Historian unearths the tragic story of the Groveland Boys

The story of the Groveland Boys might not surprise anyone familiar with the miscarriages of justice that sometimes marked race relations in the early 20th century.

The case started in 1949, when four black men were accused of raping a white woman outside Groveland, Fla. One was killed by a mob a few days later, and the other three were tried and convicted. But thanks to Thurgood Marshall pursuing the case when he was executive director of the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Supreme Court ordered a retrial.

Seven months after the Supreme Court decision, one of the men was killed and another injured in a shooting by the sheriff and a deputy from Lake County, where Groveland is located. The surviving two were convicted again, with one serving 19 years in jail and dying in 1970, two years after being released; the other was released in 1962 after 12 serving years and died in 2012.

Many believe the Groveland Boys were innocent, and today, city and county governments, the Florida Senate and concerned citizens are pushing for the state to apologize, exonerate and pardon the four.

In light of that effort, Gilbert King — author of the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America, which is being made into a movie — spoke to TIME about why the Groveland Boys case still matters today. ...