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Essay on scottsboro case
Essay on scottsboro case
The scottsboro trials
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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
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.
Annotated Bibliography Altman, Susan. “Scottsboro Trial.” Encyclopedia of African-American Heritage, Second Edition, Facts On File, 2000. African-American History.
In the south back in the 1930’s there were many Americans who did not know the meaning of equality for all. With this being the case, many black people faced discrimination daily and it followed through to the legal systems especially in the south where both being compared took place. The evidence provided in both trials proved to be weak. Despite this, both defendants had determined lawyers who believed in justice.
Throughout history, there have been many “witch hunts” that have created mass hysteria. Two of which were called the Salem Witch Trials and the Scottsboro Case. The two trials have many similarities to each other and so have many other trials. The Scottsboro Trials, in summary, was about nine young black men being accused of raping two young white women.
Relationships among races have evolved within the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The majority of race-related conflicts were negative. Some of the trials that took place throughout this time period were the Scottsboro Trials, the Emmett Till Murder Trial, Loving v. Virginia, the Trial of Peter Liang, and the Johnson v. California trial. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, there was a fictional trial that dealt with the relationship between a black man and white woman. Racial relations does not only deal with African-Americans and whites but other races including Asians, South Africans, etc.
Imagine one day being wrongfully accused of a crime and sent to jail without a fair trial or even a proper representative in court. That seems a little unjust, does it not? Unfortunately, many people in the past were imprisoned and killed for crimes they did not commit like in the Salem Witch Trials or the Scottsboro Trials. Even though the Salem Witch Trials and Scottsboro Trials were over two-hundred years apart, there are many similarities between them.
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,
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.
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
Scottsboro Trials Racism played a part in the Scottsboro trial. According to Jack Schafer, racism is the intentional abuse of social custom and legislative power that prevents a race to make decision. Racism can happens for many reasons one is that people push other races down to gain higher status (Rutledge). Another reason people would discriminate against other races is to keep power over those people (Schafer). From the Scottsboro trails the reader can see both of these reasons.
"Racism is a refuge for the ignorant. It seeks to divide and to destroy. It is the enemy of freedom, and deserves to be met head-on and stamped on." (Pierre Berton) The Scottsboro Trials impacted America in a way that cannot be explained by words.
The forefathers of the United States built this country on the ideals of freedom and equality for all people. Unfortunately, the fight for equality and freedom did not end with the revolutionary war. The fight has continued throughout the decades. Many of these issues were fought in the courtroom. Auburn University created an online Alabama Encyclopedia, there, the following quote stated, “Scottsboro became an international cause celebre that dramatically encapsulated the American south troubled post reconstruction history of legal and extralegal racial violence, the social and political upheaval of the great depression, and the lingering cultural divide between the north and south.”
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.
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).