Racial Inequality In American History Essay

Racial Inequality and American History “I don’t want a Black History Month. Black history is American history” (Morgan Freeman). It’s visible in every nation’s history that certain events affect how that nation changes and is influenced over the years. In America, racism played a large part, even from our nation’s inception, in how we functioned, and through the Scottsboro Trials, was finally addressed on a near worldwide scale; the Scottsboro Trials was one of the earliest times in American history that blacks and whites came together and addressed the issue of racism. Racism and the Scottsboro Trials contributed to the shaping of our nation and who we, as a nation, identify ourselves as. History is a powerful thing; this is obvious in any nation. America simply made a wrong choice in how to treat other people groups. In 1619, when the first black slaves were introduced to America, white people had already been forming opinions that negroes were a lower species; meant to be owned and serve a higher species (the whites). Before the nine negro boys came to the scene in the 1930s, blacks were treated like animals, and whites saw them as savages, monsters, and aliens

Not only did they face discrimination and hate because they were blacks, the nine also sat in front of a jury that consisted of white, Southern men. These men were already set against them, and even if the boys were innocent, would make sure the nine would die. There was a factor that made the jury even worse; they were all Southern men. This sealed the fate of the boys automatically because the jury was biased against them, and nothing would sway their decision to the boys’ favor. Sitting through these three trials, the Scottsboro boys were given a death penalty every time, and had given up hope of ever living through the ordeal. This changed, however, in their fourth trial, and restored a little hope for