The event that transpires on the morning of March 25, 1931, sparks what would become one of the most controversial conflicts in American history when 9 African-American boys, with ages ranging from thirteen to nineteen, are wrongfully prosecuted of raping two white women named Ruby Bates and Victoria Price. The boys’ lawyer, Samuel Leibowitz, quickly identifies the wrongdoing of the prosecutor as discrimination. Throughout the trial, more and more people understand that injustice will always be present, but the only way to get rid of it is if everyone works together for the cause. When the first trial starts, the defendants only have twenty minutes to meet with their lawyer and thus lose the trial by a vote of 7-2. The Supreme Court, seeing this as unfair to the Scottsboro boys make, “a …show more content…
The Supreme Court gives the defendants Samuel Leibowitz, one of the best if not the best criminal lawyer in America. Because of Leibowitz, the Scottsboro boys have a chance of proving their innocence. He quickly sees the only way the boys have a shot at living is to prove Price was lying and pounds her with series of questions, finding inconsistencies in her story. Leibowitz does it; he proves that Victoria Price is a liar and decides to put the nail in the coffin by using Ruby Bates as a witness. Bates says Price forced her to lie and this should have put the case to rest, but the jury does not listen to one word of it and reach a verdict. The Scottsboro boys are sentenced to death by electrocution. Citizens all over America are outraged by this decision and they, “helped forge a new kind of movement: whites and blacks marched side by side for the first time since the days of abolition” (Scottsboro Boys: An American Tragedy). After all this time, the white people of America realize the injustice that colored folks have to face is