One of the most historical trials in the U.S was the trial of the Scottsboro Boys. In actuality, it was a crime of racism against nine black adolescents, and a great shame for the nation because of the injustice it caused. The major characters of both trials of To Kill a Mockingbird and the Scottsboro Boys resemble each other in attitudes and testimonies. They also experience similar physical limitations and discrimination.
The Scottsboro case began on the 25th of March, 1931 with the accusation of rape against nine black youths. Two white young ladies, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, and several young black and white men rode the Southern Railroad’s Chattanooga to Memphis freight (Linder, The Trials of “The Scottsboro Boys”). A stone-throwing
In both the novel and the trial, the girls told shaky testimonies that weren't entirely convincing to the defendants’ lawyers. Victoria Price claimed that six black youths raped her while another six raped Ruby Bates, and that three of Bates’ attackers escaped from the train before it stopped (Ransdall). There was no mention of evidence given to prove there were 12 black youths present on the train (Ransdall). During Mayella’s testimony, Atticus shows one of his best skills when he precisely recounts her wavering
Both lawyers had a strong sense of justice, which they wanted to relay onto the juries. One of the most important actions Liebowitz first took was challenge Alabama’s exclusion of blacks from the jury rolls, which then led to the reversed convictions of Clarence Norris and Haywood Patterson (Linder, The Trials of “The Scottsboro Boys”). One was Atticus’ main actions was his final speech, which was one that was clear and meant to incite a feeling of justice to the jury:
But there is one way in this county in which all men are created equal-there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of
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.
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 ...
On March 25, 1931, Victoria Price, a known prostitute, and Ruby Bates accused nine Negroes of raping them on a train in Northern Alabama. The trial took place in Scottsboro, amid much anti-black sentiment. An all white jury sentenced eight of the nine to death, despite the fact that one was blind and one could...
The Scottsboro trials occurred on March 25th, 1931. On trial were nine falsely accused black boys who had been the accused rapists of two white women. Similarly, In To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, a black man, was tried for the rape of a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. In both trials the men were found guilty and sentence to life in prison or death.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is one of the most successful works of fiction in American Literature. Although To Kill a Mockingbird is classified as a work of fiction, there is evidence to support the claim that To Kill a Mockingbird was modeled after the Scottsboro Trials of 1931. There are many parallels between the trial of Tom Robinson and the Scottsboro Trials. The Scottsboro Boys were nine, young, African American men who were falsely accused of raping two white women while illegally riding a train in Alabama. Harper Lee was also about six years old when these trials took place. This is the reason why Harper Lee chose to write her novel through the eyes of a six year old. The trials inspired her to write To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper
To Kill a Mockingbird is inspired by the events that occurred during Harper Lee’s childhood. The setting in her novel is an allusion to her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama around the time of the Scottsboro Boys Trials. In this novel, Lee illustrates the evils of racism to communicate the theme that everyone should be treated equally, not by the color of the person’s skin.
When Scout complains about her teacher, Atticus tells her that “if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” (Lee 33). In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch teaches his daughter moral values as he prepares to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, who has been charged with raping a white woman. Harper Lee was influenced by court cases that were based on the racial prejudice of blacks. One of those cases was the Scottsboro Trial of 1931, in which nine African American males were falsely accused of raping two white women while on a train to Memphis. The trial began on April 6, 1931, and lasted just three days. Eight of the nine boys were found guilty and sentenced to death. Because the Scottsboro Boys’ first trial was appealed, it was sent to the Alabama Supreme Court, and then sent to the United States Supreme Court. The Court ordered new trials because the Scottsboro defendants had not had adequate legal representation. (Gerdes 250). The case against one of the boys, Haywood Patterson, began in Decatur, Alabama, on March 27 with Judge James Horton presiding. During this trial one of the white girls, Ruby Bates, said they were not raped while two physicians concluded that the girls were not raped either. On April 9, 1933, the first defendant, Haywood Patterson, was sentenced to execution, but Judge Horton ordered a new trial because the evidence did not warrant conviction. Even though the novel is fictional and the court case is real, the trial of Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird, and the Scottsboro Boys trial were similar be...
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
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Twelve Angry men by Reginald Rose and The Scottsboro Trial are all about unfair trials containing discrimination towards different people and people being prejudice .The peoples action towards the defendants affected them for the rest of their life. Many of the people that came into the court brought in their own social problems and that influenced the verdict.
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 wanted to the black people and get away with it. In both trials lynch mobs were formed to threaten the black people who were accused. Judge Hornton tried many times to move the case to a different place so that a fair trial could take place and not be interrupted by the racist people. Finally was granted to move the case even though the lynch mobs threatened to kill everyone who was involved in the case if it were to be moved. In this essay the bias and racism in both trials are going to be clarified and compared to each other.
Although abolition of slavery in the South coincided with the conclusion of the Civil War, a century of institutionalized racism was widespread in the former Confederacy. This institutionalized racism came in the form of the Jim Crow laws. It was a social norm to look at African Americans as inferior or even harmful to the White population. Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan roamed around "defending" the white population from the African Americans. This defense came in forms of public executions (lynching) or intimidation. Another fear the White Southerners had was the fear of black men exploiting white women. This fear led to many imprisonments and murders of falsely accused African American men. On March 25th, 1931, nine young African American boys were accused of raping two young white women on a train. These nine eventually became known as the Scottsboro Boys, named after the town where they were arrested. Although the boys had a lawyer fighting for them, the trial was over and the guilty verdict came automatically due to the Jim Crow mindsets of the citizens of Alabama. The unfair trials that the Scottsboro boys received are the results of the institutionalized racism in the South; this case revealed the injustice that prevailed in the American South.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee seems like a complete replica of the lives of people living in a small Southern U.S. town. The themes expressed in this novel are as relevant today as when this novel was written, and also the most significant literary devices used by Lee. The novel brings forward many important themes, such as the importance of education, recognition of inner courage, and the misfortunes of prejudice. This novel was written in the 1930s. This was the period of the “Great Depression” when it was very common to see people without jobs, homes and food. In those days, the rivalry between the whites and the blacks deepened even more due to the competition for the few available jobs. A very famous court case at that time was the Scottsboro trials. These trials were based on the accusation against nine black men for raping two white women. These trials began on March 25, 1931. The Scottsboro trials were very similar to Tom Robinson’s trial. The similarities include the time factor and also the fact that in both cases, white women accused black men.
Similar to the Tom Robinson case, the Scottsboro boys were falsely accused of rape. Even though there was no evidence provided for the prosecution, they were convicted due to the injustice of the time. Furthermore, there is a relationship between the Emmett Till incident and the novel. In both cases whites went against the law and lynched, or attempted to lynch, the African American and were not punished for it. Finally, the stories are all on common terms in that the conflicts involved white men trying to keep African American males away from white girls, even if the African Americans never actually did anything
The litigants, the Ewells, and the defendant, Tom Robinson, a kind, black man, represented the two lower classes. The jury's decision proved one sad, undeniable fact: when a black man's word went against a white man's word, the white man, regardless of his background or his character, would always be victorious. Despite the jury's doubts pertaining to the Ewells' accusations against a Black man, they had to find in favor of Mayella because she was white. In spite of the jury's knowledge of Tom Robinson's character, they could not allow Mayella 's accusations to go unanswered. To do so would have made the two races equal, an idea which was unconscionable at that time. There was no justice or mercy for a Black man, even one as upstanding as Tom Robinson. Atticus may have stated this point best when referring to the jury's decision, "They've done it before and they did it tonight and they'll do it again and when they do it, seems that only children weep" (Lee page #).
The strong prejudices and social strata of Maycomb County had a negative effect on the events in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. This fact was evident in the trial of Tom Robinson, an innocent black man unjustly convicted of rape. Atticus is correct. Many atrocities will be committed in the name of justice until we learn to be compassionate and understanding of the problems and conditions of life faced by other people(Lee 137).