| Scottsboro Boys |
Limousines in Scottsboro |
Website Links For Scottsboro |
Information AboutScottsboro Boys |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT SCOTTSBORO BOYS | |
| history of african-american civil rights | |
| history of alabama | |
| 1930s in the united states | |
| local civil rights history | |
| united states wrongfully convicted people | |
|
THE BEGINNINGS March 25 , 1931 , a fight between black and white broke out on a Southern Railway Freight Train after a white man stepped on a black man, Haywood Patterson. All the white men except Orville Gilley were forced off. When the train stopped in Paint Rock, Alabama , the nine blacks were arrested on charges of Assault . Two women dressed in boys' clothing, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, were found hiding on the freight train as well. They were all taken to Scottsboro, Alabama , the Jackson County seat. The two women agreed to testify against the nine blacks on a rape charge. After a Lynch Mob gathered, the Governor Of Alabama , Benjamin M. Miller , was forced to call the National Guard to protect the jail. On March 30 , the Scottsboro Boys were indicted by a Grand Jury , and in April all were convicted and sentenced to death, except for one thirteen year old boy, who was sentenced to life in prison. In April, the National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People and the International Labor Defense (legal arm of the Communist Party USA ) both took up the case, but the NAACP dropped the case in January, 1932. Despite the fact Ruby Bates appeared in court and denied that she was ever raped, the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed the convictions of seven of the boys in March, 1932. The reason Ruby Bates's claim was so overlooked was because she appeared before the court as a Northerner; dressed in modest clothing and the general feeling the jury and court felt was as though she had only changed her claim because anti-racism/abolitionists in the North had paid her to do so. Samuel Leibowitz , a noted Jewish attorney from New York who was widely known for winning the vast majority of his criminal cases, defended the boys. THE END OF THE CASE In July, 1937, Clarence Norris was convicted of Rape and sentenced to death, Andy Wright was convicted of rape and sentenced to 99 years, and Charlie Weems was convicted and sentenced to 75 years in prison. Ozie Powell pleaded guilty to assaulting the Sheriff and was sentenced to 20 years. In addition, four of the boys, Roy Wright, Eugene Williams, Olen Montgomery and Willie Roberson, were released after all charges against them were dropped. Later, Governor of Alabama Bibb Graves reduced Clarence Norris' death sentence to life in prison. Norris was later pardoned by the governor. All of the Scottsboro Boys were eventually paroled, freed or pardoned, except for Haywood Patterson, who was tried and convicted of rape and given the death penalty four times. He escaped north to Detroit, Michigan . When he was later arrested by the Federal Bureau Of Investigation in the 1950s , Governor Of Michigan G. Mennen Williams did not allow him to be extradited back to Alabama. THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS
SEE ALSO FURTHER READING
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|