...70-year-old case of the “Scottsboro Boys” still generates little waves in our national conscience. That case bounced through the state courts of Alabama and eventually the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1930s, touching raw nerves for years. The "Scottsboro Boys" were nine African American teens arrested for rape in 1931, on the words of two twenty-something women who were white. Lives were ruined, even though one girl recanted and no evidence ever supported the charges. One of the defendants was only twelve, another thirteen, but they were convicted along with the others. In 1931, the Depression forced many kids from home, where their families couldn't feed them. Young kids dropped out of school to hop freight trains going to big cities, looking for work. A gang of black males jumped on a train to Memphis, along with at least two white males, also looking for jobs. A stone-throwing fight between the races started as the train crossed into Alabama. The whites called authorities, and an armed posse stormed the train at the next stop. They caught nine black teens and tied them up on a flatbed train. Two white women claimed they were raped by a dozen armed, black teens and one woman identified six of the tied-up kids. The Alabama authorities figured that the remaining three must have raped the other girl, and that three rapists got away. No one questioned the girls' words-except one of the accused, who was struck by a bayonet when he called her a liar. The nine were shipped to Scottsboro. Hundreds...
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...The nine young African Americans were recognized as the “Scottsboro boys” They were accused of raped of two white women on a train toward Alabama in 1931. The white jury convicted eight of them. All except one, the youngest at 12 years old, and were sentenced to death. The story of the Scottsboro Boys is important not only in civil rights history, but also in the evolution of constitutional law, for it was this case that led to a more wide-reaching, interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of "equal protection under the law" and of "due process of law." The case also expanded the scope of the Sixth Amendment's assurance of a defendant's right to "have the assistance of counsel." Specifically, the case ultimately resulted in...
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...The Scottsboro Trials is a case that lasted from 1931-1937. The case was about 9 black men (ages ranged from 12-19) who were accused of raping two women after a fight on a train to Tennessee. The case caused a huge outbreak across the nation. Riots and protests for the men accused. The case went to several judges, several trials, several lawyers and attorneys, and organizations got involved in the case. It sparked a bunch of racism and inequality in the Alabama Court systems and changed the way they use their jury’s, even to this day. The accusations of : Olen Montgomery, Clarence Norris, Haywood Patterson, Ozie Powell, Willie Roberson, Charlie Weems, Eugene Williams, and brothers Andy and Roy Wright On March 24. 1931, 9 black men were accused of raping two women, Ruby Bates and...
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...the Scottsboro trial made a profound impact on American history, and marks a realization to many Americans during that time period. The Scottsboro Trials, are the greatest American tragedy, that still chokes up anyone who; hears, reads or watches how it unfolded in real life. These multiple unjust trials started on April 9, 1931, in Scottsboro, Alabama, when nine young African...
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...raping two white girls on a train in Scottsboro, Alabama. In all actuality, the Scottsboro Boys were minding their own business when a white man stepped on Haywood Patterson’s hand which led to a fight between the two groups of boys. The black boys won the fight and threw the others off of the train, but were met by police at the next stop who were told by two white women that they had been raped. Those boys were found guilty and had a retrial several times, they even went to the Supreme Court twice just to become free. Only one of the boys was never found not guilty and that was Haywood Patterson, so he ended up escaping prison to finally become free from the grasps of Alabama. The PBS short film on the Scottsboro Boys had displayed the impact of the Scottsboro Boys on African American history. To begin with, the Scottsboro Trials had a great deal of impact on the way the legal system was ran in the United States of America. Black defendants were allowed the right to have a fair case, and to make this happen they would have half of the jury be black. That right had to be passed on because of the fact that there were way...
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...The Scottsboro boys are one of the most prime examples in US history of injustice and Racial Bigotry. On March 25, 1931 a group of black men boarded a train with the purpose of finding work in Memphis. When a fight broke out between the Scottsboro boys and a group of whites, the men involved found that the solution to their quarrel wouldbe to accuse the black men of assault. Of course during this time period assault of a white man by a black was a very major deal, the real issue came when two white women accused the Scottsboro boys of rape. The women (who also had a history of prostitution) feared vagrancy charges and thought that a way to avoid them would be to plea rape in a larger case. Thousands of people in history have been falsely accused...
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...American people to be judged without bias. The case of the Scottsboro Boys proves this to be true. In 1931, late March, nine black men boarded a train heading South, in hopes of finding work. As the train came to a stop in Alabama, a group of white youth and the black men got into a quarrel. There weren't as many of the white youths, so they ended up being the ones that got beat up. Not content with how the fight turned out, a few of them reported an altercation between the two ladies on board and the black men. When the police boarded the train at the next stop, the two women accused the men of raping them. The police took all of them into custody and had Victoria Price and Ruby Bated sent to a doctor. A week went by before the alleged rape was dealt with in Scottsboro, Alabama (Hanes 161). Before the trial even began, everyone knew what the final verdict would be. Doctors had proven the fact that that there were no indications of rape or trauma from the incident, but refused to testify in order to save their business. All boys were given the death penalty upon completion of the trial, except for the twelve-year old boy, who had a mistrial. The Scottsboro Boys were all...
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...One of the most significant cases of black oppression happened in 1931. There were nine black teenagers (who people now refer to as the Scottsboro boys) and a few of them got into a fight with some white teenagers. The fight happened because the white teenagers were trying to push all the black people off the train saying it was “a white man's train.” The train stopped in Scottsboro, Alabama because of this. Nine black teenagers, the white guys, and two white women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates all got off the train. The white teenagers said they were attacked by the black teenagers and the two woman said that the black teenagers raped them. The town immediately took the Scottsboro boys to jail. The Scottsboro boys had a one day trial and...
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...Scottsboro Boys The Scottsboro Boys is known as a minstrel show. A minstrel show consists of comic relief, a variety of acting, dancing and music by white people in blackface or black people in blackface. This particular show consisted of black people in blackface. However, minstrel shows portray black people as dim-witted, lazy, and careless. The nine Scottsboro boys were accused in Alabama for raping two white women on a train in the 1930s. The landmark of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism, the right to a fair trial, and miscarriage of justice. The cases included an angry murder crowd before the suspects were charged, an entrapment, a completely white jury, and rushed trials. Throughout these trials, the boys received very poor legal representation, and even though there was medical evidence to suggest that they had not committed the crime, eight of the boys were convicted. The youngest, Eugene was given a new trial because he was a juvenile. The other boys were held in Kirby Prison, having their case appealed twice to the United States Supreme Court. During the return of the case to the lower court, one of the girls, Ruby admitted to fabricating the rape accusations and explained that none of the Scottsboro boys touched her or her friend, Victoria. The jury still managed to find the defendants guilty. Another trial, with one black member within the jury, freed four more of the Scottsboro boys. Of those who remained in prison, one was shot by a prison guard...
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...Historical Influences on To Kill a Mockingbird During the 1930’s America’s worst depression was in effect (McCabe 12). This inspired Harper Lee to write her most famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Many real life events were used to inspire Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Some of the events she used are the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials. The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws are a set of laws that were racist and focused mainly towards Blacks (Pilgrim). The laws were most enforced in the south in 1877 through the 1960’s (Pilgrim). Most people made these laws were created because mindset of the creators was that they were superior to all Blacks (Pilgrim). Some of the punishments for committing a crime against these laws were severe including lynching, taking their jobs, or taking their homes (Pilgrim). Jim Crow laws can be seen in To Kill a...
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...In the 1920s and early 1930s a movement called the Harlem Renaissance took place. This was a literary, artistic and intellectual movement that created a new black cultural identity ("Harlem Renaissance," n.d.). There was an important group that was created during the Harlem Renaissance known as the NAACP. Also, there were important trials such as Sacco and Vanzetti, and the conviction in Scottsboro, Alabama. During the Harlem Renaissance many famous writers such as Paul Dunbar, and Langston Hughes wrote about what african americans experienced during this time. An influential poem written by Paul Dunbar during the Harlem Renaissance is We Wear the Mask, which talks about disguising our feelings. Langston Hughes also wrote influential poems such as I, Too and Song for a Dark Girl . There were many important things that happened during the Harlem Renaissance, including the creation of influential poems by...
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...America has seen a fair share of changes throughout history, one of which is the story of Clarence Earl Gideon. Gideon Petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States of America for a writ of certiorari, founded in his belief that he, a poor man, should have the right to an attorney after he was convicted of robbing a pool house in the early 1960’s. Despite originally being found guilty, Gideon was determined to appeal to the courts and gain his freedom under the premise that his right to due process of law was violated. He created a movement in history that led to the establishment of universal right to counsel within the United States legal system. After a tedious case, that did not look as though it would bode well for Gideon, he was successful in persuading the Supreme Court to accept his appeal....
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...Racial differences have been notices for centuries leading to the mistreatment of a person. The first looks of racism can be seen in slaves usually taken for labor to build empires or as prisoners of war. It has taken an extensive amount of time for those who thought of themselves as superior to realize that everyone is equal. Even now in 2016 there are still events in which people express their disdain of a person for their race. The transition to the tolerance we have today has been an onerous path for many especially for those who suffered an unfair trial. To Kill A Mockingbird, the Scottsboro Trial, the Emmett Till Murder Trial, the Coca-Cola lawsuit, and EEOC vs. Rizza Cadillac are clear examples of how it seems like the United States...
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...errors lead to circumstances in which an innocent is found guilty; this is called a miscarriage of justice. Miscarriage of justice means the failure of a judicial system or court in the administration of justice, especially when an innocent is convicted in a crime (Dictionary.com, 2007). Miscarriage of justice is also known as wrongful conviction. If someone is wrongfully convicted, that person is punished for an offence he or she did not commit and the actual perpetrator of the crime goes free. As well, public confidence in the system declines when wrongful convictions are identified. There are several elements that cause a miscarriage of justice, such as non-disclosure of evidence by police or prosecution, confirmation bias on the part of investigators, fabrication of evidence, poor identification, and unreliable confessions due to police pressure or psychological instability. They are all considered unjust as they violate the principle of justice. The three major causes for wrongful conviction are false confession, eyewitness error, and official misconduct. When a defendant has confessed to committing a crime, the vast majority of police, prosecutors, and jurors see it as rock-solid evidence of guilt. Many of these involved children or suspects with mental illnesses or mental retardation. Even more cases involve adults with no history of mental illness or retardation who...
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...The Civil War brought significant changes for African Americans, as they were freed from slavery. However, rather than achieving complete legal, political, and economic equality during the Reconstruction Era, which lasted from the end of the Civil War until 1877, African Americans continued to be second class citizens. As will be argued in this paper, African Americans experienced hardship and significant discrimination after 1877 due to racist laws, social, economic, and educational inequality; however, as laws and cultural sentiments about blacks changed during the Civil Rights Era, African Americans today have more political, economic, and educational opportunities than ever before. On the following pages, this paper will trace the path of African Americans to equality by discussing salient events in African American history from 1877 to the present. Significantly, as the author believes, while progress has been made since the nineteenth century, complete equality remains elusive even today for many African American men and women. The end of slavery did by no means lead to the immediate equality of African Americans in American society. The years after the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era, were characterized by wide-spread discrimination against African Americans. In the South, so-called Jim Crow laws effectively barred African Americans from having very basic civil liberties. Public and social life in the South but also in other places in the United States, was strictly...
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