Colored People In The 1930's Considering It Is The 1930s

The 1930’s was a time of great struggle in the USA. The New York stock market crashed in 1929 and triggered a spiral of economic depression, which hit African Americans hard.

Even after evidence was found, all of it would be questioned and the trial could last for weeks. Blacks were persecuted more harshly and treated much more unfairly in the 30s. During this time period Jim Crow laws basically made it to where blacks didn’t have any rights at all.

This caused many rallies, riots, peaceful protest. This case informs us now because it also tells us how bad they were treated back then, the people believed the girls because they were white, and mostly overlooked the boys because they were black. So to end this long unfair trial, they were cleared.The latter mentioned in the book To kill a Mockingbird, by author Harper lee.

We hear multiple people weigh in on the court case and give their opinions and expose the cultural issues that are occurring. Reverend Sykes for instances tells us that he has “ never seen a jury of white people favor on the side of a colored man” and we also hear from Dolphus Raymond talks about that "the hell white people give coloured folks, without even stopping to think that they're people too." This shows that many people are very aware of what is going on in this time period but either choose to ignore it or tend to join in on the hazing and racism. As sad as it is to say, that is very similar to the culture that happens today. We typically ignore the issues that are occurring today or with some people tend to join in on the attack and the racism or other cultural issues that go on.

The 1920s was a major turning point in American history. Known as “the roaring twenties”, the citizens of the United States enjoyed the new found wealth from the economic turnaround. The United States’ wealth more than doubled as the nation turned into a consumer society. Not all Americans were fond of the changes in society, and not all of the changes were good.

During that time Johnson was the general secretary of the NAACP, and knew what impact the case would have on civil rights. Given this the NAACP aided those accused of the murder of Breiner, and a first-rate defense team was in the making. Assistant secretary Walter White was the main assistant of NAACP to find the best attorneys (who were not prejudiced, of course). He later meets Arthur Garfield Hays and Clarence Darrow and urges them to take the case. After agreeing they meet their clients about a month after the accident. Boyle shows how both James Weldon Johnson and Clarence Darrow had interior motives for defending the Sweets. Both men had a love for the spotlight, when speaking about Darrow, Boyle writes "in the glare of a high-profile case he found the perfect opportunity to attack the status quo and proclaim the modernist creed." The trial itself felt more of a civil rights case than a criminal case. The most impressive thing in regards to the actual trial was the performance done by Darrow. One could draw many similarities between him and To Kill A Mockingbird’s Atticus Finch. A common misconception of the courtroom is that the jury goes strictly off of evidence when deliberating. This book clears up that false belief with the attorneys playing off of emotion and targeting pathos. A strong argument presented by Darrow can be summarized by a few statements he made in that courtroom. “You are facing a problem of two races, a problem that will take centuries to solve. If I felt none of you were prejudiced, I'd have no fear. I want you to be as unprejudiced as you can be. Draw upon your imagination and think how you would feel if you fired at some black man in a black community, and then had to be tried by

In 1931 two white women were riding the train along with the other men (the blacks and whites). When the fight broke out the blacks had won and let the white men off the train, however when the white men got off the train, they reported the incident to the local sheriff and that’s when the train stopped in Scottsboro, Alabama and everyone on the train was arrested. That’s how it all started in Scottsboro, Alabama and it was just the beginning of the case. The two women on the train Victoria Price and Ruby Bates were about to be in serious trouble because Ruby Bates was a minor and in that time it was a federal crime to take a minor across state lines for the reason of prostitution. The only way they could get of trouble in their situation was to say the black men raped them. In the time of 1931 rape was sanctioned by death. Usually they would’ve responded by a lynching, which was when they hung someone who was suspected of a crime, but for this case the citizens of Scottsboro wanted to hold a trial instead. The trial wasn’t fair at all because the outcome had been decided before the trial even

According to American history, prejudice is shown through the courtroom’s jury when making decisions to send the alleged African Americans to jail. On March 24, 1931, nine African American lives were jeopardized with the false accusations of rape that further scrutinizes the nation’s controversial look upon justice. Referring to Abigail Thernson and Henry Fetter when talking about The Scottsboro Trials it states, “Represented by unprepared out of date counsel who had no more than a half an hour consult

During the early nineteen hundreds many people especially in the south were often convicted of crimes for no other reason than their skin color and contrary to many ideas about our court system, we have not always been the most honest and unbiased people. One prime example of this is the case of the Scottsboro Boys and how they were accused of rape and had to go to court numerous times, almost everytime ending in the death sentence. The evidence in the case clearly points towards the innocence of the Scottsboro boys, evidence such as unclear stories from the girls, lack of bruises and marks indicating assault as well as a previous history of prostitution from both of the girls. This evidence helps to prove that Charles Weems and the Scottsboro boys were innocent and wrongly accused and convicted.

African Americans were confronted with a practically unconquerable number of obstructions in 1900. Any way you take a gander at it, as far as the instructive framework, especially considering the way that the greater part of them, the expansive lion's share are still in the South. What's more, to the extent instruction is concerned, African Americans are given no road of training on the lower level, which makes it troublesome for them to seek to advanced education since they don't have the basics to get to that point. State funded schools are interested in African Americans just in little groups.

When the press interviewed the Negroes, they all remained silent except to deny assaulting the girls. Except Roy Wright who kept insisting that he and his three friends, the only ones of the group he'd ever met, were innocent. He said that the others attacked the

In the mid 1900’s segregation was at its peak. White males would be prejudice over Black males. They had different schools, developments, and transportation for each color. The more dominant color of white men and women would get the nicer facilities. White children would not talk to black children or play with them. Although they were all people they were not seen as equals. The Scottsboro Trials are an example of how everybody’s views on society were biased towards the fact the whites were greater than blacks. Nine black men were accused of rape by two white women while riding a freight train departing from Paint Rock, Tennessee for Memphis, Tennessee.

Back then when if you were black you would be guilty until proven innocent, no matter what. The reason for that was because people were more racist back then than today and black people were the main target. Even if you did nothing and you were black, if someone told on you and accused you of doing something really bad even if there is no proof you would still get in trouble. In Scottsboro Boys there was nine black boys who went to a train men were fighting them because they illegally rode the train. There were also 2 women that falsely accusing them of rape. You can find all this information on the “False Accusations” part of The Scottsboro Boys. They had to go through a lot to prove their innocence. Not that much changed today 5 young black men got accused of raping a woman not to long ago. Then young men had to go to court to prove their innocence, comparable to the time when in To Kill a Mockingbird when Tom Robinson got accused of raping Bob Ewell's daughter, Mayella. She got caught lying a lot in court and Tom Robinson was innocent but it was unfair for black people back then so he was guilty even though he was innocent and went to

In the 1920’s women did not have very many rights. They had just started to work outside of their homes and in the factories. These women wanted to help support their husbands and sons that were away at war during World War I. This gave them a sense of power and led them to wanting more respect than they were receiving from the men. Being a woman was not the only problem that some faced in America, but being an African American woman in America was extremely difficult. This made it hard to find jobs and this affected the black males as well, but the females were hit with a double slam when it came to being a minority. Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman was an African American woman. She was the first African American woman to receive an aviation license.

the prisoners were lucky enough to escape the being lynched when they were moved into Scottsboro. In this trial, nine young, black boys were charged with the rape of two white girls while on a train. This case was a major source of controversy in the 1930’s. “Despite testimony by doctors who had examined the women that no rape had occurred, the all- white jury convicted the nine, and all but the youngest, who was 12 years old were sentenced to death” (“Scottsboro”). The boys’ lawyer, Samuel Leibowitz, did not even get assigned to the case until the first day of the trial. “If he could show a jury that these nine boys were innocent, as the record indicated, the jury would surely free them. To Leibowitz, that was simple!” (Chalmers 35). However, it was not that simple. Many white citizens would not change their minds about