The Tragedy of the Scottsboro Boys

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Recommended: Racial discrimination in the justice system

During the Great Depression jobs were hard to come by for whites but for blacks it was practically impossible. Several individuals jumped trains to get from city to city in search for work. On March 25, 1931, numerous people were hoboing on a freight train traveling from Chattanooga to Memphis, Tennessee. A number of white and black teenagers on the train got in a fight which resulted in the white boys getting thrown off the train. They told a sheriff about the fight and he gathered a posse to stop and search the train at the next stop, Paint Rock, Alabama. Nine black teenagers were arrested: Roy Wright, Clarence Norris, Olen Montgomery, Andy Wright, Willie Roberson, Ozie Powell, Eugene Williams, Charlie Weems, and Haywood Patterson. While under the assumption that they were only being arrested for beating up the white boys, their troubles were only begin when, two young white women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, accused the teenagers of rape.
Scottsboro, Alabama was the location of the first trials. After the three rushed trials all but thirteen-year-old Roy Wright were convicted of rape and sentenced to death. The American Communist Party, founded by C. E. Ruthenberg, was organized to complete equality for African Americans. They sent Mr. Louis Leibowitz a powerful attorney to help get the boys’ cases appealed after the first trial was determined unfair. The Alabama Supreme Court resentenced seven of the eight convicted to death, but they granted both Roy Wright and Eugene Williams new juvenile trials because they were only thirteen. Chief Justice John C. Anderson ruling that the defendants had been denied an impartial jury, a fair trial, a fair sentencing, and effective counsel lead to more trials. Eight of the nine defendant...

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Cates, David. The Scottsboro Boys. Minneapolis, MN: ABDO Pub., 2012. Print.

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Haskins, James. The Scottsboro Boys. New York: H. Holt and, 1994. Print.

Horne, Gerald. Powell v. Alabama: The Scottsboro Boys and American Justice. New York: Franklin Watts, 1997. Print.

James, Bill. Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence. New York: Scribner, 2011. Print.

Linder, Douglas O. "Scottboro Boys." Scottboro Boys. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2014.

Norris, Clarence, and Sybil D. Washington. The Last of the Scottsboro Boys. New York: Putman's, 1979. Print.

Randsdall, Hollace. "The First Scottsboro Trials." The First Scottsboro Trials. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.

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