Willie McGee and the Travelling Electric Chair

On the night of May 7th, 1951, close to a thousand people gathered around the courthouse in the small town of Laurel, Mississippi.

They had come to witness the execution of Willie McGee, a young black man convicted of raping a white woman.

Mississippi's travelling electric chair was set up inside the courthouse. Outside, a local radio station was ready to broadcast the event live.

Over six years, three trials and a series of appeals, the racially-charged case had drawn international attention. Some called it a real life To Kill a Mockingbird. There were protests from William Faulkner, Josephine Baker, even Albert Einstein. But on May 7, 1951, at the dawn of the civil rights movement, Willie McGee was put to death.

And after the execution, the story was largely forgotten.

Until - almost sixty years later - when his granddaughter Bridget decided to try and discover the REAL story of Willie McGee.

She teamed up with the an American production company called Radio Diaries. Here is the fruit of that collaboration - our feature documentary, Willie McGee and the Traveling Electric Chair.

This documentary was produced by Joe Richman and Samara Freemark of Radio Diaries, with help from Anayansi Diaz-Cortes, Deborah George, and Ben Shapiro. Here is a link to the Radio Diaries website.