Frederick "Fred" Croft, Sr. was born in Gadsden, Alabama to Thomas Calvin Croft, Sr. and Minnie Jackson. When he was about 15 years old (circa 1935), while he was away at work, a young white girl in Gadsden was pushed off her porch by a boy. Her father and his friends, were immediately convinced Fred did it, even though the girl said repeatedly that it was not Fred. Her father and his mob of racist. white men showed up at the Fred's door. Fred's father told them he was not home, but they said in a terrorizing tone that they would "be back tonight". Knowing the men intended to lynch Fred when they returned - as they had another black Gadsen man, Bunk Richardson, in 1906 - after the mob left, Mr. Croft sent his 10 year old son, Thomas Clifton "T.C." Croft, Jr. downtown to Fred's workplace to tell him to to flee for his life and not come back. Fred fled to Chattanooga, TN in the middle of the night. According to city directories, it appears the family eventually joined him there for a time. There Fred survived a near lynching, and finished growing up safely, eventually serving in WWII and moving to New York City.

Fred's story was told by his niece, Vanessa Croft, in the excellent Guardian video "Pain and terror: America remembers its past" about the National Memorial for Peace and Justice - a museum and memorial to the victims of slavery and lynching in Montgomery, Alabama.:

Pain and terror: America remembers its past
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg1HvexuNKM

The Near Lynching of Fred Croft
https://eji.org/news/near-lynching-of-fred-croft-alabama/

Remembering Fred Crof‪t‬
[Interview with niece, Vanessa Croft]
Lynching In America Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/remembering-fred-croft/id1244297911?i=1000386098412

The sadism of white men: Why America must atone for its lynchings
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/26/lynchings-sadism-white-men-why-america-must-atone

In the 1940 Census he was living in Chattanooga, TN with his wife, Ruby (LNU), and brother, Edward ("Eddie"). He registered for the draft in Chattanooga in 1940 - his WWII Draft card listed his p.o.b. as Gadsden, AL and his employer as "Read House" in Chattanooga (where the '40 Census listed him as a bell hop and his wife, Ruby, as a servant). According to his Dept. of Veterans Affairs BIRLS File his enlistment date was 29 Jul 1943 and discharge date was 31 Jan 1945. At some point after the War, he and his wife moved to Manhattan, NY, where he lived until his death in 1977.

He served in the Pacific aboard the Destroyer Escort USS Loeser (DE 680) as a STMc1 (Stewards Mate 1st Class). The USS Loeser docked several times at Pearl Harbor (according to Wikipedia), where his brother Thomas Clifton "T.C." Croft, Jr., was stationed. According to T.C., Jr's daughter (ie: Fred's niece) Vannessa Croft, in the EJI's Lynching In America Podcast episode, "Remembering Fred Crof‪t‬," it was there that her father finally had his first reunion with Fred, since Fred fled the lynch mob in Gadsden in 1935. She also recounts that her grandfather, T.C. Croft, Sr. had sent her, then 10 year old father, to Fred's workplace in downtown Gadsden, to warn him to flee from Gadsden and not come back. All her life she had never met her uncle Fred, and called him, "New York Fred," because after he fled Gadsden, he never returned - even to visit.

USS Loeser, Destroyer Escort (DE 680)
http://www.navsource.org/archives/06/680.htm The USS Loeser

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I've not been able to find an obituary for him, his wife, Ruby or his father, Thomas Calvin Croft, Sr. If anyone knows where his wife and father are interred, please contact me and I will be happy to make them memorials and connect them. Thanks in advance! :)

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Thank You For Your Service! Rest in Peace....

Black Lives Matter

Researched & Written by Linda (contributor: 48291572)