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Scottsboro Boys Research Paper

687 Words3 Pages

The Scottsboro Trials were a set of trials where nine black boys named Charlie Weems, Ozie Powell, Clarence Norris, Olen Montgomery, Willie Roberson, Haywood Patterson, Eugene Williams, Andrew Wright and Leroy Wright were accused of on March 25th, of raping two white women Ruby Bates and Victoria Price. These women were pressured to accuse the nine men. The white men that pressured the women told the conductor to stop at the next town so they could get the police. The police arrested the Scottsboro Boys and they were brought to trial. Eight out of nine of them were sentenced to death. The youngest, Leroy Wright was only twelve so he was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment. The American Communist Party, (CP) and the International Labor Defense …show more content…

That is so sick! They acted that way, because they were black. So they sent the case to the United States Supreme Court! They revoked the sentence but it was six years until the last boy was freed.They had spent years in prison! They had beaten the Jim Crow Laws. The Scottsboro Boys were innocent young men. Charlie Weems suffered from severe eye infection. Leroy Wright was not so fortunate. After being in jail he got married, but he was so depressed he shot his wife and then himself. Some of the Scottsboro boys were very much affected by the incident, some were not. Charlie Weems was released in 1943, and moved to Atlanta, starting a laundry business. Clarence Norris wrote a book about the the whole trial, which is available to buy today. Andrew Wright was accused of raping a thirteen-year-old girl in New York, which turned out to be false. Ozie Powell was shot in the head, became mentally challenged. Clarence Norris said that he was never the same again. Olen Montgomery wanted to be a musician, but, it just never happened. He got really drunk, and ended up living in Georgia. Eugene Williams just moved to Saint Louis like the incident never happened. Willie Roberson movded to New York and also tried to forget the whole experience that happened in …show more content…

The defense team against the boys was very biased and contributed sketchy evidence. Court is not something to be messed around with. Taking a lie and bringing it to court is a very daring thing to do. This event took place in Scottsboro, a city located in Alabama, part of the Deep South. If the boys had hopped a train up in the North, none of this would have ever happened. If they even went to court in the North, they probably would have gotten a more fair trial. The trials were very prejudiced like most places in the South. Unfortunately, these boys were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some people look at this at the wrong angle. They say: “The Scottsboro boys were jumping trains, which is illegal.” Did they miss the part where they spent over five years in prison for something they didn’t do? I think that they’ve done their time for jumping

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