The forefathers of the United States built this country on the ideals of freedom and equality for all people. Unfortunately, the fight for equality and freedom did not end with the revolutionary war. The fight has continued throughout the decades. Many of these issues were fought in the courtroom. Auburn University created an online Alabama Encyclopedia, there, the following quote stated, “Scottsboro became an international cause celebre that dramatically encapsulated the American south troubled post reconstruction history of legal and extralegal racial violence, the social and political upheaval of the great depression, and the lingering cultural divide between the north and south.” (Scottsboro trials). The Fourteenth amendment clearly states …show more content…
Many people were hopping onto freight trains to travel to the next city in hopes of finding work. A website and museum dedicated to the Scottsboro boys described the event which led to their imprisonment. A museum and organization that speaks on the boys lives and what injustice they had said that on March 25, 1931 nine black teens ages thirteen to nineteen and many other people were aboard a freight train heading South (“History”). A famous author and historian said a fight broke out when a white male stepped on Haywood Patterson 's hand. A stone throwing fight ensued. The black youths managed to push all but one white youth off the train. The white men went to the next city and reported an “assault by a gang of blacks.” When the train stopped at Paint Rock the nine black youths were arrested in Alabama and sent to jail to await their trials (Linder). The creator of the website”The trials of the Scottsboro Boys” said that there were two girls on the train near the boys these two white girls named Victoria Prince and Ruby Bates falsely accused the nine boys of rape. The girls said the boys had pistols and knives and chased them through different carts of the train and raped them(Linder). This was the beginning of years of jail, retrials, and waiting death row for a crime the Scottsboro boys did not
In this paper it will talk about how the girls were in this case. The scottsboro case was about a group of men that were accused for rapping two women on a train, in the 1930s. Tom Robinson’s case was about him rapping a white women. In the book to kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee. To kill a mockingbird is about Atticus defending a man named Tom Robinson.
Scottsboro Trials Racism played a part in the Scottsboro trial. According to Jack Schafer, racism is the intentional abuse of social custom and legislative power that prevents a race to make decision. Racism can happens for many reasons one is that people push other races down to gain higher status (Rutledge). Another reason people would discriminate against other races is to keep power over those people (Schafer). From the Scottsboro trails the reader can see both of these reasons.
There were a total of nine African American boys that were arrested in Paint Rock, Alabama. These boys were the ages of 13 to 20. The four boys that boarded in Tennessee were Haywood Patterson, Eugene Williams, and the two brothers, Andy and Roy Wright. All four of these boys jumped onto the freight train in Chattanooga, Tennessee
Price and Bates knew that they could get in trouble for their “occupation,” so they accused the boys of gang raping them. Many of the boys had never met each other before, and one of them even had Syphilis. This made the claim truly unbelievable, but because of their skin color, they were imprisoned. Fortunately, the boys received a trial that would soon change American history. The Scottsboro trial shaped our country because it uncovered extreme racism in the South, united blacks and
As stated in “The Scottsboro Boys” by Jessica McBirney, “The Scottsboro incident was one of the earliest signs of the need for racial justice in the U.S.” (McBirney 4). This quote represents how injustice is a problem in places like Maycomb, especially when it comes to race. In To Kill a Mockingbird, injustice is shown all throughout Maycomb, with many different characters who show that injustice is commonly present in Maycomb.
The fourteenth amendment to the Constitution, ending slavery in the United States, had been in effect since before the turn of the century, yet African Americans still faced prejudice in many parts of the country, especially the South. In March 1931, nine black teenagers were arrested in Alabama and accused of homelessness, disorder, and, later, rape, after two white women testified against them. The series of trials, testimonies, and decisions that followed all contained core similarities, but differentiated greatly from each other overall. The initial trial, held in 1931, served only to show the predetermined prejudice against the Scottsboro boys because of the color of their skin.
However, in 1896 Judge Ferguson of the Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana had the right to regulate railroads within state borders and created a “separate but equal” rule that lay the groundwork for future segregation. This shaped America’s future by aggravating the racial discrimination between blacks and whites. Specifically, laws were passed to keep blacks separate from whites in all sections of society, including education, restrooms, hotels, public transportation, and even cemeteries. Blacks were denied the right to vote and even had a curfew in some places. In summary, this court decision significantly worsened race relations and progress in society for many decades.
Once setting fire to an oversized cross in the middle of the city, they marched to a house occupied by a black man and a white woman. They carried the woman away and warned the man never to walk in the streets with a white girl again. Only one man was found guilty by
Scottsboro Racism Paragraph The Scottsboro trials were a long horrific eighteen-year-long trial about eight black boys in Scottsboro, Alabama. According to Anderson in the video lecture “Scottsboro Boys” a large group of people had gotten on a train to find work when a large fight broke out on the train. The fight was between eight black men and a few white men, the train stopped in Scottsboro when two white women got off the train and accused the eight black men of rape. The eight boys were brought into court and trialed. There were multiple cases of racism in the Scottsboro trials, one included that all the boys were trialed together and in only one day.
The South had lots of anger and resentment. The South felt judged because of the North and to mind there own business. Resentment had old feeling from the Civil war where restarted. Every time the Scottsboro boys got a new trial Alabama got
The African-American Civil Rights Movement was very influential in its time; and more specifically, the Freedom Rides that took place were the epitome of the movement that brought down the racial barriers of segregation. This paper specifically focuses on the precursor events to the Freedom Rides, the major events that took place during the rides, and how the effects of the rides shaped history and redefined civil rights in modern-day America. Leading up to the Freedom Rides, the Supreme Court issued two rulings that denounced Plessy v. Ferguson, which were Irene Morgan v. The Commonwealth of Virginia and Boynton v. Virginia. These rulings mandated a halt to the segregation on public buses and declared it to be unconstitutional. The main
Racism played a huge role in The Scottsboro Trials. Jack Schafer the author of Racism: a power struggle by a different name said, “Racism is the intentional abuse of social customs and legislative power, prevents minorities from fully participating as final decision-makers in the social, economic, and political system of the majority.” During The Great Depression both blacks and whites jumped on trains to anywhere to get food, a job, and shelter. Often time fights between races broke out on the trains, one of the most famous is the fight with The Scottsboro boys. A fight broke out on the train between 9 teenage boys and some white men.
From the crime to the trial, there are parallels between the crimes and trials. On March 25, 1931, a freight train was stopped in Paint Rock, a tiny community in northern Alabama, and nine young African American men who had been riding the rails were arrested. Two white women, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, descended from the freight cars, and accused the men of raping them on the train. As a result, the accused men were taken to the Scottsboro jail.
The nine young black men were falsely accused of crime they did not commit. These nine boys were riding a train in Scottsboro, Alabama looking for work. They were taken off the train in Scottsboro, Alabama and held on minor charges. Those arresting deputies found two white women and pressured them into accusing the boys of raping them on the train.
For the next few months, the African American students attended school under armed supervision. Even so, they faced physical and verbal abuse from their white peers’’(Source B).This demonstrates how people got together and protested along with the African American students on how the segregationists were being racist and treating them like they were nonexistent. This also shows how the segregationists were ignoring the fact that others were disagreeing with them, but they were mainly focused on being inconsiderate and treating the ‘’Little Rock Nine’’ poorly because they were Negros. After All, the Little Rock Showdown displayed how the segregationists treated the Negro students unequally because they were just as qualified to go to school with white