Play hopes to give a voice to Black man lynched in Broward over 90 year ago

Performing Arts admin September 9, 2026 0 Comments

Play hopes to give a voice to Black man lynched in Broward over 90 year ago

In 1935, a horde of white people stood around as Rubin Stacy, a Black farmworker, was lynched in Plantation Florida.

Now, 91 years later, Stacy’s killing is the subject of a new play by Jeff Rusnak titled “The Resurrection of Rubin Stacy” that seeks to give Stacy a voice in the aftermath of the atrocities committed against him.

A theatrical reading of the play will take place Thursday at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale. Rusnak had been working on the play since 2020. At that time, the murder of George Floyd dominated headlines and Rusnak had read an article about Stacy’s killing in the wake of the racial uprisings in the aftermath of Floyd’s death. Rusnak said what stood out in Stacy’s story is that he was a father of two, just like him.

“It just struck me: How will they process this experience, and how will they live with it?” Stacy said. “For me, it was that idea of personalizing the story in a way that it had not been reported previously.”

The play also draws inspiration from the photograph of Rusnak’s lynching which includes onlookers, including a young white girl, as his body hangs from a tree.

According to a 2020 Sun Sentinel article, Stacy went to a white woman’s home and asked for a glass of water. The woman, Marion Jones, claimed Stacy attacked her with a penknife, a claim Stacy denied.

Days later, Stacy was surrounded by a lynch mob who ran him off a road as he was being driven by deputies to a Miami jail. Stacy was then driven to a wooded area near Jones’ home and hung using Jones’ clothesline. A grand jury was convened two days after the lynching, but no one was charged.

Stacy’s story was revived In 1988 when woman who participated in the lynching came forward and said Deputy Bob Clark, the then-sheriff’s brother, strung up Stacy and told onlookers to fire weapons at Stacy’s body.

Rubin’s memory has been honored with a proclamation in Broward County and a portion of Davie Boulevard is named Rubin Stacy Memorial Blvd.

Set in 1948, the two-act play sees Stacy’s ghost visit the daughter of a white family who attended his lynching. Act two, Rusnak said, focuses on reckoning with what he called the hypocrisy of white supremacy and “the consequences power affords whiteness in this country” and how it affects marginalized people.

“It gives you the privilege and the power to decide what other people get and when they get it and how they get it,” he said.

Rusnak, who grew up in Plantation not far from where Stacy was lynched, said his play is relevant at a time when we’re seeing the rolling back of civil rights legislation, voting rights protections, and anti-DEI legislation.

“We are, at this moment, living in a revival of white supremacy and an attempt to erase history to roll back the progress that has been made a little bit at a time,” Rusnak said. “We’re in a moment where Black people have been pushed again to the margins in a way that feels more like the 1940s.”

But the Civil Rights Movement has given people a playbook on how to push back, he said.

“We have an experience in how to fight back and to resist,” he said. “ So that’s the tension I think where we are, and I think that’s the tension that I found in the writing and how I resolved the play.”

IF YOU GO:

What: The Resurrection of Rubin Stacy

When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10

Where: African-American Research Library and Cultural Center, 2650 Sistrunk Blvd., Fort Lauderdale

Cost: Free

Info: https://www.eventbrite.com