Racial Discrimination In The 1930's

Racial Discrimination was very prevalent during the 1930’s. The line between caucasians and african americans was relevant in the way the african american community was treated in the south. The african american community had very little to no rights, which was strongly represented in the Powell V. Alabama court cases. On March 25th , 1931 Nine African American males jumped on a empty freight train heading to Scottsboro. A little down the track a group of Caucasian males and females also boarded the same freight train. A fight then ensued which ended up with all but one Caucasian male thrown off of the freight train.Word got to the police in the outskirts of Scottsboro. The train was then stopped by policy officials. Two Caucasian females

This is the date when they went to the biggest court of them all, The United States Supreme Court.This was their make it or break it moment. If the court ruled with Alabama they would be executed. If the court ruled with Powell then it would grant all the boys a retrial. The argument for Alabama which was stated in the court documents was this, “The right to legal counsel as stated in the 6th Amendment applies only to federal courts. Each State conducts its own criminal justice system, separate from federal authority, under the reserved powers of the Constitution. Alabama has its own bill of rights that recognizes the right of the accused to obtain counsel, but does not require the State to pay for attorneys to defend accused persons.” As for Powell the argument stated was this, “The young black men 's right to counsel was so fundamental to criminal proceedings that any trial conducted without a defense attorney was not a fair trial at all. Alabama 's conduct of the trial was unfair—a violation of a basic rule of decency and justice under the Constitution.” These two vastly different arguments made it rather challenging for the Supreme court to make a decision that was not favoring one side. After countless days, and weeks of debating, the court finally made their decision. In a 7-2 judgment the courts found that what happened to the Scottsboro boys was an injustice and granted 8 of the boys a retrial, and the ninth boy to be let go due to him being the