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[Introduction To] Long Gone: The Mecklenburg Six And The Theme Of Escape In Black Folklore, Daryl Cumber Dance

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Magnitude of the Death Row escape on May 31, 1984 of six condemned men (Linwood Briley, James Briley, Earl Clanton, Jr., Willie Leroy Jones, Derick Lynn Peterson, and Lem Tuggle) incarcerated in the Mecklenburg Correction Center in Boydton, Virginia is chronicled.

The terror it inspired in Virginia and up and down the East Coast, and even into Canada, evoked memories of the numerous exploits of fugitives and out-laws on the run in Black folktales, Black toasts, Black music, and Black literature.