Carolina helped spark the Civil Rights Movement. His death was one of several important events that made people speak up for equal rights. Another example was Irene Morgan, who was arrested in July 1944 for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person in Virginia.
Who Was Booker T. Spicely?
Booker T. Spicely was born in Blackstone, Virginia. His parents were Lazarus and Alberta Spicely. He went to high school for two years and worked as a cook. On December 31, 1943, he joined the United States Army in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Spicely was trained as a cook in the Army. His brother, Robert, was a business manager at the Tuskegee Institute, but Booker himself did not work there.
The Bus Incident in Durham
In 1944, Private Spicely was stationed at Camp Butner, North Carolina. On July 8, 1944, he went to the nearby city of Durham. He got on a bus with a Black woman he knew. They sat near the back of the bus.
At that time, public transportation in North Carolina was segregated. This meant Black and white people had to sit in different sections. The bus driver told Spicely and the woman to move to the very last seat. This was because some white soldiers had just gotten on the bus. The woman moved, but Spicely refused.
He asked why he had to move, saying he didn't know the laws in North Carolina. One white soldier later said that Spicely mentioned, "I thought I was fighting this war for democracy." The bus driver then told him to "shut up or get off."
The Shooting and Trial
During the bus ride, Private Spicely kept arguing with the driver. When Spicely got off the bus, the driver followed him. The driver then shot Spicely twice as the soldier turned around. Spicely died suddenly from the gunshots.
The bus driver, Herman Lee Council, was put on trial for Spicely's murder. Thurgood Marshall, a famous lawyer who later became a Supreme Court Justice, helped with the case. He was the chief counsel for the NAACP. However, an all-white jury found the driver not guilty. They said he acted in self-defense.
Aftermath
Some stories say that after Spicely's murder, a riot happened in Durham's tobacco warehouse district. These stories claim that several white-owned tobacco warehouses were burned down. However, newspapers from that time do not mention any connection between Spicely's death and the warehouse fires.
The War Department investigated Spicely's death. They called it a "Racial Incident." His death happened during World War II, but it was not from battle.
Booker Spicely's body was sent back to his hometown in Blackstone, Virginia, for burial. Herman Lee Council, the bus driver, died in 1982.
