Rosalee McGee

Rosalee McGee, born Rosetta Saffold, presented herself as the wife of Willie McGee who was executed following his controversial conviction for the rape of a white woman. She represented herself as his wife and the mother of their children, a falsehood that was uncovered after the execution of Willie McGee. During the appellate process, Rosetta falsely accused McGee's accuser, Willette Hawkins, of raping McGee by forcing him into a sexual relationship. She married at the age of twenty-two to a Lexington man named George Gilmore Jr. on December 13, 1941. The speeches started in June 1950 at a peace rally in Madison Square Garden, and resonated with black southerners who related to Willie’s story of injustice in the hands of white supremacy.

During the trial, where Saffold continued to represent herself as McGee's wife, she presented a sworn affidavit against Mrs. Hawkins in which she stated that Willie and Mrs. Hawkins engaged in a consensual extramarital affair. In her statement, Saffold supported Willie’s allegation that Mrs. Hawkins had relentlessly pursued him and detailed Mrs. Hawkins’s frequent inappropriate pursuits of Willie, including how she once accosted them both on the streets of Laurel. Saffold also alleged that her association with Willie made it difficult for her to get a job, a condition she described in a 1950 letter to Gordon: "Soon as the Lady found out I was willie wife she didn't wont me to get of to go see him." Saffold also took part in the committee that initiated the Sojourners for Truth and Justice, a civil rights organization formed specifically to support the advancement of black women.

Uncovering the falsehood While meeting with Willie McGee’s grandchildren in an effort to learn more about the case, the author Alexander Heard was shown photographs of a light-skinned black woman, whom the relatives informed him was their grandmother, or the mother of Willie’s children. and Richards included the figure of Rosalee McGee in her poem A Black Woman Speaks.