1950s - The case of Ruby McCollum became national news

White townspeople would say that McCollum was trying to dodge a medical bill, but McCollum would claim that she’d been sexually victimized by the doctor for years, and forced to bear his child. The murder and the national attention garnered by the subsequent trial brought to light the open secret of rape in the South, and dredged up many other issues the town of Live Oak had long kept buried.