The Scottsboro Case

432 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects of the dred scott case on african americans

The Scottsboro Case

What happens when society as a whole despises black people, and wish nothing but the worst for them? In the Scottsboro Trial that is what happened. Twelve young black males were accused of raping two white females on a train. The societies values are looked at in this case and whether or not the values in the nineteen thirties was as amiable as they wanted to be perceived.

In the Scottsboro Trial Victoria Price was asked to testify against her assailants, and tell the court what they wanted to hear. Victoria Price was bribed with money from the Sheriff to say that she was raped by the black males that were on the train (127). The other girl that was supposedly raped was seventeen years old her name was Ruby Bates. She also was bribed by the sheriff to give a false testimony to the court to ensure the death of these black men. In the state of Alabama it was a guarantee that any black man accused of rape would face the harshest penalty there was which in these cases was death (119). No matter what the facts said the men were going to die even if they were innocent (119). There is no sense of values in society in the trial of the Scottsboro case. There are just a bunch of white aristocrats that are looking for another way to perform an act of ethnic cleansing so that their race will stand out predominately over any other.

One person who did demonstrate good judgement and values was the judge. This one person jeopardized his whole political career to see that just was served, and was served right (135). The judge James E. Horton risked his all to bring justice to this case. He deliberated over the evidence that was presented, and after seeing the letter that stated that Victoria Price did lie on the stand made the case that much easier to reign over.

Victoria Price was shown to have no moral values at all. It was noted that she told the white people that were in jail with her that they should go with her story because they would get off on a lighter sentence (134). Also it is noted that Victoria Price was sworn to say that six men raped her.

Show More
Related

  • The Review of Dan T. Carter’s Scottsboro

    1377 Words  | 3 Pages

    While segregation of the races between Blacks and Whites, de facto race discrimination, had been widespread across the United States by the 1930s, nine African-American Scottsboro Boys whose names are Ozzie Powell, Eugene Williams, Charlie Weems, Willie Robeson, Olen Montgomery, Roy and Andy Wright, Clarence Norris and Heywood Paterson were accused of raping two young white women named Victoria Price and Ruby Bates in Alabama in 1931. Along with the dominant influences of the Scottsboro cases on American civil rights history, the landmark case has substantial impacts on the U.S. Constitution primarily in that U.S. Supreme Court ascertained a defendant’s right to effective counsel.

    Read More

  • Stories of Scottsboro by James E. Goodman

    798 Words  | 2 Pages

    On March 25, 1931 nine African American youths were falsely accused and wrongfully imprisoned for the rape of two white girls. Over the next six consecutive years, trials were held to attempt to prove the innocence of these nine young men. The court battles ranged from the U.S Supreme court to the Scottsboro county court with almost every decision the same---guilty. Finally, with the proceedings draining Alabama financially and politically, four of the boys ...

    Read More

  • Analysis of the New Jim Crow by Professor Michelle Alexander

    761 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ty and their survival as a group in society because of restraint from the federal government in the ability to litigate their plight in Court. The Author transitions the past and present signatures of Jim Crow and the New Jim Crow with the suggestion that the New Jim Crow, by mass incarceration and racism as a whole, is marginalizes and relegates Blacks to residential, educational and constitutionally endowed service to Country.

    Read More

  • Racial Bias and Injustice: North Carolina's Interracial Rape Cases

    771 Words  | 2 Pages

    The article “Interracial Rape Cases in North Carolina” reminds me one of Harper Lee’s famous novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” as Tom Robinson was accused from raping Mayella. The entire trial, to the guilty verdict, were all racially biased. Yet, there is a long way to go for the world to get rids of its injustices, and injustices will comply with the society for many years to come. Race and inequality are often related together because of the racial segregation in the 1800s. During that time, racial inequalities had increased dramatically. To study this scenario, the article “Interracial Rape Cases in North Carolina” portrayed several evidences of how blacks slaves were falsely accused rape; they seem hopeless and eventually sentenced to death. Yet they did have evidences to prove them innocent, however, everything does not go as was hoped. What it was like

    Read More

  • The Scottsboro Turning Point

    1180 Words  | 3 Pages

    When Samuel Leibovitz was hired as the attorney for the nine convicted boys, news of the trial spread to the north. People saw this trial as a blatant disregard for equality. Incensed by this injustice, Americans banded together to protest the prosecutor of the case, or the state of Alabama. During the myriad of rallies, people were not as concerned about their race as they were about the Scottsboro Boys. Both whites and blacks marched together to support the cause. Soon, the phrase, “Blacks and whites unite and fight!” became widespread throughout the rallies. Americans were able to overcome the petty issue of race and focus instead on injustice, bringing them closer together. This shows that the Scottsboro trials were not just a watershed legal matter, but also a significant step towards better race relations in America. Events in which blacks and whites would march side by side, uncaring of their backgrounds, were rare in the United States. Such an occurrence only happened once before. This was in the time of the abolitionist movement, an effort to free slaves almost sixty years before the inception of the Scottsboro trials. Therefore, this prominent series of trials brought together Americans of all races, and thus, impacted the nation

    Read More

  • How Does Lee Use Injustice In To Kill A Mockingbird

    546 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Mayella Ewell’s case we see many examples of discrimination because she makes up a whole story that Tom Robinson rapped when it clearly wasn’t true. She made up the story because her dad saw her when she was asking a black man to kiss her, when she came back inside her dad beat her and even threaten to kill her and that's when she made up the story of Tom Robinson it was because of her reputation if Tom Robinson was white he would of never been to the trial but just because he is an African American people see him as being bad or dangerous

    Read More

  • Presley V. Georgia Case Study

    222 Words  | 1 Pages

    Facts: In Georgia, Eric Presley was convicted of cocaine-trafficking in Dekalb County. Before potential jurors entered the courtroom, the judge noticed an observer, who was a relative to Presley, and asked the observer to leave the courtroom, on the basis of there not being enough room in the court for observers and jurors. Later, Presley asked for a retrial on the basis of the public being barred from the courtroom. He mentioned that there was, in fact, room in the courts for observers, but the trial courts denied him, as well as The Court of Appeals of Georgia and the Supreme Court of Georgia.

    Read More

  • The Scottsboro Trials and To Kill A Mockingbird

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    While talking to the police, the women accused all of the black men of raping them. These women were known prostitutes of the area, but their word was still taken over the black men who were accused. Twelve days later, the trial took place. There were many witnesses that held bias towards the black men. One acquaintance of the women was a white lady who refused to support the lies that were coming out of the white women's mouths.

    Read More

  • How Did Emmett Till Dehumanized

    702 Words  | 2 Pages

    Emmett Till made the ultimate sacrifice and has shown what could lie in the future if a change is not made (Latson). Rosa Parks’s resistance to the racial segregation of the buses has inspired action in the NAACP and has shown the potential of what they could accomplish if blacks continue to defy racism. The prejudice among the white jury members clouded their judgment in the Scottsboro Trials, leaving them unable to fairly deduce a reasonable punishment or verdict. These trials making national news has made African Americans eager to combat and uncover the malpractices in the court. Till’s, Parks’s, and the Scottsboro Boys’s sacrifices were not in vain. They exposed the circumstances that African Americans had to endure and rallied them to protest the inequalities between races. Their actions were the impetus of the Civil Rights

    Read More

  • Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird

    1363 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ling, P.J. “A White Woman’s Word: The Scottsboro Case (1931).” Race On Trial. Ed. Annette Gordon-Reed. New York: Oxford, 2002. 118-138.

    Read More

  • scottsboro boys

    786 Words  | 2 Pages

    Twelve days after the arrest of the men, trial began. Six of the black men denied ever raping the women or to have even seen them, but due to the beatings and assaults taken place in jail three of the men falsely admitted to sexually abusing the two women, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price. The NAACP did not rush to defend the men because they were concerned about what might happen if the boys did indeed turn out to the guilty. The communist rushed to the black men’s side because they saw it as a way to bring in Southern bl...

    Read More

  • The Rosewood Paper

    617 Words  | 2 Pages

    Singleton’s film, Rosewood displayed the hostility, misconceptions, and stereotypes against African Americans. In the film a white female Fannie Taylor falsely accused a black man of raping her after her secret lover beat her. After, she made the accusations the white mob went to a random black man house and brutally beat him. Ellis a man who knew Fannie Taylor for several years didn’t believe her, but he did not speak up either and say otherwise until the end of the film. That’s where the attacks and many deaths of African Americans started. I felt like if Ellis would have spoken up and said Fannie Taylor was lying deaths that occurred would have not happen. For instance, the death of Ms. Sarah an African American older woman who help raise many of the men in the white mob. Also, these actions that took place made me frustrated and angry with Ellis personally. It made me ask several questions on why every black person or man in sight was shot at, lynched, beat, o...

    Read More

  • Essay On The History Of The Jury System

    638 Words  | 2 Pages

    The crowded courtroom was absolutely silent as the 12 all white and all men took their seats at the jury box. Chief Justice Albert Mason, one of the presiding judges in the murder case, asked Charles I. Richards, the foreman, to rise. Mr. Richards was asked to read the verdict. “Not guilty”, replied the foreman. Even though the circumstantial and physical evidence pointed to Lizzie Borden guilty of killing her step-mother and father, the all-male jury, men of some financial means, could not fathom that a woman who is well bred and a Sunday school teacher could possibly do such a heinous crime (Linder 7).

    Read More

  • The Impact of the Dred Scott Case on the United States

    1457 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Impact of the Dred Scott Case on the United States The Dred Scott Case had a huge impact on the United States as it is today. The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments have called it the worst Supreme Court decision ever rendered and was later overturned. The Dred Scott Decision was a key case regarding the issue of slavery; the case started as a slave seeking his rightful freedom and mushroomed into a whole lot more. 65

    Read More

  • Comparison Of The Salem Witch Trials And Mccarthyism

    811 Words  | 2 Pages

    Multiple killings of innocent, unarmed people seemed to spark the rise of social injustice of African Americans. Such as Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner. The comparison of the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism, social injustice against African Americans became greatly common in today's society. The unjust accusations of a specific group of people because of their race or beliefs influenced The Salem Witch Trials, McCarthyism, and the killings of African Americans. These accusations didn’t just lead to killings but an uproar in the African American community.

    Read More

More about The Scottsboro Case

Open Document