Project will explore the story of the Martinsville 7 and the treatment of Black men in America
(CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA) – The UVA Center for Politics is holding a reception and fundraiser Saturday, April 9 in support of a documentary the Center and its partners are planning about the Martinsville 7.
The Martinsville 7 were a group of 7 Black men who were accused of raping a white woman in 1949 and tried and executed without due process.
Former NFL and UVA football star Tiki Barber, who is also a member of the Center for Politics Advisory Board, will speak as part of the event, along with Dr. Christopher Shawn Wilson, who is a minister, author, and the President/CEO of AireTech Creations, makers of the Zipplign app and the My Event Advisor App. Wilson, then 17, was a passenger in a car whose driver shot and killed a man. Wilson spent 17 years in prison for the crime before being pardoned by then-Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) in 2020.
The Center for Politics is working with Tanesha Hudson of Legacy Productions and the Martinsville 7 Initiative to produce the documentary, which will explore the treatment of Black men in America and highlight the story of the Martinsville 7. The Martinsville 7 received a posthumous pardon from Northam in August 2021.
The reception will be held from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Hotel E on the West Range of UVA’s Central Grounds (on the southwest corner of the Lawn, near Garrett Hall). Members of the media are welcome to attend.
For more information on the Martinsville 7 documentary project and how to support the project, visit https://www.m7documentary.org/.
