{"id":284274,"date":"2026-05-26T01:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T01:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/284274\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T01:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T01:30:09","slug":"florida-legislature-approves-4m-for-groveland-four-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/284274\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida legislature approves $4M for Groveland Four families"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Lawmakers in Florida have approved a measure to provide compensation for the descendants of the Groveland Four.<\/p>\n

The Groveland Four were four Black men, Samuel Shepherd, Walter Irvin, Charles Greenlee, and Ernest Thomas, who were falsely accused in a 1949 rape case in Lake County.<\/p>\n

All four men were later posthumously pardoned by the State of Florida in 2019 after decades of legal challenges and calls for justice.<\/p>\n

Under the legislation, a total of $4 million would be set aside and divided equally among their surviving families and estates. Each family would receive a portion of the state funds as a form of financial recognition tied to the case.<\/p>\n

The proposal is part of CS\/CS\/SB 694, which would take effect if signed into law by the governor as part of the state budget process.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n

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TOP STORIES FROM WFTV CHANNEL 9<\/p>\n

\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Lawmakers in Florida have approved a measure to provide compensation for the descendants of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[147,145,7775,13943,28,30,25808,29,113444,139,120749,144,146],"class_list":["post-284274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-central-florida","tag-channel-9","tag-compensation","tag-descendants","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-lawmakers","tag-florida-news","tag-groveland-four","tag-orlando","tag-samuel-shepherd","tag-wftv","tag-wftv-channel-9"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}