Robert “Bobby” Hall was an African American mechanic and World War II veteran who was killed by Baker County, Georgia Sheriff Claude M. Screws on January 29, 1943. Hall’s murder was an early inspiration for the Black Lives Matter Movement that emerged in the early 21st Century. Following the killing of Hall, the case would go to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1945 under the name Screws v. United States.
Much of Hall’s earlier life is unknown. At the time of his death, he was a World War II veteran and was working as a mechanic in Baker County, Georgia. Hall owned a .38 semiautomatic pistol which he acquired while overseas during World War II. County Sheriff Screws knew about the pistol and harassed Hall over it. Screws did not believe African Americans should own firearms and sent deputy Frank Edward Jones to seize the weapon.
When Baker County deputies seized Hall’s pistol, his father, Will Hall, contacted a local white attorney, Robert Culpepper Jr., for assistance in returning the firearm. On January 29, 1943, Screws received a letter from Culpepper demanding that Hall, who was not charged with any crime, have his property returned. The same day, Screws produced a forged arrest warrant alleging that Hall had stolen a tire. Hall was subsequently arrested by deputies Jones and Jim Bob Kelly who were sent by Screws to his home. After arresting Hall, the deputies returned to the Baker County Courthouse where Screws, Jones, and Kelly then beat Hall for thirty minutes, leaving him unconscious. They then sent his body to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
On February 20, 1943, two Atlanta-based FBI agents, Marcus B. Calhoun and William H. Crawford, went to Baker County, Georgia, where they took statements from Screws, Jones, and Kelley. Screws admitted to them that he beat Hall to death but claimed he did it in self-defense after Hall who was handcuff at the time, had tried to attack him with a shotgun.
The local U.S. attorney convened a grand jury which indicted Screws, as well as Kelly and Jones, on charges of violating Hall’s civil rights. All three men were convicted at the federal courthouse in Albany, Georgia. An all-White jury sentenced each of the three men to three years in federal prison and fined them $1,000. While the conviction was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, it was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case was argued on October 20, 1944, and decided on May 7, 1945. The decision, authored by associate justice of the Supreme Court William O. Douglas, ruled that the federal government had not shown that Screws and his deputies had not intended to violate Hall’s civil rights when they killed him. The conviction was set aside.
Claude Screws would continue his career as sheriff until he retired in 1957. He would go on to serve as state senator of Baker County in the Georgia Legislature between 1958 and 1959. Screws died on February 12, 1965.
