Legal Stereotypes In The Scottsboro Trial

The Emancipation Proclamation was legislation signed in 1890’s, declaring that slavery had come to end. However, African-Americans were still unfairly treated within society. By the 1930s, the amount of lynching’s decreased in Southern America, but many of the same methods og racism led to a number of "legal lynchings” (Jacobson, 1992). These were judicial dealings missing the key aspects of fairness and justice. Following the Civil War, Southern communities used lynching as a way to maintain the strict segregation between whites and African-American’s. Lynching sent a powerful, dominant message; it was a warning to the black community and a demonstration of power by the white community. However, by the 1930’s, the practice of lynching was

In 1931, the world witnessed one of the most famous legal lynchings in the Scottsboro Trial. (1931-37). Therefore, this paper identifies and critically discusses the symbolic issues that engaged the public’s sense, the morality and/or the imagination. This will help in better understanding the reasons for lynching’s popularity throughout history. This paper will contend that this verdict was predetermined by an ideology of white supremacy exemplified by racial, gendered, political and sexual stereotypes. Under this white supremacy ideology, black men were envisioned as animalistic, sex-driven rapists who would attempt to assault a white woman at any opportunity. Throughout the case, the sex and race of the defendants and alleged victims were more significant than what actually occurred. Despite the defense's efforts to diminish the reign of white supremacy in Alabama, the all white jury convicted the Scottsboro

Trial, defined by Dictionary.com (n.d.) states “the examination before a judicial tribunal of the facts put in issue in a cause, often including issues of law as well as those of fact”. A trial is to bring and present information to a tribunal (a court is a form of tribunal) before a jury, judge, or other designated trier, in a formal way. This allows the authorities to adjudicate the claims or the disputes of the accused person in order to attain a resolution to the dispute. (Yale Law Journal, 507) The criminal defendant also has the right to have a public trial or a secret trial depending on the case. This right is given by The Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution, and although it is a right strictly enforced, it does not mean that it is absolute. (Yale Law Journal, 506) However, currently living in a democratic society, which demands more from its government to enforce law the majority of trials are public to show transparency in the way the case is held. in few cases, where the tribunal dictates that the claim can be dangerous to a substantial public interest, trials are conducted in secrecy or closed to the public (Cornell University Law School,