The Scottsboro Case

The Scottsboro Case started off with a group of nine young African American men being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The young men aged from thirteen to twenty. They were accused of raping two white women. These young men had gone off to find a government job hauling logs in Memphis. In order to get to Memphis from Scottsboro they had to ride the freight train. The young boys Olen Montgomery, Clarence Norris, Haywood Patterson, Ozzie Powell, Willie Roberson, Charles Weems, Andrew White, Roy White, and Eugene Williams where held in jail until they went in an all white jury trial twelve days later. Even though there was a little evidence they were quickly convicted. A doctor said that the two women had had sexual relations before the train ride and that there were no bruises of them to show that they were force. Still after being tested the two women said that all nine had raped them. After the examining of the doctor locals said that the young men were guilty and should be treated severely only for the thought that they had dared to assault a white woman.Doing this on that day was probably the biggest mistake these young men could have done. In that freight cart were some white boys who started a fight with the black boys. The train was then stopped and the black young men were arrested. On that train were also two white girls involved in the fight; afraid of being arrested they said that the black men in custody had raped them. This then caused years worth of problems and even deaths. The boys were all divided in three groups according to their age and on how they were going to be punished.

They were all far away or didn't have families to get in contact with and inform what was happening. Out of the nine, eight were sentenced to death and the other one was sentenced to life in prison. Later the cased was over looked and was said to have been done wrong and taken away the constitutional right from the blacks. They were tried again and still ended up being convicted to death. The trial was then send to the Supreme Court being denied due to the Fourteenth Amendment not allowing it then again was send back to lower courts. One of the white girls gives in on not being raped but the doctor wouldn't say how old the semen was when it was found so there still discussion over a rape being involved. The trial keeps going from Supreme Court to lower courts. Five of the cases were dropped and the state agreed to consider parole for the others cases. Two of them were paroled. When the fourth escaped to Michigan, the state refused to return him to Alabama. The Scottsboro case is about nine innocent African American boys accused of raping two white girls. Further in the book To Kill a Mockingbird an African American slave is accused of raping a white girl leading to a trial that Atticus has to defend. This trial leads to a lot of problems in the city of Maycomb. So in both cases the African Americans are accused falsely of raping white