Scottsboro Boys Trials

Gurpreet Saini

Period 4

Scottsboro Boys Trials

The ideology behind the American legal system is you are innocent until proven guilty. There have been many cases in history where this is not the case. One of the most well-known and pointless cases of 20th century America is the Scottsboro boys Trials. In 1932 nine African boys ranging from the ages of 13-21 hopped onto a train headed to Memphis. They were pulled off and arrested after two white girls, Ruby bates and Victoria Price accused them rape. One of these two girls happened to have been a prostitute. The reasons why the Scottsboro boys were given an unfair trial were because they were black men living in the racist and segregated south. The evidence that was presented during the trials was insufficient and not all evidence was presented. The jury consisted of all white folks who were racist.

All the boys on the Scottsboro trial were black living in a country that largely discriminated to collared people. The 1930's American south was the capital of segregation. This segregation put black people at a disadvantage to white folks. When they were in prison, the boys were being tormented and abused by the guards. Many cases similar to the Scottsboro still occur in the U.S due to racism. Since the boys were black they were easily to be accused for the rape of the two white women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. Having to live in a society that historically discriminated against blacks, the race of those convicted in the Scottsboro case would lead to an unfair trial.

The case began on April 6th 1931; the boys had a white judge and all white jury. They were inherently racist. Just because the boys were black people they did not believe or agree with anything they were trying to explain. The whole trial was unorganized and everything that was stated was false. Since the jury was a white person they did not show respect for the boys. As early as the 1920s racism between black and white has caused many problems in the U.S and it later ended in the late 1960s. For example, the incident of Rosa Parks is a later case due to racism. Parks was an "African American civil right movement activist", she refuses to give up her seat for a white person in a public bus and then got arrested. This shows that if you were a black person during that time, you were like a disease to white people. That being said the Scottsboro boys were black and were hated by the whites and there was no right for the boys to argue with them, that is why this makes is an unfair trial.

Since the only evidence they've got was from the two women, no physical evidence to prove the boys guilty. The evidence was only told by the victims, saying that they were raped by the group of guys. When one of the judges (James Horton) when to speak privately with