Paper Research on the Scottsboro Boys

Paper Research on the Scottsboro Boys

In 1931, March 25th, nine black young men took the train from Chattanooga to

Memphis, Tennessee, four of them are on their way to looking for job. At the same time,

were also in the train couples of white hobos, and two white girls riding in a different car.

The train was stopped, at the next stop by a crew of fifteen men, and the young black

men, were arrested for assaulting, after a fight broke out between them and the white

hobos. The two white girls, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, who were prostitutes, fearing

to be arrested too, accused the blacks of raping them. The nine blacks boys, whom

ages ranged between twelve to nineteen, were taken and jailed for trial to Jackson

County Seat, Scottsboro, Alabama.

Even though, the fourteenth amendment had been voted, giving the black

populations the expectations of equal protection and the right to due process, and the

fifteenth amendment, stating that the vote should not be restricted on the basis of race,

color or previous condition of servitude, in the South, the former slave owners were not

decided yet to consider the black population as equals in all the senses of the therm.

The segregation was seen and felt everywhere. There was a separation of restaurants,

bathrooms, water fountains, schools, churches just to cite those examples. and the

separate facilities were of course not equal.

In those times, "Extralegal measures such as lynching were also used against

African Americans; it has been estimated that between 1865 and 1930 more than four

thousand lynchings took place in the United States, most in the South and with most

victims being black. The alleged offenses that brought about lynchings of blacks could

be anything from making an improper advance to a white woman to failing to step aside

when a white approached. despite the two amendments cited above, taking a

black on trial, in the South, was just an official way to achieve his lynching. Because, he

was not given an adequate defense, and the whole jury was composed by white men,

usually the same individuals who were promoting the lynch. In fact, the trial just

"allowed the forms of the law to be observed, and permitted the officials and the press

to congratulate the community for its devotion to due process of law, while the end

sought by the lynch mob was also achieved" (Cortner,4).

Therefore, the nine young black men were represented by two white men,

Stephen Roddy and Milo Moody. And they were not the best a black man charged with

assault and rape, could expect as defense. Roddy was an unpaid and unprepared

Chattanooga real estate attorney. Moody was a forgetful seventy-year old local attorney

who did not try a case for years.

This trial was controversial in that, the whole case was based on a big lie. This

case was no more about to apply the law and get justice done, but rather to satisfy the

racist ego of the judicial system of Alabama. Despite the fact that "no physical evidence

suggested that any rape had occurred" (Patterson). Despite the fact that, one of the

accusing girls, Ruby Bates retracted, stating under oath that, the reason why she

supported the accusations of her friend is that because she was afraid of her Eight of

the nine boys had been convicted and sentenced to death, and the twelve-year old, Roy

Wright, was given a life sentence regard to his age.

Another fact which would support