— 27 Lethbridge Herald, Alberta, Canada. “Death Desegregates.” 5-27-1963, p. 16.

— 27 National Safety Council. Accident Facts 1970 Edition. Chicago, IL: NSC, 1970. p. 63.

— 27 News Tribune, Fort Pierce, FL. “It’s Too Bad We’ve Waited So Long.” 5-22-1963, p. 4.

— 27 News Tribune, Fort Pierce. “Manslaughter Charged in…Bus Tragedy.” 5-23-1963, p. 3.

— 27 PalmBeachPost.com. Historic Palm Beach County website. “Twenty-seven died…”

— 27 Panama City Herald, FL. “Probes Set in Belle Glade Bus Tragedy.” 5-21-1963, p. 4.

— 27 Panama City Herald, FL. “Road Blamed in Bus Tragedy.” 6-12-1963, p. 7.

— 27 Sunday News Tribune, Fort Pierce, FL. “27 Drown at Pahokee.” 5-19-1963, p. 1.

Narrative Information

PalmBeachPost.com, 2010: “Valesha Woodley of South Carolina wrote to us of her aunt, Ruthie Mae Woodley. On May 18, 1963, Ruthie — then 12 — was one of 42 farm workers jammed into a bus. Minutes later, it was at the bottom of the Hillsboro Canal. Ruthie Mae, who now lives in Georgia, scrambled out. But her mother and two brothers drowned.

“In all, 27 bodies would be pulled from the dark water. It’s believed to still be Florida’s greatest loss of life in one vehicle, greater than the 26 killed in 1980 when a Greyhound bus shot off Tampa Bay’s Sunshine Skyway bridge, sliced by a freighter.

“The 1963 crash brought focus to farm workers, already considered among America’s most vulnerable and exploited.

“About 6 a.m. at Belle Glade’s “Bean Ramp,” 42 bean pickers boarded the Poor Boy Slim’s bus to head down State Road 827, now Brown’s Farm Road. It was just 18 feet wide, with no guardrail. The converted 1946 school bus has 32 passenger seats; no law then said how many could be crammed in. An anxious pickup driver tried to pass. Slim — real name Edgar Lee Anderson — tried to slide right to let the truck through. But as the truck passed, its rear bumper locked with the front of the bus and the joined vehicles slid 32 feet before they broke free.

“The bus tumbled down the shoulder and splashed into the canal, 60 feet wide and 18 feet deep. “Everybody was screaming and hollering on the side of the road,” retired Florida Highway Patrolman George Emerson recalled in 1993.

“About 90 minutes after the crash, a tow truck pulled out the bus, 22 corpses still inside. A boat dragged the canal for the last five. The dead passengers ranged in age from 6 to 65.

“Manslaughter charges against the truck’s driver, dragline foreman James Tulley Sconyers of South Bay, were dismissed, but he was convicted of illegal passing.

“Families of seven victims filed suits but a jury ruled for Sconyers. “Slim” was charged with driving with a suspended license.

“In 1983, Congress passed the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, which increased insurance required for vehicles carrying workers and made both crew leaders and farmers responsible in some cases.” (PalmBeachPost.com. Historic Palm Beach County website. “Twenty-seven died in 1963 bus crash near Belle Glade.” Posted 7-29-2010.)

Newspapers

May 19: “Pahokee, Fla. (AP) – At least 27 men, women and children drowned Saturday when their migrant farm workers’ bus plunged into a rural canal 80 miles north of Miami. Fifteen struggled to safety from Florida’s worst traffic accident in the memory of police officers.

“Divers worked under lights probing the Hillsboro Canal’s murky waters for possible additional victims. The bus driver, who escaped, said he believed 20 to 25 persons were trapped in the vehicle but officials said the toll could not be fixed until the canal bed was thoroughly searched.

“The dead, mostly Negro bean pickers, ranged in age from about 6 to 65 years.

“Belle Glade Police Lt. L. C. Lowery said the bus swerved into the canal after a glancing collision with a light truck which passed it in the same direction.

“Fort Lauderdale News reporter, Larry Wood, who got to the canal just as the bus was being pulled out said: ‘I went aboard the bus. The dead children scattered around were the worst sight. I asked one Negro why the children were on board and one man said, ‘we got no place to keep them’.’ Negro children often accompany their parents to the fields, some work and some just wander around.

“The dead were hauled to the makeshift morgue in the guard room at the National Guard armory at Belle Glade. The bodies were spread out on a large black tarpaulin in one corner while police tried to establish identities….

“Driver of the bus was identified as Edgar Lee Anderson, a Negro.

“All the laborers in the bus reportedly lived in the Pahokee-Belle Glade area, the Highway Patrol said.” (Sunday News Tribune, Fort Pierce, FL. “27 Drown at Pahokee.” 5-19-1963, p. 1.)

May 20: “Belle Glade – About 6 a.m. Saturday the farm workers began drifting into the ‘Bean Ramp,’ some walking in in two’s and threes, some in carloads, a few in trucks. A little before 7, foremen started offering wage prices to the milling bean-pickers. Some went for 70 cents a hamper, some for a little more or less; some went with the most comfortable buses or with friends on a particular bus.

“None who went on Poor Boy Slim’s bus suspected that this Saturday would be any different from any other Saturday.

“The bean season is almost over and not as many trucks pull up to the square now as did a couple of weeks ago. Still, this Sunday morning a trained silence hung over the city-owned square, popularly known as the ‘Bean Ramp.’ Located in the heart of the Negro section of Belle Glade, it is the focal point for labor recruitment by local farmers, their foremen and independent labor crew leaders who bring itinerant laborers there.

“The four-sided block, owned by the City of Belle Glade, was established by city ordinance in 1950. Around its perimeter, the city leases parking space areas to farmers and those aiding them in the supplying of labor. It is in operation from Oct. 1 to June 1 each year and during the harvest season, every morning at 7, the police cruiser, which has been slowly circling the block to prevent arguments and rowdyism, sounds its siren. The vehicles, both trucks and buses, then begin to load the crews which will work that day….

“It is a well-operated recruitment and both pickers and growers are generally well satisfied with its operation. Only on Saturdays do the growers voice any real complaint. On school holidays and Saturdays many of the laborers bring their children out with them, although the growers do not like it, as the children really do little picking, but spend their time playing and running up and down the rows, actually getting in the way and damaging the plants. It was such a group which went out to their date with destiny on Saturday, May 18, 1963.” (Palm Beach Post, FL. “Silence Hangs Over Glades ‘Bean Ramp’.” 5-20-1963, pp. 1-2.)

May 20: “Belle Glade (UPI) — Ernest D. Howell is 15 years old, likes to go barefoot, and sometimes gets too noisy when romping with his brothers and sisters. Today Ernest has to make a decision. Will he live with his Aunt Lucy in Sarasota or his Aunt Lorraine in North Carolina? The decision was forced on him Saturday when he climbed into ‘Poor Boy Slim’s’ labor bus and started home after picking beans all day under the hot sun. The swaying motion of the jam-packed bus soon put him to sleep. The older workers in the bus, content with a day’s labor and looking forward to a Saturday night in town, started singing and swapping jokes. Then Ernest was awakened by the squeal of brakes, the crunch of bumpers grinding together and the shrieking of locked wheels. ‘Next thing I knowed, the bus was in the canal and there was screamin’ stompin’ and pushin’. ‘I got out the window,’ said Ernest, one of the 15 people who managed to climb out of the 1946 bus before it sank to the bottom of the mossy canal which parallels Brown’s Farm road west of here.” (Panama City Herald, FL. “Tragedy Leaves Lad Homeless.” 5-20-1963, p. 1.)

May 21: “Belle Glade (AP) – The tragedy of the Belle Glade labor bus has provoked a round of investigations. The governor asked for a special report from the Highway Patrol. The chairman of a statewide migrant labor committee said his group would probe the matter Thursday. The Public Utilities Committee reportedly planned to send an investigator here today. Rep. Emmet Roberts of West Palm Beach said he would ask a House committee to consider emergency traffic safety legislation. And there have been hints the matter will come up in Washington.

“It was Florida’s worst traffic accident — 27 farm laborers, including 13 children, were killed when the bus pitched into a canal after being sideswiped by a truck Saturday. “What were little children doing on that bus,” asked Dr. George W. Karelas, chairman of the Migrant Labor Committee of the Florida committee on rural health. Such problems as child labor substandard transportation and sanitation will be probed at a Thursday meeting in Winter Haven, Karelas said.

“Gov. Farris Bryant said, “We want to know if there is any way in which this could have been avoided through some action by the state. Additionally, we want to do everything in our power to

see that it never happens again.”

“The hint of Washington interest came from a man who identified himself as counsel for the Senate subcommittee on migrant labor. In a telephone call to reporters, he suggested that officials were concerned about overcrowding on the labor bus. There were 16 double seats on the 1946 model bus. Forty-two people were aboard.

“Rep. Roberts said the state Public Utilities Commission had promised to send a man to the accident scene to gather a full report. In the meantime, Roberts said he would ask the House Public Safety Commission to consider emergency legislation to close loopholes in current traffic laws.

“Meanwhile, the bodies of a mother and her three children were sent to Sanford for burial. They were Mrs. Cordell Howell and Coreathea, Delmar and Harvey Howell. Another body was shipped to Valdosta, Ga. The remaining 22 bodies were still in a funeral home here and burial plans were expected to be completed today.” (Panama City Herald, FL. “Probes Set in Belle Glade Bus Tragedy.” 5-21-1963, p. 4.)

May 22: “Several investigations are being launched into Florida’s greatest traffic tragedy, the drowning of 27 men, women and children when a labor transportation bus plunged into a canal near Belle Glade last Saturday, it has been announced.

“There has been no public indication that there was anything wrong with the bus mechanically, but it reportedly was overcrowded. The accident happened when a truck cut sharply in front of the bus. A special angle of the proposed investigations is the presence of children cm the bus — 13 of whom were drowned.

“Such angles as child labor, substandard transportation and sanitation are to be probed at a Thursday meeting in Winter Haven, according to Dr. George W. Karelas, chairman of the Migrant Labor Committee of the Florida Committee on Rural Health.

“Meanwhile, word from Tallahassee is to the effect that emergency traffic safety legislation will be sought — presumably to cover such things as compulsory periodic inspections, bonded drivers, insurance, prohibition of overcrowding, and so on.

“It’s too bad that we have to wail until such a tragedy as this occurs before anything is done to avert accidents of this nature. There should be rigid regulation of labor buses and their operation and usage. Apparently there is no such thing at present. While responsible companies provide their own transportation in good, sound buses operated by trained and responsible drivers, we have seen ramshackle buses and trucks with men and women loaded into them like cattle going to and from the fields up until recent, years. Anyone, apparently, who could nudge an old truck or bus into chugging along was free to transport piled-in workers to and from the fields.

“There have been many accidents in this and other areas of the state in which such vehicles were involved, and in which many persons have been killed and maimed.

“It’s full time indeed that something was being done to assure the safely of such people, and it’s too bad that we have waited so long to do it.” (News Tribune, For Pierce, FL. “It’s Too Bad We’ve Waited So Long.” 5-22-1963, p. 4.)

May 23: “Tallahassee (AP) – The Florida Highway Patrol reported that the Belle Glade bus crash that killed 27 persons apparently was caused when a truck driver ‘deliberately cut into the bus.’ Capt. J. W. Hagans prepared the report which said: ‘From the statements of witnesses, and the evidence at the scene, it appears that the driver of the pickup truck deliberately cut into the bus.” Driver of the pickup truck, James T. Sconyers, 34, was charged with manslaughter and placed under $2,300 bond.

“The bus was loaded with Negro harvest hands enroute home from the bean fields when it hooked bumpers with the passing pickup truck. The bus skidded into the Hillsboro Canal and sank in 20 feel of water. Of the 27 dead, 12 were children ranging in age from six years up.

“The Highway Patrol quoted statements from witnesses, including the bus driver, Edgar Lee Anderson of Belle Glade.

“`There is no state law that could have prevented Ibis tragedy,’ according lo Burnis Coleman, general counsel for the Florida Industrial Commission. ‘Only common courtesy could have prevented it.’ Coleman met with officials of the Highway Patrol and the State Utilities Commission to determine whether any new laws are needed to prevent such accidents. He will report to Gov. Bryant today.

“Sconyers, a dragline foreman, denied cutting in front of the bus. At the time of the accident, Sconyers said in a statement to the Highway Patrol that he had started to pass the bus on the shoulder of the road and ‘We hung bumpers. The bus went into the canal. He was crowding the road.’ ‘I was driving approximately 45 and was not meeting anyone at the time.’

“Anderson told Trooper George Emerson that he didn’t see the pickup truck approaching from behind until it was beside the bus, passing it. Anderson said the truck came by ‘and cut straight smack in front of me. His bumper caught my bumper and he kept me hooked there until I left the road.’” (News Tribune, Fort Pierce, FL. “Manslaughter Charged in Belle Glade Bus Tragedy.” 5-23-1963, p. 3.)

May 24: “A migrant labor subcommittee studying the Belle Glade farm labor bus tragedy urged stricter safety controls in farm transportation.” (News Tribune, Fort Pierce, FL. “AP News Digest…Florida.” 5-24-1963, p. 3.)

May 26: “Belle Glade, Fla. (AP) – A memorial service for 27 Negro farm laborers who died in a bus crash May 18 was attended Sunday [May 26] by 700 Negro and white citizens of this south-west Florida farm community. The service was held in the National Guard armory.” (Lethbridge Herald, Alberta, Canada. “Death Desegregates.” 5-27-1963, p. 16.)

June 12: “Belle Glade (UPI) – The Junior Chamber of Commerce blames the May 18 traffic deaths of 27 Negro workers “and countless others” in Palm Beach County on “shamefully substandard roads.” The Jaycees released a resolution and letters to the governor and to the road chairman blaming the 27-death bus accident and “countless others over the years” on “deliberate lack of cooperation from the State Road Board and other associated agencies.” The resolution said State Road 827, where the bus mishap occurred, was described as critical in a special Road Department traffic report and in a Legislative Council report 12 years ago. It said no improvements were made. Jaycee President R. E. Alston called for state help in getting the roads fixed in his letters to Gov. Farris Bryant and Road Chairman John Phillips. The letter said State Road 827 and other more heavily traveled roads in the area ‘are, and for more than 10 years have been, in critical condition.” (Panama City Herald, FL. “Road Blamed in Bus Tragedy.” 6-12-1963, p. 7.)

Sources

Lethbridge Herald, Alberta, Canada. “Death Desegregates.” 5-27-1963, p. 16. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=62572020&sterm=belle+glade

National Safety Council. “Greatest Number of Deaths in a Single Motor-Vehicle Accident.” Accident Facts 1970 Edition. Chicago, IL: NSC, 1970. p. 63.

News Tribune, Fort Pierce, FL. “AP News Digest…Florida.” 5-24-1963, p. 3. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=90417882&sterm=belle+glade+pahokee

News Tribune, Fort Pierce, FL. “It’s Too Bad We’ve Waited So Long.” 5-22-1963, p. 4. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=79452626&sterm=belle+glade+pahokee

News Tribune, Fort Pierce, FL. “Manslaughter Charged in Belle Glade Bus Tragedy.” 5-23-1963, p. 3. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=90417872&sterm

Palm Beach Post, FL. “Silence Hangs Over Glades ‘Bean Ramp’.” 5-20-1963, pp. 1-2. At: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pQwjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_M0FAAAAIBAJ&pg=4643%2C4441738

PalmBeachPost.com. Historic Palm Beach County website. “Twenty-seven died in 1963 bus crash near Belle Glade.” Posted 7-29-2010 and accessed 12-16-2013 at: http://www.historicpalmbeach.com/tag/death/page/2/

Panama City Herald, FL. “Probes Set in Belle Glade Bus Tragedy.” 5-21-1963, p. 4. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=35357040&sterm

Panama City Herald, FL. “Road Blamed in Bus Tragedy.” 6-12-1963, p. 7. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=35357307&sterm=belle+glade

Panama City Herald, FL. “Tragedy Leaves Lad Homeless.” 5-20-1963, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=35357021&sterm=belle+glade+pahokee

Sunday News Tribune, Fort Pierce, FL. “27 Drown at Pahokee.” 5-19-1963, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=79452598&sterm=belle+glade

1963 — May 18, Farm worker bus sideswiped by truck, goes into canal ~Belle Glade, FL–27