Beware: Injustice Ahead!
Rape is considered a very serious topic and is not taken lightly, however it was different in this case. It was taken as a joke and it was laughed about rather than frowned upon. Justice was snatched away because of this vulgar “joke”. The Scottsboro Boys Trial, that took place in Alabama from 1931 to 1937, revealed the consequences of false accusations, explained the loss of innocence, and established the miscarriage of justice.
The Scottsboro Trials had set a limit to falsely accusing someone and created a legacy of racism that had never been forgotten. “Also discovered aboard were two white female millworkers, Victoria Price, age nineteen, and Nancy Bates, age seventeen. Fearful that they, too, would be arrested,
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This letter from Haywood Patterson shows exactly that: “Anything might happen at such a place and then again I had received several threats on my life and they would not give me any Medical attention there and worked me quite hard every Day when I couldn’t hardly get around my leg. You see they sent me right out of the Hospital one day and the next day I was put to work” (Kinshasa 186). This proves how Haywood Patterson was being treated in a brutal way and was not given any medical attention which is only one example of the miscarried justice. Patterson had not been shown the proper respect because he was being worked too hard when he was ill. If this was not because of the color of his skin then what other reason would it be? “First, they had been given unprofessional and ineffective legal counsel—a real estate lawyer and an elderly attorney who had not tried a case in decades—who offered no witnesses or closing arguments to the jury. Then the testimonies of the boys themselves conflicted with one another, as six denied the rapes entirely while the other three alleged that the six had committed the acts; the boys later stated they lied about the rapes because they had been beaten and threatened” (“Scottsboro Boys Trials”). The boys had their “mouths taped shut” because they had been beaten and threatened which is another example of miscarried justice. They were destined to lose this case because they were given a lousy counsel and lawyer to fight for their justice. How could there be such a lack of
The Scottsboro Trial was about nine young black men who were falsely accused of raping two
The boys of the Scottsboro trials were never treated fairly from the beginning. The whole journey was filled with misconception. The journey began on the freight train, there was nine African Americans on a train car and with them, was a group of Caucasian men. It all started with one of the white males stepping on the hand of one of the blacks. Not too long after, the white males threatened the nine boys to leave the train car (Doc). After the nine black males refused their threat, a fight broke out between all of them. All of the members of the white group were thrown off the train, all, but one. The one that was left on the train went and reported the fight to the train conductor.
In the year 1931, all nine of the Scottsboro boys Haywood Patterson, Charles Weems, Clarence Norris, Andy Wright, Ozzie Powell, Olen Montgomery, Eugene Williams, Willie Roberson, and Roy Wright are arrested and tried on charges of assault from fighting white boys on a train. Along with accusations made by Victoria Price and Ruby Bates that the boys raped them. Their trial begins April 6, 1931. All of the boys except for Roy Wright are tired and convicted, with the result of the death sentence, Roy Wright’s trial ends in a mistrial. Later the NAACP and International Labor Defense, fight to represent the boys. Even though there was no proof that the boys committed these crimes they
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
Scottsboro case was at first led on March 25, 1931, in Scottsboro Alabama. The case included dark young people who later ended up noticeably celebrated as Scottsboro Boys. Young men included Clarence Norris, Olen Montgomery, Andy Wright, Willie Robertson, Ozie Powell, Eugene Williams, Charlie Weems, Roy Wright and Haywood Patterson. The named dark young people were dishonestly charged to have posse assaulted two white ladies. This case wound up plainly a standout amongst the most disputable and confounded cases in the historical backdrop of United States of America.
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.
The Scottsboro Trial and the trial of Tom Robinson are almost identical in the forms of bias shown and the accusers that were persecuted. The bias is obvious and is shown throughout both cases, which took place in the same time period. Common parallels are seen through the time period that both trials have taken place in and those who were persecuted and why they were persecuted in the first place. The thought of "All blacks were liars, and all blacks are wrongdoers," was a major part of all of these trails. A white person's word was automatically the truth when it was held up to the credibility of someone whom was black. Both trials were perfect examples of how the people of Alabama were above the law and could do whatever they
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).
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
There are many similarities between the Scottsboro trial and the trial of Tom Robinson in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. “No crime in American history—let alone a crime that never occurred—produced as many trials, convictions, reversals, and retrials as did an alleged gang rape of two white girls by nine black teenagers on a Southern railroad freight run on March 25, 1931” (Linder 1). The author of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, was a young girl during the Scottsboro trial and based the trial of Tom Robinson in her novel off of the Scottsboro trial of 1931. The three main similarities between the Scottsboro trial and the trial of Tom Robinson are the geographic settings, the portrayal of racism, and the specifics of the court
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
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.
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
There were several trials held throughout the case of the Scottsboro Boys. Most of them were unfair and obviously conducted with the odds stacked against the boys. The testimonies given by the two girls often did not match up. Victoria Price spent the most time on the stand, and on the rare occasion that Ruby Bates testified, most of what she said was disregarded because it contradicted or changed Price’s story. It was concluded that anything Bates said was no good because she was dimwitted and could not keep her story straight.
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