Compare And Contrast The Scottsboro Trial And The Tom Robinson Trial

In 1931, in Scottsboro, Alabama, nine young black men were charged with raping two white women. They were tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. While the death sentences were overturned by the Alabama Supreme Court, the Scottsboro boys still served an average of ten years in prison for a crime that they didn't commit. While the Scottsboro trials took place over 200 years after the Salem Witch Trials, the circumstances surrounding both cases are extremely similar.

C: The article was first published in 1994 and revised on April 24, 2007. This indicates that the information in the article has previous and recent knowledge which suggests that it is current enough for the project.

Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, based her book off the Scottsboro trial, a great American Tragedy. There are many similarities between the two -  from setting, the accused, the defendants, and the cases themselves.  When you delve a little deeper, these two stories, fiction and nonfiction, are greatly intertwined.

A chapter on Harper Lee's now-classic To Kill a Mockingbird deiûy analyzes the novel's ideological contradictions, showing that Lee's insistent locaLIsm at once acknowledged the continuing impact of the Scottsboro Narrative and undermined its significance as a register to the injustices of the American legal system. In a trenchant epILogue. (Foley 768)

Despite their similarities, the book To Kill a Mockingbird and The Scottsboro Trials are different in many ways. First, the Scottsboro boys had different appeals

Harper Lee's childhood was troubled with many of society's racial issues especially a trial in Alabama referred to as the Scottsboro trial of 1931. Lee was only five years old when the trial occurred but she was deeply affected by the trial. Amasa Lee was a lawyer and so he became very interested in the trial like many other people in the community, which lead to Lee being interested. The trial in the book, Tom Robinson's rape case, is a reflection of

April 6, 1931, the trials for the Scottsboro boys begin(Uschan 16). The boys were represented by Milo C. Moody and Stephen Roddy who were only given twelve days to prepare for the trials. Stephen was and unpaid, unprepared real estate attorney, and Milo was a forgetful seventy year old local attorney who hadn’t tried a case in a long time (“San Marcos” line 13). The trails were completely unorganized and false information was stated throughout the whole thing. The cross examination of Victoria Price lasted minutes and the defense offered very little information to the judge. Six out of the nine boys ended up denying the rape while 3 admitted to it. Even though the three men didn’t rape the women, because of beatings and threats, they admitted to the gang rape. By the time the trail had ended 8 out of the 9 boys were convicted and sentenced to death. Since one of the Scottsboro boys was only thirteen, he was considered too young to be tried as an adult (“UMKC” par. 6-7).

The Scottsboro trials happened in the 1931 and dragged on for years. These cases were solely based on the prejudice surrounding blacks and gender. The cases presented in the Scottsboro Film represented the fight for justice. Nine boys were wrongfully arrested and imprisoned for years while society used these young black mens oppression to further its own agenda.These cases ruined the life of nine young men but they also helped make dramatic, vital changes in the criminal justice system and the constitution. The misfortune of the nine men tried and convicted during this time opened the eyes of so many blind to the injustice that african americans suffer from still to this day. The Scottsboro trials greatly defined the future of the criminal

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

The trials of the Scottsboro Boys, one of the most important judicial cases of the 1930’s arose when nine African-American young men rode the train in Scottsboro, Alabama in search for work. Instead of finding job opportunities, they found themselves faced with death sentences after being wrongly accused of raping two white teenage girls. The case lasted approximately six years due to campaigns that claimed it dealt with racism and began to demand their right to a fair trial. Fiela’s Child, published in 1985, takes place during the mid-nineteenth-century, rural Africa, during which the struggles for civil rights for African Americans continued. Fiela 's Child tells the gripping story of a black woman, Fiela Komoetie, and a white, three-year old child, Benjamin, whom she finds on her doorstep and raises him as one of her own. However, after nine years, census takers discover Benjamin and do not accept the idea of leaving a white child with an African American family. They compel him to live with a family of woodcutters, the Von Rooyens, who claim him as their son. Benjamin is follows an identity search and fundamental changes affecting the families who claim him. During this journey he undergoes a harsh transition from two distinct environments: the sunny, warm Wolwekraal to the dense and foggy forest, each of which is relevant to Benjamin’s emotional state: of happiness and tranquility or fear and confusion.

On March 31, 1931 nine boys by the names of; Charles Weems, Clarence Norris, Ozie Powell, Olen Montgomery, Eugene Williams, Willie Roberson, Haywood Patterson, Andy Wright and youngest of them all, Roy Wright rode a train heading toward Alabama, they got into a fight with a group of white men that allegedly lead them to push the white men off of the train (An American Tragedy). The train stopped at a small town where an angry mob was waiting to find a group of troubled black men. As they got off the train, two young white women by the names of; Ruby Bates and Victoria Price claimed, “these boys raped us" (An American Tragedy). The public

The Scottsboro Trials of Alabama, started in 1931. Nine African American boys were accused of raping two girls on board a train near Scottsboro, Alabama.(A Tragedy of the American South) A fight broke out between white and black groups of youths. Victoria Price and Ruby Bates accused the boys of rape.(A Tragedy of the American South) Instead of the two girls getting charged with vagrancy and prostitution, they blamed the black boys of raping them..(A Tragedy of the American South) Rape was a politically explosive charge in the south.(A Tragedy of the American South) The case went to the US Supreme court in 1937, where Clarence Norris called the girls liars and was then struck by a bayonet.(A Tragedy of the American South) After going to court the boys spent two years between their first trials and second round. (Tragedy of the American South) One

Both trials for the boys and Tom Robinson were set and in the 1930’s in Alabama. During this time the south was still very segregated and still had Jim Crow laws in affect. The juries on both cases were white and very racist. In both Tom Robinson’s case and The Scottsboro case there was little to none actual solid evidence of rape taking place, instead the juries were bias and because there was an accusation against blacks they were automatically prosecuted unfairly. Also, in both cases some of the public didn’t like the outcome of the trials more so with the Scottsboro trial which caused a national

   The trial of Tom Robinson is central to our understanding of racial and social prejudice in Maycomb. Harper Lee uses Tom Robinson's 'crime' to bring tensions in the town to a head and the author uses the trial as a way of making the ideas behind such tensions explicit for the reader.

The plot of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is centered around the tragic story of the farce of a trial for Tom Robinson and the consequences that face the Finch family as a result. The novel opens with the narrator, Scout, giving those reading a small amount of background information into the town of Maycomb, Alabama and starting the plot of how Jem broke his leg.