Married to the Law

Summary

Summary of "Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O’Brien"
Episode: "Married to the Law"
Release Date: April 30, 2025

Introduction

In the episode titled "Married to the Law" from the podcast series Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O’Brien, host Soledad O’Brien delves deep into one of America's most enigmatic unsolved mysteries—the 1964 murder of Mary Pinchot Meyer. Central to this narrative are two remarkable women from divergent backgrounds: Mary, a prominent member of Washington D.C.'s elite, and Dovey Roundtree, a trailblazing African American civil rights lawyer who defends the accused, Ray Crump. This episode intertwines crime, culture, and the enduring impact of racial dynamics in the 1960s, providing insights that resonate with today's socio-political climate.

Background: The Murder of Mary Pinchot Meyer

On a fateful day in October 1964, Mary Pinchot Meyer was tragically murdered during her daily walk along the towpath in Georgetown, Washington D.C. The murder occurred in broad daylight, shocking the local community and the nation. Mary was a wealthy, white woman entrenched in the upper echelons of Washington society, known for her connections to powerful figures, including President John F. Kennedy.

The Accused: Ray Crump

Ray Crump, a 25-year-old African American man from one of Washington's poorest neighborhoods, was swiftly accused of Mary's murder. His background was starkly different from Mary's, highlighting the racial and socio-economic disparities of the era. Crump's arrest came amidst a charged racial atmosphere, where the likelihood of a fair trial for a black man accused of harming a white woman was bleak.

The Defense: Attorney Dovey Roundtree

Ray Crump's defense was undertaken by Dovey Roundtree, a pioneering African American female lawyer. Roundtree's decision to defend Crump was as much personal as it was professional. Raised in a segregated South, Roundtree had firsthand experience with the systemic racism and sexism that plagued African American communities. Her motivation to take on Crump's case stemmed from her belief in his innocence and a profound sense of justice shaped by her own life's adversities.

Dovey Roundtree (05:34): "She's constantly litigating because she's incredibly talented."

Period & Context:
Roundtree's upbringing under the oppressive shadow of the Ku Klux Klan in Charlotte, North Carolina, instilled in her a relentless drive to fight against injustice. Her grandmother, Rachel, who had survived brutal racial violence, was a significant influence, teaching her resilience and the importance of standing up for the defenseless.

Legal Battle: Overcoming Systemic Barriers

Taking on Ray Crump's case was fraught with challenges. The legal system in the 1960s was heavily biased against African Americans, especially black men accused of crimes against white individuals. Roundtree faced not only the task of dismantling the prosecution's case but also combating the pervasive racial stereotypes that painted black men as inherently predatory.

Dr. Marcia Chatelain, a professor of African American history at Georgetown University, provides valuable context on the racial prejudices that influenced both public perception and legal proceedings.

Dr. Marcia Chatelain (04:21): "The stereotypes of black men, you know, being predatory towards white women has a long history in the post Civil War era."

Roundtree's approach to the case was meticulous and innovative. She and her law partners, George Knox and Jerry Hunter, conducted thorough investigations, including reenacting the crime scene to test the credibility of eyewitness testimonies. Their efforts demonstrated not only legal acumen but also a commitment to uncovering the truth despite overwhelming odds.

Key Evidence and Trial Proceedings

A pivotal aspect of the trial was the eyewitness testimony of Henry Wiggins, who claimed to have seen Ray Crump at the scene of the crime. Roundtree's investigation, however, revealed significant inconsistencies in Wiggins' account. By physically retracing the steps taken on the towpath and simulating gunshots, Roundtree and her team demonstrated that Wiggins' ability to hear the gunshots from his claimed distance was highly questionable.

Soledad O'Brien (42:52): "Dr. Marcia Chatelain: That really sounded like a gun."

Despite these compelling defenses, the trial proceeded with a rapid pace, bypassing typical preliminary hearings and other standard legal protocols, suggesting a possible desire to swiftly close the case and alleviate public unease.

Cultural and Social Impact

The trial of Ray Crump became a mirror reflecting the deep-seated racial tensions of the time. It highlighted the systemic injustices faced by African Americans in the legal system and society at large. Roundtree's defense of Crump was not just a legal battle but a statement against the pervasive racial inequalities.

Dr. Marcia Chatelain (04:33): "The stereotypes of black men... just shows how deeply poisoned the nation's consciousness was around these stereotypes."

Dovey Roundtree's Legacy and Motivations

Roundtree's unwavering commitment to justice was deeply rooted in her personal history. Her experiences with racial violence and discrimination fueled her determination to defend those who, like Ray Crump, were marginalized and wrongfully accused. Her ability to "pass it on"—a principle instilled in her by her grandmother—led her to mentor future generations of lawyers committed to civil rights.

Dovey Roundtree (35:17): "And so she felt it an honor and a duty to do the same."

Conclusion

"Married to the Law" is a profound exploration of race, justice, and resilience in 1960s America. Through the lens of Mary Pinchot Meyer's unsolved murder and Dovey Roundtree's steadfast defense of Ray Crump, Soledad O’Brien sheds light on the complexities of the American legal system and the enduring struggle against racial stereotypes. This episode not only revisits a historical mystery but also underscores the importance of dedicated individuals who fight against systemic injustices, leaving a lasting impact on both the legal landscape and societal perceptions.

Notable Quotes

• Dr. Marcia Chatelain (04:21):
  "The stereotypes of black men, you know, being predatory towards white women has a long history in the post Civil War era."

• Dovey Roundtree (05:34):
  "She's constantly litigating because she's incredibly talented."

• Dovey Roundtree (35:17):
  "And so she felt it an honor and a duty to do the same."

• Soledad O'Brien (42:52):
  "Dr. Marcia Chatelain: That really sounded like a gun."

This episode not only narrates a gripping true-crime story but also serves as a poignant commentary on the racial dynamics that have shaped American society. Through meticulous research and compelling storytelling, Soledad O’Brien provides listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the factors that made the "Murder on the Towpath" a case that transcended the courtroom and echoed through the annals of civil rights history.

Transcript

[Chiquis Rivera]

Hey, what's up guys? This is Chiquis from the Cheekies and Chill podcast. And you know, I was thinking buying a home used to be a huge headache. You had to go to a bunch of different places for listings, for pre approval, for financing. It was exhausting and confusing. But now Rocket is putting everything you need in one place. Rocket.com, a single seamless homeownership platform to help you find, buy, sell, finance, even refinance your home. There's only one destination that has everything you need all under one roof. Every home at one address. Rocket.com, the new home for all things home ownership. We Latinos love to talk, but one thing we don't talk enough about Colon cancer. Hi, it's Chiquis. And for me, nothing is off limits, especially when colon cancer is the third leading cause of cancer related deaths in our community. But here's the good news. When caught early, it's more treatable in 90% of cases. So let's talk about it and do something about it. Ask your doctor if Cologuard is right for you. You can learn [e-mail] Prueva or 1-844-870-8870. The Cologuard test is intended to screen adults 45 and older at average risk of colorectal cancer. Do not use a Cologuard test if you have had adenomas, have inflammatory bowel disease and certain hereditary syndromes, or a personal or family history of colorectal cancer. The Cologuard test is not a replacement for colonoscopy in high risk patients. Cologuard test performance in adults ages 45 to 49 is estimated based on a large clinical study of patients 50 and older. False positives and false negatives can occur Prescription only.

[Unknown Speaker]

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Tucson is a city that stays with you. The food here isn't just a meal, it's a legacy. And whether it's the kick of a chiltepin, which is a very hot pepper. For those of you who don't know or enjoying a Sonoran Hot after a night out on the town, every dish has a story to tell. And beyond the culinary journey, each neighborhood offers a glimpse into a rich tapestry of cultures blending into the Sonoran Desert. Tucson isn't just a getaway. It's a journey into heritage and a community that feels like home. Learn [e-mail] Viva Emmett Till was visiting.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Mississippi when he and his cousins decided to go to a grocery store. Emmett was all of 14, a black boy hanging out with other children. A white woman would later say Emmett had whistled at her. She also claimed he'd touched her. More than 60 years later, she would recant her testimony. Emmett's body was found floating in a river. The woman's husband and brother in law kidnapped and brutally murdered him. His body was so mangled, his own mother could barely identify him. You probably heard this story before, but I'm telling it to you again because this was the racial landscape of 1960s America, the world Ray Crump was living in when he was arrested for the murder of Mary Pinchot Meyer. So if you think about it, things could have gone way worse for Ray.

[Dr. Marcia Chatelain]

For some, the fact that this actually was able to go to trial instead of ending in terms of violence, like a white mob attacking him or attacking other African Americans, some people saw that as a triumph.

[Soledad O'Brien]

That's Dr. Marcia Chatelain. She's a professor of African American history at Georgetown University.

[Dr. Marcia Chatelain]

That this was the best case scenario because there wasn't a lynching or there wasn't some act of racial violence in terms of retaliation.

[Soledad O'Brien]

She says Ray's case wasn't litigated in a vacuum. When a black man is arrested for murdering a prominent white woman, it comes with the baggage of our fraught racial history.

[Dr. Marcia Chatelain]

The stereotypes of black men, you know, being predatory towards white women has a long history in the post Civil War era. So at the very moment that African Americans are able to secure some freedom, they are then characterized as violent and out of control. And that just shows how deeply poisoned the nation's consciousness was around these stereotypes.

[Soledad O'Brien]

After his arrest, Ray's mother, Martha, knew her son was in trouble, but she didn't have the money for a lawyer. She was a laundry woman. Every day she commuted to the white part of Washington, D.C. and returned home to the black part, which was one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. On the weekends, she was a regular at Second Baptist Church. Now more than Ever. She needed her prayers answered. And they were at church. She heard about a lawyer whose reputation preceded her. A black woman named Dovey Johnson Rountree.

[Unknown Speaker]

She's constantly litigating because she's incredibly talented.

[Chiquis Rivera]

Dovey Rowntree was a real heroine.

[Dr. Marcia Chatelain]

This is a woman who had to learn how to be fearless and had to be daring at various stages of her life.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Martha wanted Dovey to represent her son. People around D.C. said she was tenacious and clever. But Martha wanted her for more than her legal smarts. She was black. And Ray's mother felt she would be invested in her son's case in a way a white lawyer wouldn't be. Martha was banking on Dovey thinking her child was as good as anyone else's. The thing was, Legal aid had already offered Ray an attorney. A white guy, an experienced guy, for free. But Martha wanted Dovey to take her son's case. So she pleaded with her to defend Ray, save his life. Now, at that time, Dovey and Martha had just the facts about Mary's murder from the papers. A white woman was shot to death. She was prominent part of Washington's elite. It happened on the towpath in Georgetown and a black man was arrested. Martha was sure Ray wasn't the killer. She thought he was too simple, too plain. She babied her 25 year old son like he was still a kid, even though he was actually the oldest of her three boys. If Dovey took on the case, the cards would be stacked against her and the deck was already high. Here was a black female lawyer from the segregated south asking a jury to acquit a black man accused of shooting a white woman in 1964. With an eyewitness who said he saw the whole thing, the task would be monumental. Dovey didn't take the case at first, but she would, because Martha's hope was true. Dovey did think Ray was as good as any other man. His black skin didn't make him inferior. Her grandma Rachel's experiences had taught her that. From Luminary Film, Nation Entertainment and Neon Hum Media, this is Murder on the Towpath. A story of two incredible women who never met, but whose lives became forever intertwined by tragedy. I'm your host, Soledad O'Brien. Last week we started to tell you about an affair. Mary Pinchot, Meyer and jfk. But before we get to that, we need to dig into the life of the woman who would defend Mary's accused murderer. A woman who had no idea about Mary's connections to the President and wouldn't for Years. In fact, at that time, very few people outside of Mary's inner circle knew about the affair. When Ray was tried, it was the case of a black man who had killed a white woman. By the time of Mary's murder, Dovey was 50 years old. She had her own law practice with a colleague. She had accomplished so much in a half century, even though she wasn't allowed to drink from the same water fountain as white folks. She'd won some high profile legal cases, including a bus segregation case that laid the foundation for Rosa Parks. How had a black woman in the segregated south gotten this far in 1964? Her story is even more unlikely than it seems. Dovey was born in 1914. After her father passed away, Dovey's mother and two sisters moved in with her grandparents in Charlotte, North Carolina.

[Charlene Pritchett Stevenson]

She was raised by her grandmother.

[Soledad O'Brien]

That's Dovey's daughter, Charlene Pritchett Stevenson. She and Dovey met at church, but they grew so close that Dovey would eventually call Charlene her chosen daughter.

[Charlene Pritchett Stevenson]

Her father died when she was young, very young, and so her grandmother raised them.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Her father died in the influenza epidemic of 1919. She was just five years old. They lived in Brooklyn, a neighborhood in Charlotte that was the thriving center of black life there. It was almost a city within a city, complete with its own downtown. Dovey's family was poor, but some of her neighbors had money. It wasn't uncommon to find shotgun houses next to mansions.

[Charlene Pritchett Stevenson]

They struggled financially even if you didn't have. They always came up with a better way of doing something. And, you know, even though you may have been poor, it was the love that pushed them forward. It was the love and the nurture and the security. It was safety in that house. It was that bond that family had that they prayed together. They believed in the scriptures and what they were taught from the Sunday school and from church. So they were. To me, they were rich.

[Soledad O'Brien]

But in the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan haunted Charlotte. As a kid, Dovey remembered them riding through the neighborhood, keeping the hate, not the peace. Her grandma Rachel would tell the children to get down on the floor. Dubby would shutter the windows before she hopped under. Her grandmother had reason to be terrified. The Klan had murdered her first husband. Dovey's grandfather. Rachel said goodbye to him one day as he was heading north. He never returned. So when the Klan came around, black people like Dovey took cover.

[Unknown Speaker]

She experienced white supremacy firsthand as a child.

[Soledad O'Brien]

That's historian Alexis Ko.

[Unknown Speaker]

You know, if you think about some of your formative memories, of fear. It's really something to consider the clan being one of them.

[Soledad O'Brien]

But Dovey had one distinct advantage in life. Her grandmother, Rachel.

[Dovey Johnson Rountree]

Well, the first thing I'm going to say about her is she was brilliant.

[Soledad O'Brien]

That's Dovey Rountree herself. She died in 2018 at the ripe age of 104. But about a decade before her passing, she sat down for an interview with an organization called the national visionary leadership project. She lit up when she talked about her grandma.

[Dovey Johnson Rountree]

She was smart. She was very smart, very brilliant mind, and she understood things. But she was a very beautiful woman. She was small, had long curly hair, beautiful skin, almost olive skin. She was beautiful.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Dovey talked about her grandmother as if she walked on water, like she was superhuman. When you're a kid, that's how many of us see our parents and grandparents. I know I do.

[Charlene Pritchett Stevenson]

She loved her grandmother. Her grandmother was very strict, but she showed her her love for the lord. And she was a very independent woman. She wanted her to reach her full potential.

[Soledad O'Brien]

As a girl. Dovey didn't know how the outside world saw Rachel, how society treated poor, uneducated black women like her. But Rachel was determined to make a good life for her family.

[Dovey Johnson Rountree]

She could squeeze a dollar till it turned the ten. And I don't care what your needs were, that dollar was going to become a ten dollar bill. And then she'd go to the market and she would get it changed in and bring back a $10 bill for.

[Soledad O'Brien]

You to see if you were poor and black at the time, you had to be resourceful.

[Charlene Pritchett Stevenson]

Grandma Rachel would make lye soap and just taught her different things about survival.

[Soledad O'Brien]

It was a skill Rachel was determined to pass on to Dovey. She was arming her grandchildren for battle because Rachel knew how hard it was out there. She had lived it. You see, Rachel was born to slaves. She grew up when slavery was abolished, but the structures were still in place. The farm where she lived, she had to call the owner slave master. And when she was 13, that man tried to rape her.

[Dovey Johnson Rountree]

He was trying to attack her and he just tore her clothes off her.

[Soledad O'Brien]

And she fought him, but he wouldn't relent. The man stomped on her feet and crushed them.

[Dovey Johnson Rountree]

But he beat her one of the scars on her leg until she took to her grave.

[Soledad O'Brien]

When she returned home, Rachel's mother wrapped her bloody feet in bandages, but her feet would never recover.

[Dovey Johnson Rountree]

Her feet were just big, just swollen. And she didn't get treatment, you know. Well, I guess there was no treatment for that.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Rachel eventually learned to walk again, but her feet would never be the same. Here's Charlene again.

[Charlene Pritchett Stevenson]

The foot was very bad and it never healed and she kind of walked with a limp from then on.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Her swollen feet reminded her every day how that man thought he had a right to her. But she never wanted to forget how discrimination had shaped her, misshaped her, really, and she felt obligated to pass that resolve onto her children and grandchildren.

[Charlene Pritchett Stevenson]

Grandma didn't show any fear, so I think to me that was instilled in her. Even though we do have fears, we struggle with things.

[Soledad O'Brien]

She told them the story about her feet not once, but regularly. It was one of their family lores, which, if you think about it, is a pretty traumatic story to tell such young girls. But for Rachel, it was probably her way of preparing them for the world. And for Dovey, it gave me the.

[Dovey Johnson Rountree]

Opportunity to get mad, if you can comprehend that. I wanted to do something. And I like to think in my legal career I did do something. The right injustice.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Sometimes pain is a catalyst.

[Chiquis Rivera]

Hey, what's up guys? This is Chiquis from the Cheekies and Chill podcast. And you know, I was thinking buying a home used to be a huge headache. You had to go to a bunch of different places for listings, for pre approval, for financing. It was exhausting and confusing. But now Rocket is putting everything you need in one place. Rocket.com a single seamless homeownership platform to help you find, buy, sell, finance, even refinance your home. You'll find smarter tools, personalized dashboards, real time insights and more. All the things you need to make the kind of informed decisions that can make a big difference for you and your family. So whether you're buying your first home, managing home ownership tasks, or unlocking equity for future opportunities, there's only one destination that has everything you need all under one roof. Every home at one address. Rocket.com, the new home for all things home ownership. Whether you're buying or refinancing, you have to just give a look because it is all there.

[Unknown Speaker]

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[Wilmer Valderrama]

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[Soledad O'Brien]

Before Dovey met Ray Crump, she wasn't sure she'd take on the case. She was skeptical, which is understandable. Dovey was a lawyer Being critical was her way. But everything changed when she met ray in the D.C. jail.

[Dovey Johnson Rountree]

He couldn't give you a straight sentence.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Talking about Ray is complicated. He's not alive to share his own story. From everything we've read about him, it seems like Ray's intellectual capacity wasn't fully there. Dovey was no doctor, but that was her assessment. It sounds like if Ray were alive today, he might have been considered intellectually disabled. That said, Dovey thought that there was no way he could have plotted a murder. Here's historian Alexis Koh again.

[Unknown Speaker]

You know, she believed him that he didn't do it, because I think she realized that this was an innocent man who, if she didn't do something to help him, would most certainly go to jail.

[Soledad O'Brien]

In her memoir, Dovey vividly recounts her conversation with Ray. She told him that his mother approached her and that his family and friends at Second Baptist Church were praying for him. But that day in jail, Ray was somewhere else. He wasn't responding to Dovey at all. It was like he was simultaneously there and gone. Finally, Ray spoke up. Lawyer, what is it they say I done? She grasped his hands and wrapped them in hers. He was being charged with first degree murder. It wasn't clear if he got just how dire his situation was. Ray was disoriented and physically shaking. All he wanted to know was if the police were coming after him again. He said the police officer who brought him to jail had beat him, and when he claimed innocence, he was beaten again. Dovey was horrified. It didn't matter how many times she experienced the wrath of Jim Crow, she never let herself become numb to it. Dovey asked Ray point blank, did you kill that woman? Ray cried. And then he responded, I didn't shoot nobody. Dovey took him at his word. She took the case for a simple fee of $1. If he didn't do it, why did Ray tell the police he was fishing when they found him at the crime scene? Later, the police found his fishing gear in his home, not by the towpath. Now, on top of a murder charge, the police caught him in a lie. Yes, Ray admitted he lied, but he did it because he was afraid his family would find out what really went on that morning of October 12th, especially his wife. Every day, Ray walked to the corner where he'd get a ride to the day's construction job. But that morning, a woman he knew named Vivian gave him a lift. And they weren't going to a building site. They ended up at a liquor store. They picked up a bag of chips Some cigarettes, a bottle of whiskey, and headed to the canal. The two of them walked to a bank where Ray liked to fish. And then, as Ray told Dovey, some fooling around took place. I don't need to tell you more. You get the picture. After their date, Ray fell asleep on the rocks at the water's edge.

[Unknown Speaker]

And by the time he woke up. He woke up because he slipped into a river. It was cold, the woman was gone, and he tried to just go catch a bus home, but instead, he found himself in deep shit.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Yeah, I'll say. He was down by the towpath that day for a tryst. So relaxed, he'd fallen asleep after they'd fooled around. Now he had woken up a suspect. Suddenly, the police had a lot of questions for him. What was he doing in the area? Why was he wet? That's when Ray got scared and blurted out the fishing story. Now, this was something. If Ray was telling the truth, his lover would confirm the story.

[Unknown Speaker]

At first, Rountree thought, okay, this is an easy case in some ways to win because he's got an alibi. He was with a woman, a woman who wasn't his wife. But they were drinking, they were fooling around, he fell asleep, he slipped into the river, he wakes up, she's gone.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Ray's adultery wouldn't win him the sympathy of jurors, that's for sure. But if his lover was with him when Mary was murdered, then his fling might just be a good thing. All Dovey had to do was find this Vivian woman, which she did. Vivian corroborated everything in a phone call, down to the chips, whiskey, and cigarettes.

[Unknown Speaker]

And, you know, Vivian completely confirmed all these details. And Roundtree thinks Great Ray had an alibi.

[Soledad O'Brien]

There was a hitch, though.

[Unknown Speaker]

She wouldn't appear in court because she was married.

[Soledad O'Brien]

It was the first of many setbacks.

[Unknown Speaker]

And so I think that as the case went on, she kept finding these wonderful leads and these things that would discover, count the evidence that the prosecution had, and then it would all fall apart.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Winning Ray his freedom wasn't going to be easy. But Dovey was used to challenges. She'd spent her life overcoming them, starting with getting her education. Dovey grew up poor. She lost her father, and her grandfather was killed. Eventually, Grandma Rachel remarried, and her husband, Reverend Clyde Graham, was a preacher at one of Charlotte's largest black churches. But it was still hard to make ends meet. Dovey's mother, Lela, and her grandparents did what they could to get by. Lela cleaned the home of a white family named the Hurleys. According to her, they were good, decent white people. If it weren't for the Hurleys, Dovey wouldn't have gone to her dream college, Spellman. That dream started in grade school. Her eighth grade teacher, Ms. Wimbush, told her about a prestigious all women's historically black college and told her to apply. That's how Dovey got it in her head. But the school was in Atlanta, the home of the Ku Klux Klan. There was no way Rachel wanted to send her granddaughter there. And financially, the school was out of reach.

[Dovey Johnson Rountree]

I loved Spelman, although they call it, you know, a rank, a dank university or college because, you know, for people who had money. Well, I didn't have any money. I went on a hope and a prayer.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Higher education was expensive back then, too, not to mention an out of state private school. Tuition plus room and board were eight times the cost of attending a local black college in North Carolina. And for a black family during the Great Depression, almost impossible. But Dovey would end up there. She even wrote about it in her admissions essay to the school, how going to Spelman would be like winning the lottery. The letter comes to us courtesy of the Spelman College archives. She wrote, I have been obsessed with the thought of continuing my education. Every year I have hoped and prayed that my worthy wish would be possible. But money held me back. Alas, I have found the only way to conquer such a difficulty was not in the praying and wishing, but in the rising above the obstacle. I'm going to stop right there because it's in this moment in Dovey's life where we see a pattern emerge. Over the course of her life, Dovey was often faced with the most impossible of hurdles. Then someone would step in and give her a chance. Sometimes those people were black, sometimes white. Dovey was brilliant, but it was the 1930s. Brilliant for a black woman wasn't enough. Sometimes, still not enough. Here's Georgetown professor Dr. Chatelaine.

[Dr. Marcia Chatelain]

Because of the racial and gender discrimination of her day, working hard wasn't enough that she had to rely on the kindness of others. She had to recognize the breaks. She had to do all of these things in order to accomplish her goals.

[Soledad O'Brien]

As luck would have it, the Hurleys, the white family her mother worked for, were moving to Atlanta, the very city where Spelman is. And the Hurleys wanted two live in housemaids. They wanted to help Lela and Dovey, give them jobs and some security. Everything had lined up. Now Dovey wouldn't have to pay room and board at Spelman, mother and daughter would work side by side for two years, save enough money for Spelman's tuition. And then Lela would return home while Dovey kept working for the family. All while Dovey was still in school. The two moved to Atlanta in the fall of 1932, and Dovey enrolled in Spelman two years later. Dovey was in awe. The campus was simultaneously inspiring and humbling. She marveled at the imposing white columns and the magnolia and dogwood trees that sprinkled the campus.

[Dovey Johnson Rountree]

And ultimately I found Spelman was a working school. There were as many people there working as I was working your way through college. A joyous adventure.

[Soledad O'Brien]

It didn't take long for her teachers to notice her.

[Dovey Johnson Rountree]

And I met two people. Ms. May Neptune of Ohio, Ms. Fern Rockefeller. And when you go to Spelman, if you got to meet somebody, meet a Rockefeller.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Ms. May Neptune taught English literature at Spelman. She was 60 years old and 6ft tall. Ms. Neptune had a presence. She wore a tight gray bun and wore thick rimmed glasses. And she could spot a revolutionary woman because she was one herself. Ms. Neptune was a white woman from the north who believed everyone had an equal to education. She made her students think and gave them the space to write honestly about the world. One of the first assignments was to write an essay on democracy. Dovey took a chance and wrote what she really thought about being black in America. She wrote about how democracy had gone wrong, that she wasn't living in the land of the free. Ms. Neptune was white, but Dovey had a hunch she could be frank with. After all, this professor had uprooted her life to teach black women in the south. Ms. Neptune read the paper. She returned Dovey's essay scrawled in red ink. She asked if she would like to write for the campus newspaper. She thought Dovey would be good at it. And that was how the Campus Mirror found their new star reporter.

[Dovey Johnson Rountree]

And it just enlarged. I was into everything.

[Soledad O'Brien]

But things at home took a turn for the worse. Mrs. Hurley seemed to change. Ever since Dovey started school at Spelman, she grew cold and distant. It was as if she thought Dovey had broken a promise. This is how dovey saw it. Mrs. Hurley wanted to make something of her. She didn't expect Dovey would make something of herself. They didn't want an uppity housemaid. Here's Charlene again. She calls Dovey Nana.

[Charlene Pritchett Stevenson]

It seemed like it was a type of jealousy. And when Nana would tell, you know, she was talking about wanting to go to school and she said she kind of made her think that she was high minded to have those aspirations of wanting to go off to school. Why don't you just, you know, do what you're doing, taking care of houses and things of that nature and the children, you know, you're a little color girl. You don't need to be thinking about that. That was the thing that she would tell her.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Dovey was always one small step away from getting into trouble with her employer. One day, Mrs. Hurley accused her of stealing. She said Dovey was a thief. We don't know exactly what set Mrs. Hurley off, but in her memoir, Dovey was adamant she was wrongly accused and there was simply no evidence she stole anything. That didn't stop Mrs. Hurley from marching Dovey straight to the police. Mrs. Hurley didn't need much evidence to get Dovey in trouble. Her word against Dovey would be enough. She was a white stately homeowner and Dovey was just a black 20 year old who served at her pleasure. Suddenly, Dovey was experiencing what happens to black and brown folks even today. Even if you do everything right, it might not matter. Dovey was arrested and taken to the jailhouse.

[Dr. Marcia Chatelain]

For many African American college students, they felt this deep poignancy of being part of this incredible legacy of historically black colleges, but still experiencing segregation. If they went out to a downtown shop to buy a dress or if they had to take a train home to see their parents, they had to sit in a Jim Crow or colored car.

[Soledad O'Brien]

That's Dr. Chatelaine again.

[Dr. Marcia Chatelain]

And they also knew that regardless of how well they did academically or socially, they could always be relegated to second class citizenship.

[Soledad O'Brien]

At the jailhouse, a guard told Dovey she could call someone. Her mother was back in North Carolina. There was only one person in Atlanta she trusted in such a dire situation. Ms. Neptune. By that evening, a white lawyer arrived at the jail for Dovey. Ms. Neptune and Ms. Rockefeller had sent him. He point blank asked Dovey if she'd stolen anything. She said no. The next morning, the police released Dovey. As a black woman, she could have easily stayed locked up for a good while. The police probably didn't believe Dovey, but they believed the white people around her. Dovey's legal troubles may have been behind her, but her financial ones were far from over. Where would she get the money to pay for her housing, for the rest of her tuition to live?

[Charlene Pritchett Stevenson]

She wasn't going to be able to come back because she wasn't financially able.

[Soledad O'Brien]

She would have to leave Spelman, maybe teach, until she could make enough money to pay for all her expenses. She confided in Ms. Neptune that she would have to leave school. Ms. Neptune said to meet her the next morning at Ms. Rockefeller's office. When she arrived, she was told some arrangements had been made. Dovey's college expenses would be covered until her graduation. Ms. Neptune wasn't a woman of means. She was on a modest teacher's salary. But she had gone into her savings to help pay off Dovey's tuition. The loan cost Ms. Neptune. She would be penny pinching for a long while. But she had seen something in Dovey that was undeniable. She gave her protege the money she needed to become the woman who would one day defend Ray crump. Dovey asked Ms. Neptune how she could repay her. Ms. Neptune told her to pass it on. Pass it on became a way of life for Dovey.

[Charlene Pritchett Stevenson]

And that's why she was always talking about paying it forward. She always wanted to give back because people helped her in her life. And so she felt it an honor and a duty to do the same.

[Soledad O'Brien]

She wanted to right the wrongs in the world, to be kind when life wasn't kind to her, and to defend the defenseless like Ray Crump.

[Chiquis Rivera]

What up, guys? This is Cheekies from Cheekies and Chill Podcast. And this goes to all you renters out there. Here's something from Rocket Mortgage you're gonna wanna hear. Now, anyone who has ever rented before knows that feeling you get every month. Your hard earned cash gone. It's like throwing money away. Trust me, I know. Even more frustrating is the knowledge that every dollar you spent on rent is a dollar you could have put toward your future. It can even make you feel like you'll never be able to save enough to afford a home of your own. And that's what makes what Rocket Mortgage is doing here so special. They're helping you put your monthly rent payments towards home ownership. It's called Rent Rewards. And for the first time, you can save up to $5,000 off the cost of your home just by paying rent. Only at Rocket Mortgage. So if this sounds like something that could make a difference in your life, call 804Rocket or visit Rocket.com today to learn more about rent rewards. That's 804Rocket or Rocket.com Rocket Mortgage LLC.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Equal housing lender licensed in all 50 states. NMLS consumeraccess.org 3030 this episode is brought.

[Unknown Speaker]

To you by Huggies Snug and Dry. My little guy is on the move and man, does he keep us both busy. That's why it's so important for me to make sure I found a diaper that is comfy for him during all those wiggles, running around and dancing it out during playtime, all while giving him the protection from leaks throughout the day. For me, Huggies Snug and Dry are luxuriously soft and ultra dry. We parents only want the absolute best for our babies if they have to be in a diaper all day. It may as well be the softest, driest diaper possible. Experience the unexpected softness and up to 100% leak protection of Huggies Snug and Dry diapers. More parents choose the new Huggies Snug n Dry softness versus the leading premium diaper Huggies. We got you baby.

[Wilmer Valderrama]

This is Wilmer Valderrama from the Dos Amigos Podcast. Advocating for our community means talking about things no one wants to talk about, like colon cancer and how to check for it. We might feel embarrassed or uncomfortable, but doing nothing well, that's worse. The reality is colon cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death among Latinos. So calladito no sia bam es buonito. Hi, I'm Wilmer Valderrama and if you're 45 or older and at average risk, there's a simple way to get screened. Color Guard Test no awkward conversations, no time off work. You can use it at home on your schedule and send it back. Talk to your doctor and see if Color Guard Test is right for you. Learn [e-mail] preva or call 1-844-8-708870. The color guard test is intended to screen adults 45 and older at average risk of colorectal cancer. Do not use Color Guard Test if you have had adenomas, have inflammatory bowel disease and certain hereditary syndromes, or a personal or family history of colorectal cancer. The Color Guard Test is not a replacement for a colonoscopy in high risk patients. Color Guard Test performs in adults ages 45 to 49 is estimated based on a large clinical study of patients 50 and older. FALSE positives and false negatives can occur prescription only. Let's take care of our health in our community with the Color Guard Test. Big supporter of the Michael Tula Podcast Network.

[Cindy Crawford]

Hi, I'm Cindy Crawford and I'm the founder of meaningful beauty. When Dr. Sabah and I decided to do a skincare line together, he said to me, we are going to give women meaningful beauty. And I said, that's exactly right. We want to give women meaningful beauty, which means each and every product is meaningful. It has a reason to exist it's efficacious. You're going to get results and then you just go out and live your life. Meaningful beauty. Confidence is beautiful. Learn [e-mail].

[Soledad O'Brien]

After Mary's murder, local residents, well, white Georgetown residents, were scared. One D.C. local named Charles wrote in the paper that the murder was a.

[Dr. Marcia Chatelain]

Grim reminder that our city of Washington is not a safe place from crime day or night. As the senseless slaying of Mary Pinchot Meyer proved.

[Soledad O'Brien]

This was their thinking. If a murder in broad daylight could happen to someone as prominent as Mary, what hope did the rest of them have? The police also had incentive to wrap up this case and put all of this unease to rest. The U.S. attorney exponentially sped up the typical procedures for a criminal case in dc. The grand jury judge indicted Ray solely on the basis of Henry Wiggins eyewitness testimony. Wiggins said he was about 120ft away when he saw Ray. Now, typically, a preliminary hearing happens before a grand jury hearing. Alexis Koh says that's not what happened here. It's clear they wanted to ram through this process fast.

[Unknown Speaker]

There was no preliminary hearing, which is, you know, sort of unheard of. There was no warrant for the clothes they took from him. They cut hair from his head without his lawyer's permission.

[Soledad O'Brien]

This enraged Dovey. It wasn't fair. In the meantime, Ray's mental state was deteriorating by the day. He was in solitary confinement in the D.C. jail. Dovey petitioned the court that Ray wasn't mentally fit to defend himself at trial. But the psychiatrist report said otherwise. He was mentally competent. It was decided their case was going to trial. There was nothing else to do but to prepare herself the best she could. How was she going to prove Ray's innocence? The answer, she thought, lay in the towpath. Dovey and her law partners, George Knox and Jerry Hunter, went to the scene of the crime. Throughout those cold days in November and December of 1964, the three of them retraced Mary's steps on the towpath. I've been there in the winter you can walk the towpath and count exactly how many steps it takes to get from the bridge to Mary's studio. That's exactly what Dovey and her law partners did that day. They walked back and forth from Foundry underpass to Fletcher's boathouse. They role played. One would play Mary, the other her killer. And sometimes one of them would play the role of a jogger who had passed Mary right before her murder. He'll become important later in our story. Dovey and her Law partners even reenacted the gunshots. Instead of using guns, they smashed paper bags to see if Henry. Henry Wiggins would have been able to hear the pops from three quarters of a mile away on Canal Road. We actually tried this ourselves. Our producers, Catherine and Natalie came with me to the towpath in Georgetown today. There's a bike path below the towpath next to the Potomac. It's a similar distance between where Henry would have been and the murder scene. Could people hear the bag popping from that far away?

[Unknown Speaker]

By the way, there's a cyclist down on the path who looked up.

[Dr. Marcia Chatelain]

That really sounded like a gun.

[Unknown Speaker]

That really sounded like a gunshot.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Dovey and her colleagues were getting creative, but they would do anything to give Ray a fighting chance. By the time she reached her 30s, Dovey had already faced injustice. Mrs. Hurley had wrongly accused her of stealing. A farm owner had maimed her grandmother. The Klan had terrorized her family. Hate seemed to be spreading at a global level, too. It was the 1940s. Fascism was a cancer sweeping through Europe, and Dovey was hell bent on stopping it. She joined the army, becoming part of the first class of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in World War II and eventually becoming a captain. But she noticed the hypocrisy. She was fighting for freedom abroad while she lacked those freedoms at home every day. Dovey wasn't one to let all these injustices stand. She wanted to do something about it. That's how she ended up at Howard University School of Law in 1947. She was just one of five women in her class. Not everyone was thrilled that Dovey had arrived. On her first day when she registered for classes, the receptionist asked her if she was registering for her husband or her brother. The message was clear. She didn't belong there.

[Dovey Johnson Rountree]

You ain't married to nobody but the law. I tell a lot of women law students that we took men's places.

[Soledad O'Brien]

And Dovey being Dovey, while she was attending law school, battling racism and sexism, she also had two part time jobs. Eventually, her male classmates couldn't help but notice. She was brilliant. Dovey said. They actually asked to study with her.

[Dovey Johnson Rountree]

I got me a nice little apartment. Everything's going on well. And here they say, roundtree, where you study at? I said, I study in my home. Where you study at. Cause you seem to have a grip on this thing. I said, bring your own sandwiches.

[Soledad O'Brien]

She did have a grip on on the law. Every week, Dovey and about six other students met at her house to study together. Dovey graduated in 1950. It was one of the proudest moments in her life. But even graduation was bittersweet. Yes, she had achieved, but how far had she come given that segregation was still the law of the land? By now, Grandma Rachel was in her 80s. But she wouldn't miss Dovey getting her diploma. Rachel and Lela took the train up from North Carolina to attend the ceremony. Dovey went to Union Station to meet them. As soon as Dovey saw her mom and her grandmother, she knew something was wrong. Grandma Rachel was crying. Trouble had found them. On the train, Dovey reserved seats for her family, but by the time they got there, all of the seats in the black car were taken, packed with families. Luggage was overflowing onto the aisle. Meanwhile, the white seats were half empty. When they went to sit there, the conductor yelled at them. He refused to honor their reserved seats.

[Dovey Johnson Rountree]

So they put him in the back.

[Soledad O'Brien]

They had to go back to the black section of the train and stand for the 10 hour ride.

[Charlene Pritchett Stevenson]

I can't even imagine how it would feel that you're with your children and someone humiliates you in front of them and there is nothing that you can do.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Rachel stood on her mangled feet for the whole trip from North Carolina to Virginia and Maryland. She held onto seat edges and leaned any way she could to give her feet a break. By the time they got to Washington, Grandma Rachel collapsed on the toilet seat in the bathroom. She stayed there until the train pulled into Union Station.

[Dovey Johnson Rountree]

So of course when they got there and Grandma's legs were swollen, Mama was crying. As soon as she saw me, she started these tears. That's the way she worked me, you know. She knew I was gonna fly off, which I did.

[Soledad O'Brien]

They caught a cab back to Dovey's apartment. When they were safely home, Dovey looked at Rachel's feet. They were bloodied and bruised. Dovey called a doctor, but she also called her law partner. This was about more than Rachel's health. This was a matter of the law.

[Charlene Pritchett Stevenson]

And that, I think, is what propelled her really to fight for justice and motivated her to do what she had to do to make change, to bring about a positive change.

[Soledad O'Brien]

To make a difference, the Southern Railway needed to be held accountable.

[Dovey Johnson Rountree]

I decided to file a suit against the Southern Railroad for all I could get.

[Soledad O'Brien]

Several weeks later, just after graduating from law school, Dovey marched into the U.S. district Court for D.C. to file a breach of contract complaint. The railway denied Dovey's mother and grandmother seats when seats were available. It took a year, but eventually the Southern Railway settled with her. Dovey bit her lip and teared up. She cried in front of the defendant's attorney and the judge. Yes, it was a lot of money at the time, but it hurt her to see her mother and grandmother's pain reduced to a monetary value. Fifteen years later, she'd march into that building again to defend Ray. It had been a long time, but the memory of her grandmother's injustice was fresh. This time she wasn't looking for financial compensation. She wanted justice for Ray Crump. Next time on Murder on the Towpath. Dovey was preparing to go to trial to save Ray Crump and continue her life's work of defending the defenseless, of passing it on. But what did Dovey or anyone really know of the woman he was accused of killing? It was obvious. Mary had been well connected in certain D.C. circles. She was related to Ben Bradlee. She walked with Jackie Kennedy. But could those connections have played a role in her death? You know, they would pick up little bits and pieces here and there. And the danger of that kind of a woman in that society for the men is that they're going to blab it. What if Mary's murder wasn't so random after all? From Luminary Murder on the Towpath is a production of Film Nation Entertainment in association with Neon Hum Media. Our executive producers are me, Soledad O'Brien, Alyssa Martino, Milan Papelka and Jonathan Hirsch. Lead producer is Shara Morris. Associate producers are Natalie Ryn and Lucy Licht. Senior editor is Katherine St. Louis. Music and composition by Andrew Epin. Sound design and mixing by Scott Somerville. Fact checking by Laura Bullard. Special thanks to Allison Cohen, Sarah Vacchiano, Rose Arce, Kate Mishkin, Tanner Robbins and Mikayla Cele. Foreign.

[Chiquis Rivera]

As a renter, do you ever feel like you're just throwing your money away? Think you'll never be able to save enough money to buy your own home? Then check out rent rewards from Rocket Mortgage. They're helping you put your monthly rent payments towards home ownership. Now for the first time, you can save up to $5,000 off the cost of your home just by paying rent only at Rocket Mortgage. Learn more today at 804Rocket or visit rocket.com Rocket Mortgage LLC.

[Wilmer Valderrama]

Equal housing lender licensed in all 50 states. Nmlsconsumeraccess.org 3030.

[Chiquis Rivera]

We Latinos love to talk, but one thing we don't talk enough about colon cancer. Hi, it's Chikis and for me nothing is off limits, especially when colon cancer is the third leading cause of cancer related deaths in our community. But here's the good news. When caught early, it's more treatable in 90% of cases. So let's talk about it and do something about it. Ask your doctor if Cologuard is right for you. You can learn [e-mail] or 1-844-870-8870. The Cologuard test is intended to screen adults 45 and older at average risk of colorectal cancer. Do not use a Cologuard test if you have had adenomas, have inflammatory bowel disease and certain hereditary syndromes, or a personal or family history of colorectal cancer. The Cologuard test is not a replacement for colonoscopy in high risk patients. Cologuard test performance in adults ages 45 to 49 is estimated based on a large clinical study of patients 50 and older. False positives and false negatives can occur. Prescription only.

[Unknown Speaker]

This episode is brought to you by Huggies Snug and Dry My little guy is on the move and man, he keeps us busy. Huggies Snug and Dry are luxuriously soft and ultra dry. How soft are we talking? Unbelievably soft? Irresistibly soft? Doesn't your baby deserve a diaper that is oh so gentle on their tushy experience? The unexpected softness and up to 100% leak protection. So snug. So dry. More parents choose the new Huggies Snug and Dry softness versus the leading premium diaper Huggies. We got you, baby.

Tucson is a city that stays with you. The food here isn't just a meal, it's a legacy. And whether it's the kick of a chiltepin, which is a very hot pepper for those of you who don't know enjoying a Sonoran hot dog after a night out on the town, every dish has a story to tell. And beyond the culinary journey, each neighborhood offers a glimpse into a rich tapestry of cultures blending into the Sonoran Desert. Tucson isn't just a getaway, it's a journey into heritage and a community that feels like home. Learn [e-mail] Viva.