The Trials Of The Scottsboro Boys

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.

Although many believe that racism and segregation have declined over the years, The Washington Post notes, in a 2016 analysis, that black Americans are 2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by police officers (Lowery). In the 1930s and 1950s, Tom Robinson, Emmett Till, and the nine Scottsboro boys were sentenced to death after facing an all-white jury for a crime they did not commit. In 1931, nine, young, unemployed, black men were falsely accused of raping two white women, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price. Their sentence to death after facing an all-white jury sparked rallies and parades, which successfully changed the unfair verdict of their trial. Similarly, a fourteen-year-old boy named Emmett Till was unjustly murdered after allegedly whistling at a white store owner, Carolyn Bryant. A few days later, he was found in a nearby river, and his mother arranged for a public funeral to expose the racial prejudice her son faced in Mississippi. The perpetrators were acquitted of all charges when tried in front of an all white jury. In the Scottsboro incident, the Murder of Emmett Till, and To Kill a Mockingbird, innocent men were victims of the society’s racial prejudice and convicted of crimes they did not commit.

On March 25, 1931, With the Great Depression gripping the nation after the stock-market crash of 1929, people jumped on to freight trains to travel from one city to another city in hope to search for work. A group of whites and a group of blacks who are later called the ‘Scottsboro boys’ got in a fight on a train. The Scottsboro boys were defending themselves and they kicked the white group off in Jackson County. Then, two women who were on the train were trying to avoid arrest therefore falsely accused the nine black youths (who range from the age of thirteen to nineteen years old) of raping them. The Scottsboro boys were then arrested with assault and rape charges added against all nine of them after the allegations were made by Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. It was a rousing allegation in the Jim-Crow South, where many whites were attempting to maintain power just 66 years after the end of the Civil War.

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.

Can racial bias have an effect on the verdict of being guilty or innocent? The American judicial courtroom has been comprised of the nation’s many greatest racial discriminatory cases over the past century, but the most racially upstanding case, when referring to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird includes The Scottsboro Trials. Both stories uprise in the 1930s, displaying a white supremacist mindset, which two cases fall into the conviction of rape. The Scottsboro case started on a train to northern Alabama to southern Tennessee, when nine African American boys, ranging in ages from 13-19, allegedly raped two “innocent” Caucasian women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. Racial discrimination uprises in American judicial system when shown in To Kill a Mockingbird and The Scottsboro Trials through the racial prejudice within the jury in the courtroom, easy accessibility to target African Americans, biased accusations, as well as the social pressure to serve in one’s defense.

Can anyone truly be sure if what a person is saying is the truth if there isn’t proof to show it? This question is one of the many jurors have to ask themselves while making decisions in cases with purely circumstantial evidence. On March 25th 1931, Haywood Patterson, Clarence Norris, Andy Wright, Roy Wright, Ozzie Powell, Willie Roberson, Charles Weems, Eugene Williams, and Olen Montgomery- also known as the Scottsboro boys, were charged with rape by Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. The girls claimed to have been raped by the Scottsboro boys after fighting broke out between them and a group of white men. The alleged crime happened on a train, during that time period hoboing- travelling by train in search of jobs, was incredibly popular. Key witnesses to this trial were the Scottsboro boys, the 15 white men on the train, Dr. R. R. Bridges- the doctor who examined the women after the alleged rape, and the eyewitness Ory Dobbins. The final verdict in the trial let four of the Scottsboro free while four were sentenced to serve in prison for a long period of time and one was sentenced to death (The Trials of "The Scottsboro Boys": An Account, Linder). The Scottsboro boys trial was unfair and biased due to public, media, jury bias, incorrect trial proceedings, and finally witness bias.

The United States has a long, troubled history of slavery and racism within its culture. It is an unfortunate part of our history that we continue to see to this day. The Argument of D. T. Corbin in the Trial of the Ku-Klux before the States Circuit Court is a closing argument to the jury from David T. Corbin. Corbin was a very respected and qualified individual at this time. He would go on to win the Senate election a few years after this document was created. The trial was for the Ku-Klux Klan and whether or not their beliefs and actions were legal. Corbin was strongly against the klan and made sure people knew it. The events that took place in the trial of the Ku-Klux Klan, held in Columbia, South Carolina, happened in a tumultuous time period in United States history. The hearing took place in November of 1871, which was six years after the end of the Civil War. As many people know, the Civil War was fought largely due to the role of slavery in the United States. The southern states, the Confederacy, were pro-slavery, and the north, the Union, was against it. Racism was a major issue at the time. African-Americans had little to no rights before the war, and after the war Congress amended the constitution to give more rights to the African-Americans in this country to much disgust of the southern states. In this document Corbin portrays the KKK in a negative manner by calling on witnesses who were a part of the klan, calls witnesses who were victims, and brings up

Starting in the 1890s, segregation laws known as the Jim Crow Laws dominated the United States, specifically in the South. These laws required schools, parks, libraries, forms of public transportation and even drinking fountains to be segregated into “Whites Only” and “Coloreds”. Although the Jim Crow Laws intended to treat blacks “separate but equal”, blacks received poorer conditions in their public facilities, were denied the right to vote and were treated with no respect from the whites (Jim Crow Laws). In Richard Wright’s essay, “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch”, Wright describes his first-hand experience with these laws and the negative encounters he has faced just because of the color of his skin.

The Scottsboro boys were nine African American teenagers falsely accused of raping two white women on a train in Alabama during the year 1931. No crime in American history that never occurred has produced as many trials, convictions, and retrials as the alleged gang rape of two white girls by nine black teenagers did. This tragedy marks a time in the United States where African Americans were not receiving the right to a fair trial and encountering racism because of their skin color. This court case is seen as one of the major examples that one innocent person or in this case many innocent people have been convicted and punished for a crime they did not commit.

Emmett Till was an 14 year old African- American boy who was brutally murdered for allegedly whistling at a white women. Emmett Till was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi, and went into a small store, but no really knows what happened. His friends may have dared him to ask her out. Carolyn said he wolf -whistled , but he had polio as a young child ,so he was taught to whistle before he’d say a hard word.His friends did hear him say ‘bye baby’ , Carolyn was insulted and told her husband. He was kidnapped, tortured, and killed by J.W. Miliam and Roy Bryant. They gouged out his eye ,threw him in the river, and they were not guilty of this crime. His body couldn’t be identified , tied his body to a cotton gin, and they kidnapped him. Emmett

Emmett Till is a 14 year old African American boy who was brutally murdered. Emmett was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi and went into a small store. No one knows what happened in it. His friends dared Emmett to ask out Carolyn Bryant, who was insulted and told her husband. Carolyn said he wolf whistled, but he was taught to whistle before saying hard words. Roy Bryant was furious when he figured this out. Later Emmett was taken by J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant. Emmett was beat, tortured, and tied to a cotton gin before he was thrown into a river. His body was so disfigured that his own uncle couldn't recognize his body. A jury of all white men found J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant not guilty. Emmett, a young black child was savagely killed for

Emmett till was born July 25,1941 he was 14 year old boy.His mother sent him to Mississippi to see his family.While there he saw a white women go bye while he was with his friend’s he called the white women out of name.He said”hey baby” to the white women she told her half brother, husband and two of their friends.Outside the house of his uncle the four men kidnapped beat and killed Emmett Till.One month later on September 23, 1955 the body was found and the four men was put on trial for murder of Emmett Till and a all whit jury found them guilty of murder.

In 1931, nine men of the black race were accused of rape to two women of the white race, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. The men were: Charles Weems, 20, Clarence Norris, 19, Andy Wright, 19, Ozie Powell, 15, Olen Montgomery, 17, Eugene Williams, 13, Willie Roberson, 16, Roy Wright, 12, and Haywood Patterson, 18. Eight of the defendants were sentenced to death. The youngest, Roy Wright, was the only one that was not given a death penalty.

In the documentary of The Murder of Emmett Till, a chain of events from August 24, 1955 to August 28, 1955 led to a young boy from the outskirts of Chicago being murdered in a little town called Money, Mississippi. The young boy’s two murders were acquitted of the crime and never faced any charges. Just after his 14th birthday, Emmett went down to Mississippi to visit with family members. Since he was raised in a place where African Americans can hold their head high and not have to cower from white Americans, Emmett Till did not know the extent of the strict segregation laws of the south. With little known knowledge of that he ran right into his death. In summary of the video, Emmett was beaten and murdered because

The fascinating novel, Elijah of Buxton, by Christopher Paul Curtis, is about an 11 year- old boy who was the first African American born free in the 1800s. Elijah went through some harsh times with his family and his neighborhood folks. His friend was struggling with trying to get money back from the Preacher, a thief who stole from him. With the hopes of buying his family out of slavery, Elijah’s friend asks him to help go to Michigan to find the Preacher and get the money back. On this journey, Elijah sees what his parents had to go through. He witnesses slaves getting treated poorly and other cruel acts. The book Elijah of Buxton is connected to three historical events; one of them is slavery. Another topic that is discussed is the abolitionist movement when people helped slaves escape. Last but not least, is the unequal balance of free states and slave states.