ipl-logo

Scottsboro Trial Research Paper

901 Words4 Pages

Kaelyn Daugherty Mr. Pierce Honors English 13 March 2024 Tom is the Scottsboro Tom Robinson is a reflection of the Scottsboro Boys in every way. Tom Robinson is a fictional African American character in To Kill a Mockingbird and he is accused of raping a girl named Mayella Ewell. He is later convicted, even with solid evidence of him not committing the crime. The Scottsboro trial was a trial of nine African American young men who were accused of raping two girls in a tram car. They were convicted guilty with no evidence and later found innocent. These two cases showcase the racism that happened in the South back then. This historical event, the Scottsboro Trials, is symbolized in the book To Kill a Mockingbird within the character Tom Robinson …show more content…

When you hear the name Scottsboro trial, the first common issue known in the case is the racism that goes on. Elisabeth Cawthon states in her article, “On March 25, 1931, several groups of young people were riding a freight train in northern Alabama. The young men who were accused of rape were teenagers, with the exception of 20-year-old Charlie Weems” (Cawthon 4). The boys were accused of raping two young women on the train. They were put into court and all of them were convicted to life and one to execution. This was heavily racially motivated as even the two young girls kept changing their story. They were also examined by a doctor and the doctor had reported no evidence of rape or marks from the attacks. This is an important historical event that we need to cover before continuing with the topic of symbolism. The Scottsboro Trials and Tom Robinson were both wrongfully accused of raping white women. They had standing information that supported the Scottsboro boys had not raped the women, but it was ignored and pushed aside. Atticus had proved Tom could not beat Mayella as he didn't have a left arm, but for the Scottsboro Boys it was

Show More
Related
1459 Words | 6 Pages

Rabina Mainali Sign 111 Dr. Dulan 3 November, 2015 Witnesses of the Scottsboro trials The Scottsboro trials came about during the year 1931 when Great Depression had hit the South hard. In search of work several individuals boarded a freight train from Chattanooga to Memphis, Tennessee not knowing their future ahead wasn’t so bright. While in the train a white man stepped on a black man’s hand, later identified as belonging to Haywood Patterson. A fight between the white youths and Patterson’s

Read More
937 Words | 4 Pages

Annotated Bibliography Altman, Susan. “Scottsboro Trial.” Encyclopedia of African-American Heritage, Second Edition, Facts On File, 2000. African-American History.

Read More
569 Words | 3 Pages

The charge of raping white women was an explosive accusation, and within two weeks the Scottsboro Boys were convicted and eight sentenced to death, the youngest, Leroy Wright at age 13, to life imprisonment. (D. Carter para. 2). At the time, during the trial the Alabama legal system was very prejudice, bias, and unconstitutional. First, the legal system was prejudice because the council that was provided was inadequate to defend his defendants and also the trial only took two weeks.

Read More
623 Words | 3 Pages

and it was really not that at all. There were roughly twenty women hanged and possibly more because of these false accusations. There were many more lives lost in vain. The Scottsboro Trial was different, these nine young black men were falsely accused of a crime they did not commit. After the American Communist Party took the case and the National Association for the advancement of the colored people joined with other Civil Rights organizations, eventually one of the white women came- forwarded to repudiate her testimony.

Read More
654 Words | 3 Pages

The case was described as an “egregious wrong” that was never fully righted. The Scottsboro Case was a landmark case and a turning point for capital punishment cases. This case involved nine African American boys who were accused of raping two Caucasian women in Scottsboro, Alabama. The nine boys, known as the “Scottsboro Boys,” were Charles Weems, Ozie Powell,

Read More
860 Words | 4 Pages

The Scottsboro trials was heard of everywhere. Everyone knew about it, so the people of the south couldn't do their version of justice without everyone everywhere getting extremely upset. If it had been up to just the south the nine boys would have been found guilty in the first trial and sentenced to death, but because it was so public they couldn't just sentence them to death. For example one of the trials had to be re done because the nine boys didn't have proper defense. So they brought in a guy from the north named Samuel Leibowitz.

Read More
718 Words | 3 Pages

The Scottsboro tragedy showed the world and the North of the U.S how bad the racism problem was in the South. That was all these trials were based on. Alabama wanted to kill these men just because of the color of their skin, no real evidence. These trials revealed that injustice and caused the civil rights movement to become more supported. Although this incident was a sad time for the U.S, it helped uncover a lot of problems in the South and helped our judicial system change to be more

Read More
682 Words | 3 Pages

In To Kill a Mockingbird, there was many similarities to the Scottsboro trials. In the book, Mayella Ewell accused the wrong person of raping her, as the evidence was pretty clear that Tom Robinson did not rape her. There was also an all-white jury, and the Black men’s attorneys were court appointed in both

Read More
1020 Words | 5 Pages

The Scottsboro case revolved around nine innocent African-American teenagers charged with the gang rape of two white women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, on a train in 1931. It dealt with issues of racism, prejudiced juries, and rushed trials, causing it to be cited

Read More
629 Words | 3 Pages

During the second trial of Haywood Patterson in March 1933, Victoria Price was again questioned as a witness, but her testimony was slightly different than in the original trial; she reacted to the questioning and accusations against her with “angry defiance” (1). Price’s testimony was further weakened after Ruby Bates testified. She denied that any of the Scottsboro boys had attacked or raped them at all, explaining that Price told her to make up a story to avoid charges being put against them (7). However, her testimony was not considered by the jury, and Patterson was sentenced to death, like in the original trial. In June 1933, a few months after Patterson’s second trial, Judge James Horton ordered a new trial for the case.

Read More
182 Words | 1 Pages

The Scottsboro Trials were unfair and biased towards the black boys. Two prostitutes accused nine boys on a train of rape. The prostitutes committed a federal crime, by them crossing state boarders without a reasonable cause (Johnson). Right when the prostitutes got of the train, they cried rape. A majority of the nine boys were not even in the same train car as the prostitutes (Johnson).

Read More
1843 Words | 8 Pages

Although the Scottsboro trials was not a pivotal event in Black American history, it was an occasion which highlighted the severe injustice of the American legal system and prejudice that black Americans lived in. From 25th March 1931 when 9 black men allegedly gang raped two white girls on the Railroad from Chattanooga to Memphis, a numerous amount of trials, reversals and retrials occurred, the most in American history. Over the course of two decades the ‘Scottsboro boys’ were made celebrities by their struggle for justice by dividing Americas politics. The trials, which were originally conducted in front of an all white jury leading to 8 of the boys being sentenced to the death penalty, after they were represented by bias lawyers which made

Read More
184 Words | 1 Pages

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.

Read More
1657 Words | 7 Pages

Therefore, if one was colored the trial wouldn’t be in their favor. The trials either would end in the conviction of death or the least likely, time in prison. In the Scottsboro Case and the book To Kill a Mockingbird the victims lived hard lives and were influenced by others. Aside from that the physical evidence was weak as well as the testimonies. The Scottsboro Case was the only crime in American History to produce many trials, convictions, and retrials as the alleged rape of two white girls by nine black teenagers on March 25, 1931 (Linder).

Read More
183 Words | 1 Pages

Racism played a part in the Scottsboro trials in many ways. Racism is an act of discrimination against ones race. Racism is motivated in many ways. People use it to boost their self-esteem to make them feel better about themselves. Structure is another part; whites want to have what they are familiar with and do not want change among society.

Read More

More about Scottsboro Trial Research Paper

Open Document