HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE COURAGEOUS, MS. LENA BAKER!!! *The state of Georgia killed you for being black and defending yourself but had he killed you, he wouldn't have been charged with any crime. We will remember you...ALWAYS!* Lena Baker was an African American maid who was executed for murder by the State of Georgia in 1945 for killing her employer, Ernest Knight, in 1944. At her trial she said that he had imprisoned and threatened to shoot her should she try to leave. She took his gun and shot him. Baker was the only woman to be executed by electrocution in Georgia. In 2005 Baker was granted a full and unconditional pardon by the State of Georgia, 60 years after her execution. The movie The Lena Baker Story (2008) is about her life. In 1944, Baker started working for Ernest Knight, who had broken his leg. He owned a gristmill and held her there for days at a time against her will. One night they had an argument in which he threatened her with an iron bar. She tried to escape and shot and killed him. She immediately reported the incident and said she had struggled in self-defense. TRIAL & EXECUTION: Lena Baker was charged with capital murder and stood trial on August 14, 1944, presided over by Judge William "Two Gun" Worrill, who kept a pair of pistols on his judicial bench in plain view. The all-white male jury convicted her by the end of the afternoon. Because blacks had been disfranchised since the turn of the century in the South and could not vote, they were disqualified from jury service. After filing an appeal in the case, her court-appointed counsel, W.L. Ferguson, dropped Baker as a client. Governor Ellis Arnall granted Lena a 60-day reprieve so that the Board of Pardons and Parole could review the case, but it denied clemency in January 1945. Baker was transferred to Reidsville State Prison on February 23, 1945. #lenabaker #thelensbakerstory #blackhidstory #justicedenied #thingstheydontteachyou #hiddenhistory

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE COURAGEOUS, MS. LENA BAKER!!! *The state of Georgia killed you for being black and defending yourself but had he killed you, he wouldn't have been charged with any crime. We will remember you...ALWAYS!* Lena Baker was an African American maid who was executed for murder by the State of Georgia in 1945 for killing her employer, Ernest Knight, in 1944. At her trial she said that he had imprisoned and threatened to shoot her should she try to leave. She took his gun and shot him. Baker was the only woman to be executed by electrocution in Georgia. In 2005 Baker was granted a full and unconditional pardon by the State of Georgia, 60 years after her execution. The movie The Lena Baker Story (2008) is about her life. In 1944, Baker started working for Ernest Knight, who had broken his leg. He owned a gristmill and held her there for days at a time against her will. One night they had an argument in which he threatened her with an iron bar. She tried to escape and shot and killed him. She immediately reported the incident and said she had struggled in self-defense. TRIAL & EXECUTION: Lena Baker was charged with capital murder and stood trial on August 14, 1944, presided over by Judge William "Two Gun" Worrill, who kept a pair of pistols on his judicial bench in plain view. The all-white male jury convicted her by the end of the afternoon. Because blacks had been disfranchised since the turn of the century in the South and could not vote, they were disqualified from jury service. After filing an appeal in the case, her court-appointed counsel, W.L. Ferguson, dropped Baker as a client. Governor Ellis Arnall granted Lena a 60-day reprieve so that the Board of Pardons and Parole could review the case, but it denied clemency in January 1945. Baker was transferred to Reidsville State Prison on February 23, 1945. #lenabaker #thelensbakerstory #blackhidstory #justicedenied #thingstheydontteachyou #hiddenhistory