The collection consists of photocopies of correspondence, memoranda, clippings, teletypes/telegrams, excerpts from lab reports, an oral history interview with transcripts, and an investigative report concerning the February 17, 1947 lynching of Willie Earle. The files document the Federal Bureau of Investigation's involvement in the case and documentation of its coverage in the media. Professor Will Gravely obtained the bulk of this material under the Freedom of Information Act in 2001. Prior to obtaining these files, Gravely conducted an interview with Senator Strom Thurmond concerning the incident. Thurmond was Governor of South Carolina in 1947 when Mr. Earle was killed. The interview took place in Washington, DC on August 21, 1989. The investigative report includes a synopsis of the case; report on the crime scene investigation, preliminary investigation and interviews; copies of statements by suspects, divided into those and those who did not confess to the lynching; copies of corroborating interviews. These files include documents that have redactions and can be compared with similar files found in Mss 165, the Alan Schaffer Collection of FBI files of the Willie Earle case that he obtained in the 1980s. There is material related to the defense lawyers John Bolt Culbertson and Thomas Wofford, as well as J. Edgar Hoover's interest in the case.