Who raised loretta mccollum

The Ruby McCollum Story (1949)

Ruby McCullum

Ruby Myrtle McCollum was born on May 31, 1909 in Zuber, Florida, a small farming town just north of Ocala. Her parents scraped together a living to support the large family into which she was born. Around 1931, she met and married Sam McCollum, and the couple moved to Live Oak to make a start selling numbers, or “Bolita” as the gaming was called. They became rich, eventually purchasing several hundred acres of good farm land.  They had two children together and lived in the finest black home in Live Oak. 

 

All appeared well for the couple, but beneath it all there were problems. Sam had taken up with a high-yellow schoolteacher in Tampa and was spending a lot of time on the road, supposedly on Bolita business. Ruby was devastated. Sam’s cheating led her to take up an affair with Dr. Leroy C. Adams, the town’s most prominent white doctor.

 

Dr. Adams had just won a primary election for a seat in the state senate and was expected to win easily in the general election. The doctor was also heavily involved

Born Ruby Jackson on August 31, 1909, Jackson was a wealthy married African American woman in Live Oak, Florida, who was arrested and convicted for killing a prominent white doctor in 1952, who at the time was also a Florida State Senator-Elect. Born to Gertrude and William Jackson in Zuber, Florida, Jackson was the second child among six siblings. Although she started out attending the local segregated schools, she was moved to a private school where she excelled in bookkeeping.

In 1931, Jackson married Sam McCollum, and they moved to Nyack, New York. By the 1940s and early 1950s, the McCollums had amassed a fortune from selling burial policies and owning a funeral home, in addition to Sam and his brother running a gambling and liquor business. They owned a two-story house and a farm near Lake City, Florida. The couple raised four children, Sam Jr., Sonja, Kay, and Loretta whom Ruby said was the child of Dr. C. Leroy Adams.

African Americans were kept in second-class status until the passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s. White men taking sexual advantage of Blac

Ruby McCollum

American woman accused of murder

This article or section appears to contradict itself. Please see the talk page for more information.(January 2023)

Ruby McCollum, born Ruby Jackson (August 31, 1909 – May 23, 1992), was a wealthy married African-American woman in Live Oak, Florida, who is known for being charged in 1952 for first-degree murder for killing Dr. C. Leroy Adams, a prominent white doctor and state senator–elect. She testified as to their sexual relationship and his paternity of her child.[citation needed] The judge prohibited her from recounting more details of her allegations of abuse by Adams. She was convicted and sentenced to death for his murder by an all-white jury.

The sensational case was covered widely in the United States press (including a report written by Zora Neale Hurston for the Pittsburgh Courier, the first for a newspaper outside Florida), and gained coverage by international papers also. The judge subjected McCollum to a gag order. Her case was appealed and overturned on technical grounds by the S

Copyright ©cowroof.pages.dev 2025