One of the biggest cases of injustice and inequality towards African Americans was the Scottsboro trials. During the 1930s, the Great Depression had started, and many people were traveling to find work. Nine black teenagers, ages 12-17, were on a train cart traveling to Alabama. At this time, the Jim Crow laws were active, and if any black man was accused of rape or crime it would lead to execution. When the boys got off two women got off with them. Others in town saw this and were confused because of the segregation laws. Out of nowhere the women yelled “Rape” (Anderson). These boys were wrongfully convicted of something they were innocent of. The boys were put in jail and there was a one day trial. The crazy fact was that the doctor found …show more content…
Eight of them were sentenced to execution on a electric chair, while the youngest was charged with life in prison. After the trail one of women who accused them even recanted and said it never happened (Anderson). The trail went to the Supreme Court and they kicked it back to Alabama, because even they had an hard time believing this. With the law on there side they were convicted again, and the case was brought back to the Supreme Court. By the time the Scottsboro case was done with, it took 18 years for the last boy to get out of prison. In “To Kill A Mockingbird” a similar case was taken place in the town of Maycomb, Alabama. A man named Tom Robinson was put on trial for raping Mayella Violet Ewell. In both cases the suspect was accused of raping a white women even if there was no evidence of the incident. Atticus told Bob Ewell that he did all that running that night, yet he did not have time to run to a doctor (Lee 234). If the doctor did examine her he would have figured out that she was not raped, but beaten. Furthermore, both cases were trying to cover something