Scottsboro Boys Summary

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

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).

It took place on March, 25, 1931 near Scottsboro, Alabama. The 9 african american boys were taken off the train for charges of assault from the whites. Then all 9 boys were accused of rape from white women Victoria Price and Ruby Bates.

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.

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

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).

This is how the story of the Scottsboro Boys begin. March 25, 1931 four African American boys jumped on a freight car in Chattanooga, TN. The boys names were Haywood Patterson, Eugene Williams, Roy and Andy Wright (Aretha 9). A white boy stepped on Patterson’s hand and almost pushed Williams off the train, then the trouble began (Aretha 10). After Patterson stood up for his friends and himself, the white boys got mad and threw rocks at the black youths. The boys from Chattanooga were joined by other black men. After the four from Chattanooga told them about what happened, the four and about 8 others confronted the attackers. A fight broke out and some whites jumped off the train and some were tossed off. One white boy remained, Orville Gilley, because the black boys decided it wouldn’t be safe to toss him off (Aretha 12). There were also two white girls on the train, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates (Aretha 10). The train

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

Although the Great Depression of the 1930’s diminished the American economy, it did not alter the racist tendencies deeply ingrained within the South. One of the most notorious examples of such discrimination is the Scottsboro case; a case were nine black teenage boys were falsely arrested, imprisoned, and sentenced to death for the gang rape of two white women. On March 25th 1931, four black Chattanooga teenagers on a search for new government jobs and five other miscellaneous black teenagers from different locations in Georgia hopped upon the Southern Railroad freight train headed for Memphis, Tennessee. (Linder) After coming up victorious in a rock throwing altercation in the train with a gang out white teenagers, the nine “Scottsboro Boys” were greeted in Paint Rock, Alabama by an army of armed men rushing the freight train. The boys were then arrested for vagrancy and disorder (Brinley 570) Later, two unemployed, female mill workers, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, claimed that twelve black boys wielding knives and pistols gang raped them aboard the train. While the boys were held in prison, one of the girls, Victoria Price, positively identified six of the nine boys that she claimed had “raped her”. Soon the jail was surrounded by hundreds of men protesting for the lynching of the nine boys. The protest got so out of control, Alabama Governor, B. M Miller had to call in the National Guard to protect the boys. The boys underwent a grueling trail, which

One of the main characters with one of the most interesting storylines in To Kill A Mockingbird is Tom Robinson. Tom is an African American man who is blamed for a rape he did not commit only because the woman who accused him, Mayella Ewell, was ashamed that she had feelings for him and was caught by her father kissing a black man. When reading about Tom’s case in this book, many readers may have thought back to a case in the 1930’s about a group of teenagers, identified as the Scottsboro boys, who were accused of raping 2 white women on a train going from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Memphis, Tennessee. There was no evidence that the women had been raped and all of the boys denied