The Scottsboro Trials Essay

In Scottsboro, Alabama, March 9, 1931 nine African american boys, Olen Montgomery, Clarence Norris, Haywood Patterson, Ozie Powell, Willie Roberson, Charles Weems, Eugene Williams, Andy Wright, and Roy Wright were incriminated of rapeing two white women on the subway. As they were accused of raping Ruby Bates and Victoria Price they were put on trial. This trail was long and unfair.

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

On March 25 1931 a group of nine boys were charged with raping two girls on a train traveling from Paint Rock Alabama. Several years later Harper Lee wrote her famous novel How To Kill a Mockingbird. In her story she made a character named Tom Robinson that was charged and accused of raping Mayella Ewell, it is an understanding parallel comparison between Tom Robinson and the Scottsboro case. Both Tom Robinson and the nine other boys race was presumed guilty before their trial. Harper Lee was convinced to making How To Kill a Mockingbird because she was a kid when the Scottsboro trial was happening and made comparison to the nine black boys to Tom Robinson, than Mayella Ewell to Victoria Price and Ruby Bates.

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to Abigail Thernson and Henry Fetter when talking about The Scottsboro Trials it states, “Represented by unprepared out of date counsel who had no more than a half an hour consult

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.

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.

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 crime of rape allegedly committed by nine black teenagers in the early spring of 1931 tested the American legal system for both justice and racism. All nine—later known as the Scottsboro Boys—were falsely accused of raping two white women—Ruby Bates and Victoria Price. The nine young teenagers—Andy Wright, Willie Roberson, Charles Weems, Ozie Powell, Olen Montgomery, Eugene Williams, Haywood Patterson, Clarence Norris and Leroy Wright—were given guilty verdicts and tried for their lives. All of the men endured long stays in prison until that case made its way through the legal system (Salter; Linder).

Jessie Kindig the contributor of Scottsboro Boys, Trial and Defense Campaign (1931 - 1937). The suggest blackpast.org to people because the information is correct they've cited their sources. If you would like to support blackpast.org you can shop on Amazon.com/blackpast. They are supported by an grant from Humanities Washington, a statewide non-profit organization. There also supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the state of Washington, and contributions from individuals and foundations.

The scottsboro boys were a group of young black boys on a train. Then they got into a fight with a couple white boys on the train and threw them off . Next two young white woman that were also riding the train said they raped them and sent the boys were sent to court. The central ideas of justice develop throughout the book by when the boys are first put on trial to when the boys are released or died.

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

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

Currently in the United States of America, there is a wave a patriotism sweeping across this great land: a feeling of pride in being an American and in being able to call this nation home. The United States is the land of the free and the home of the brave; however, for the African-American citizens of the United States, from the inception of this country to midway through the twentieth century, there was no such thing as freedom, especially in the Deep South. Nowhere is that more evident than in Stories of Scottsboro, an account of the Scottsboro trials of 1931-1937, where nine African-American teenage boys were falsely accused of raping two

The United States thought their worries on major issues of injustice and racial inequality were stories of the past, yet it never resolved and is present today. One of the most well-known, boy group to face racial injustice and tragedy was The Scottsboro Boys “who were falsely accused of rape by two white women in 1931” (The Mercury News). After more than 80 years, they were officially pardoned in April 2013. In which, “it was long overdue” (The Mercury News) and unfortunate since all of the boys died prior to the pardon. However, with Alabama trying to “repair its own legacy, and correct past injustices,” it is attempting to move forward as a state. In addition, a similar problem of racial injustice, in New York, is the stop-and-frisks law

The Scottsboro Boys case that occurred in the 1930s, generated local, national, and international interest in the treatment of African Americans in the American south. Never had a crime produced so many trials and convictions as the Scottsboro Boys case in all of American history. The cases created celebrities out of anonymities and wasted innocent young lives. On one fateful day in April 1931, 9 African American boys, ages 12-19, were riding a freight train from Chattanooga to Memphis. A series of events occurred, resulting in a group of white males being forced off the train. They immediately went to the county sheriff who then formulated a posse comitatus to search the train and arrest the African Americans. Upon arriving in Paint Rock, Alabama the boys were surrounded and arrested for assault of the white males, however when two white females walked off of the train, they accused the nine boys of rape. The boys were quickly whisked away to be verbally abused in front of an all-white jury. Little did the boys know that the next six years of their lives would be wasted in isolation. This controversial circumstance of the 1930’s brought many social and legal issues to light. It showed the barbarous treatment of African Americans. While the Scottsboro Boys were seen as a threat to the Alabaman white culture, racial tensions in 1930’s Alabama affected them, due to the fact that the plaintiff were white females, there was a lack of evidence against the Scottsboro Boys yet