Fort Lauderdale Street Renamed After Lynching Victim Rubin Stacy
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – The family of Rubin Stacy is elated that a 2-mile section of Davie Blvd. has been renamed "Rubin Stacy Memorial Blvd."
In 1935, Stacy was hanged by an angry mob in the area near David Blvd. and SW 31 Ave. It was after an encounter with a local woman.
"I heard he went to her house asking for some water. Then there was another story saying he went to her house asking for work. Then she said he scared her and tried to attack her. He got arrested," said Chelsea Blackmon, Stacy's great-great-niece.
After his arrest, he was snatched from a police car and hanged from a pine tree still handcuffed.
The actual lynching was photographed. It drew a large crowd — as people gathered around to watch, some even smiling in pictures.
"As he's hanging they target practiced, they shot at him. I don't know how many times they shot, 17 hit. On this death certificate it says lynching by mob," recalled great-niece Sandra Blackmon-Lane.
His arrest report said he was charged with "assault to kill." As for how the case turned out, the report simply says, "dead."
Anne Fleming Naves, 95, lived with Stacy as a child. Although she didn't immediately know what happened, she knew something was very wrong.
"The house became absolutely quiet. My mother's beautiful laugh stopped, my father's teasing stopped everything stopped. We as children I knew that something terrible had happened," Fleming Naves said.
The story of Rubin Stacy was passed down by word of mouth in the family for decades, many of the details are still unclear. But with the Stacy name now displayed on 75 signs from I-95 to 441 along Davie Blvd., the family hopes more people will learn about that dark era of our South Florida history.
"When I was younger I was a bit more naive and I thought stories like that happened closer to Tallahassee, closer to Gainesville. I didn't know terrible stories like that happened here in South Florida, right here in Broward County," said Blackmon.
The family hopes when people see the name "Rubin Stacy" on those streets sign they Google him to learn what happened.