During the course of his long acting career in film, theater, and television, Henry Fonda (1905-1982) played in a full range of stories from romantic comedies to dramas to westerns. Of these, he was at his best portraying everyday men who witnessed or were directly involved in events that reflected social or legal injustice often stemming from hasty and often prejudicial rushes to judgment.
Fonda Is Witness to a Lynching
On a Friday in late September of 1919, a black itinerant worker was arrested by Omaha police, accused of raping a white woman, and placed in the Douglas County Courthouse jail. The following Sunday afternoon, 14-year-old Henry Fonda accompanied his father to the family’s printing business near the courthouse.
From a window the two watched as a mob of several thousand gathered, attacked the courthouse, dragged the accused man from the building, and brutally hanged him and set his body afire. Years later Fonda in his autobiography, Fonda: My Life, still vividly remembered his reaction to the event:
"It was the most horrendous sight I'd ever seen . . . We locked the [printing] plant, went downstairs, and drove home in silence. My hands were wet and there were tears in my eyes. All I could think of was that young black man dangling at the end of a rope."
That this episode experienced as a teenager would influence the man as a an actor can best be seen specifically in three of the many Fonda movies in which he portrayed a man torn between being a party to injustice and his innate belief in fairness.
John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
.As soon as it was announced that John Steinbeck’s bestselling novel was to be made into a movie, Fonda fought hard for the part of Tom Joad, an ex-convict, whose family is forced to leave its farm in Depression-era Oklahoma due to a combination of the Dust Bowl, and unscrupulous bankers. Given the opportunity, Fonda turned in a memorable performance.
As the Joad family and its neighbors make the trek to California and find themselves more unwelcome at each stop, Tom transforms from a non-participant in the events around him into a fighter for the rights of the “Oakies” and other unfortunates. Fonda masterfully shows this conversion not by making his character belligerent and violent, but by playing him as a man of gradually developing quiet determination.
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
Fonda and director William Wellman joined forces to make this film version of Walter Van Tilburg Clark’s novel. The result was a movie which nearly mirrors Fonda’s Omaha experience.
In the movie, two cowboy drifters, Gil Carter (Fonda) and Art Croft, join a non-deputized and whiskey-fed posse in pursuit of a gang that has allegedly murdered a rancher and stolen his cattle. After coming upon three strangers and questioning them, circumstantial evidence indicates that they are the perpetrators and after holding a kangaroo court the men are found guilty.
Seven of the "posse", including Gil and Art, argue the illegality of the trial and Gil tries to stop the proceedings physically. However, they are greatly outnumbered and, in part, fearful of their own lives at the hands of the enraged mob, back off. The accused trio are hanged while the seven look on helplessly.
Later, after learning that the real criminals have been caught, the now remorseful mob returns to town to await their fates. In the concluding scene, Gil reads a letter one of the victims was allowed to write to his wife. The letter, which Gil has promised to deliver, speaks of the need for law in a civilized society. Fonda’s low key and heartfelt reading of it is made even more poignant by the subtle hint that Carter feels equally guilty because he did not do more to prevent the tragedy.
12 Angry Men (1957)
Fonda felt so strongly about this movie and its story that it is the only film that he helped produce. It is also one of the best courtroom dramas ever made.
A young Puerto Rican boy is accused of murder and after convening for deliberations the jury, except for one, quickly votes guilty. The one voting not guilty is Juror #8 (Fonda) who does not necessarily believe that the boy is innocent, but believes that more time should be given to weighing the evidence before rendering a life or death verdict.
As the movie progresses, it is obvious that there are many factors involved in the jury’s hasty vote – racial prejudice, personal relationships, a desire to move on to more “important matters,” and, yes, even the heartfelt belief that the boy is guilty. Refusing to budge, Juror #8 points out weaknesses in the evidence and slowly is able to convince the others of his arguments.
The movie’s themes of discrimination, the difficulty of selecting a truly impartial jury, and personal relationships are as relevant today as they were over fifty years ago. And perhaps even more relevant is the question: What should determine reasonable doubt in deciding the guilt or innocence of a defendant? The movie’s many viewers still debate that question.
Conclusion
Based on his these movies and other “social conscience” works such as Young Mr. Lincoln (1939); Alfred Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man (1956); the one man play, Clarence Darrow (1974); and Gideon’s Trumpet (1980), there is no doubt that Omaha’s Courthouse Riot had a profound effect on Henry Fonda.
Sources
- Henry Fonda and Howard Teichmann, Fonda: My Life (Dutton, 1981)
- Ray Hagen, “Henry Fonda in His Own Words.” Films of the Golden Age, Winter 2010-11
John K. Davis - John is a retired teacher/librarian and has also been doing freelance writing since the late 1970s. Over this period of time, he has had ...
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