RUBY – The Musical

Ruby – The Musical is a powerful stage production created by Nate and Michael Jacobs. It recounts the true, scandalous 1952 story of Ruby McCollum, a wealthy Black businesswoman in Live Oak, Florida, who shot and killed a prominent white doctor and politician, leading to a trial that exposed deep racial injustices and power dynamics in the Jim Crow South. The Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe in Florida produced an original adaptation of the story, which was first covered in 1952 by The Pittsburgh Courier and Zora Neale Hurston, through ongoing trial reports that highlighted Ruby’s life. Real Times Media, which publishes both The Pittsburgh Courier and The Michigan Chronicle, provided archives to help brothers Nate and Michael Jacobs create the play