Scottsboro Case Study

March 25, 1931, nine men hopped on to a freight train of no return (Uschan 10). Unjust, prejudice, and racist the Scottsboro Trials, were definitely not just another ordinary case. The Scottsboro Trials changed how America viewed segregation. The nine young men, who hopped onto that train that day, were innocent and harmless. The Scottsboro Trials revealed the unjust treatment that African Americans faced outside of the Harlem Renaissance and changed views on segregation.

This paper focuses on an in depth community assessment of the past, present, and future of Shelby, Mississippi. Shelby was once a banner cotton center of Bolivar County. Shelby residents were once referred to as some of the most hospitable and happy people in the state. Shelby, Mississippi was also considered as one of the wealthiest towns per capita of the entire Mississippi Delta. Throughout the years, Shelby has changed from being a place of prosperity to a place needing revitalization. Many businesses have opened and closed in Shelby. Community development in Shelby would allow the town to compete with other small towns in the Mississippi Delta.

In the United States in 1931, during America’s Great Depression, nine African American boys faced what is now known as one of America’s most tragic trails in history. These young boys were accused of raping two white girls while riding a train through Alabama. This accusation brought forth a mob of white people in the town of Scottsboro. The boys spent years on trial for this. The first trial was thought to have been the final convention, little did they know it was only the beginning. A second trial was held for the nine boys that shook the entire nation. After the second trial a third one was held after the judge suspected that the evidence was not properly examined. The nine young boys, known as “The Scottsboro Boys”, spent their lives in and out of a courtroom and in a cell for a crime that today is known to have never taken place.

Memphis, Tennessee is listed in the top five most violent cities in America. Memphis’ homicide rate is close to two hundred and we have one more month to go before the end of 2016.

“In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action. We have gone through all these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. On the basis of these conditions, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city

Young African American’s had to take an active role because many older adults were set in their ways, too afraid to do anything. Previously learning in school, The NAACP was the primary group focusing on civil rights. Further reading has shown that this is not completely accurate. Per Cleveland sellers, the NAACP was widely known but had setback from certain events. Many students who were involved in sit-ins before the freedom writers were believed to be under the SCLC or NAACP. As in the book, many African Americans only know of the NAACP. The SNCC group was a small student led group that also planned and participated in demonstrations. The SNCC formed to give younger blacks more of a voice in the civil rights movement because they felt that the SCLC was out of touch for them. With support from Ella Barker the SNCC worked their way into the movement. The SNCC evolved over time, from being a small unknown student organization, to a very known

Leaders of the NAACP were being Lynched. If they were to refuse most times they would be arrested or beaten. These factors made it difficult for Robinson and many other blacks during this time. . Blacks were even forced to give up bus seats and move to the back if a white person wanted to sit where they were. If they were to refuse most times they would be arrested or beaten.

The Scottsboro incident of 1931 was when nine teenage boys of African descent were falsely accused of attacking other teenage boys and raping a white girl while riding a freight train. At first the only accusation against the boys were that they had attacked another group of boys except they

The Civil Rights Movement in the Deep South is one that is well known and familiar to us all. We all know of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the charismatic preacher who was undisputedly the leader of the civil rights movement in the South. We have all also heard of Rosa Parks, the black woman who would not give up her seat in the bus and was thus arrested for it, she was the catalyst that sparked the civil rights movement. They were the famous people often mentioned in the Civil Rights Movement. However, they were not the only people engaged in the Civil Rights Movement, there were many more, and their stories are just as important as that of Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. That reason

During the Civil Rights Movement many people were fighting against the oppression of blacks. In today's world, in the U.S., civil rights aren’t as big as it was in the 1950s and 60s. Then blacks were treated differently in a public setting. More specifically there was a great deal or police brutality. The Black Panthers fought against police brutality by walking the streets openly carrying weapons. The Black Panthers were an important group in the Civil Rights Movement.

Throughout the early 1960s, African American people living in the United States were greatly oppressed. Slavery and Jim Crow laws, which justified segregation, were abolished; however, African Americans did not receive equal treatment, as the ideology of white supremacy, or Caucasians being the superior race, remained in tact. Since juries typically consisted of Caucasian males who favored other Caucasians, African Americans rarely received fair trials. Other factors, such as housing opportunities, were unequal for African Americans as well, and as a result, poorer districts consisting solely of African Americans formed. Since African Americans were strictly segregated from Caucasians and therefore did not receive similar opportunities, the ideology that African Americans were inferior to Caucasians became hegemonic, meaning that the belief that African Americans had fewer rights than Caucasians was simply accepted in society without question. Though laws and regulations guaranteed equality among all races, African Americans remained oppressed; therefore, groups like the Black Panther Party began to fight this hegemonic ideology. Their violent and nonviolent protests were considered counter-hegemonic, as they hoped to diminish the unfair and inaccurate ideologies that had existed and essentially become common sense within society. In the “Black Panther Platform,” the Black Panther Party details their reasons for participating in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, a

I am unsure if you are aware that the plan review for the Shelbyville, Tennessee project has not been submitted. The City of Shelbyville will permit the shell building first but plans for the shell building have been submitted.

After Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated, most people’s belief in peaceful protest for equality had vanished. Violence had increased all over the United States. Fires were started all around cities. A group named The Black Panthers had promoted this violence. They believed that we could not have equality without violence. The Black Panthers started armed community patrols. This was allowed because the constitution had protected them. Free groceries, school food, and treatments were given in their community. Image result for black panthers history

The Birmingham campaign was a movement organized by King Martin Luther in the spring of 1963 to bring attention to the integration efforts of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama. In the early 1960s, Birmingham was a very segregated city. This meant that black and white people were kept separated. They had different schools, restaurants, water fountains and even different place to stay. There were laws that allowed and enforced segregation called Jim Crow Laws. The movement which began in April, utilized massive direct action to attack Birmingham’s strongly engrained system of segregation. The protests were co-named “Project C”. The “C” stood for “confrontation”. The protests were non violent and included boycotting downtown stores, sit-ins, marches. The organizers thought that if enough people protested, then the local government would be forced to confront them and this would make national news gaining them support the federal government and the rest of the country. This project C brought national attention to the inequality of America’s economic, legal and social system- attention that led to the civil rights act of 1964.

Firstly, many civil rights activists were not well received by local Blacks. Many Blacks in Mississippi were afraid of losing their jobs if they were suspected of joining civil rights organization. It is important to understand in Mississippi the State government was highly involved in enforcing Jim Crowe laws and segregation of the races. Blacks who joined were beaten and killed and their homes were vandalized. It was a real challenge for SNCC/COFO staff to get local Black residents involved, but eventually, they succeeded. Eventually, the civil rights organizations grew in Mississippi and in the Summer of 1963 the leaders of COFO organized one of the largest registration drives ever attempted. Their goal was to empower local Blacks to vote and show the state of Mississippi that Blacks had the desire to vote, contrary to popular belief. COFO succeeded in making a point. Soon there was major National media coverage on account of the White college students who had come from up