I will convey an event that took place in Monticello, Jasper County, Georgia in 1961. Though the case involving Preston Cobb, Jr. was front page news when it occurred, it is now barely remembered in the local community in which the event took place, the state of Georgia and the world-at-large.
Newspapers from around the world covered this story, it was cited extensively in the New York Times, the Atlanta Journal, the Atlanta Constitution, the Pittsburgh Courier, Muhammad Speaks, the Crisis magazine, the Atlanta Daily World, and the Baltimore Afro-American. Voluminous other newspapers carried numerous articles on the Preston Cobb story, a galvanizing event, now four decades ago. This case attracted some individuals who, in time, would become heroes of the Civil Rights era movement in the state of Georgia.
Though their passion, skill, and determination they helped change the face of America. The Cobb case played a significant and historical role in the Civil Rights era, forever transforming social change in Georgia and nationally concerning capital punishment of children. Preston' case and conviction steadily became an international cause celebre and a vehicle for the racial issue, and the capital punishment issue.
On June 1, 1961, Preston Cobb was arrested for the shotgun slaying of a white farmer, on whose land he and my family lived and worked. As a mere 15 year old, Preston was convicted of murder. A Jasper County Superior Court jury of 12 white men deliberated only 45 minutes before rendering its guilty verdict. Without recommending mercy, this jury convicted Preston for the murder of Frank Coleman Dumas. Preston was to be executed by electrocution at the Reidsville State Prison, and the electrocution was scheduled to be carried out, less than 40 days after the sentencing. Defied by any notion of measured justice, the indictment moved with lighting speed.
Considered a sensational expose, Preston sentencing, was polarized by racial opinion and fueled by fear and uncertainty. Had the State done what it set out to do, had Preston been electrocuted, he would have been the youngest person in Georgia's history to die in the electric chair. The death sentence imposed upon this 15 year old boy aroused both national and international attention.
Made aware of the nature of this case, many student groups throughout Germany, France, Egypt, the Netherlands and other groups in Asia formed organizations for the purpose of demanding the release of Preston Cobb from his sentence. News of Preston conviction and impending death sentence, additionally aroused citizens of the Netherlands that they organized a Preston Cobb committee and secured nearly 2 million signatures to a petition asking clemency for the youth.
Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, weighed in on the Cobb story, in her daily newspaper, "My Day", asking her opinion column readers to send a telegram of appeal to then Georgia's Governor Ernest Vandiver, asking clemency on behalf of Preston. Mrs. Roosevelt wired Governor Vandiver stating that: "she was shocked to learn that a 15 year old boy was sentenced to die, this to me is unthinkable and I hope you will do all that you can to obtain clemency". This story reached the highest office in the land, when then President John F. Kennedy was asked to intercede by two lawyers from Malaya.
With the scheduled execution only a few days away, Donald L. Hollowell, Horace Ward, Vernon Jordan, and Howard Moore, Jr., first step was to seek a "stay of execution", from the State's rush to execute Preston. In a desperate battle to save Preston life they were able to prevent the scheduled execution five days before it was to be carried out. Preston appeals process dragged on for another 7 years as Cobb legal team worked unremittingly to save Preston life. Thereby, the Preston Cobb case forever transformed law, locally in Georgia and nationally, concerning capital punishment of children.
