Which writer was African-American, Patrick White or Ernest J. Gaines?
Ernest J. Gaines Ernest James Gaines (born January 15, 1933) is an African-American author whose works have been taught in college classrooms and translated into many languages, including French, Spanish, German, Russian and Chinese. Four of his works have been made into television movies.
Walter Irvin Walter Lee Irvin was born in Lake County, Florida. He served in the United States Army during World War II. In 1949, he and three other black men (Ernest Thomas, Charles Greenlee, and Samuel Shepherd) were accused of raping a young white woman named Norma Padgett in Groveland, Florida. Newspapers called them the Groveland Four or the Groveland Boys. He was tried twice, the second time after the United States Supreme Court ordered a retrial. He was convicted both times and sentenced to death. In 1955, Florida Governor LeRoy Collins commuted his sentence to life, as he was not convinced of Irvin's guilt. In 1968 he was paroled from prison.