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The scottsboro trials essay
The scottsboro trials essay
Scottsboro boys trial and tom robinson trial
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On March 25, 1931 the lives of nine black teenagers changed after they were allegedly accused of being involved in a gang rape of two white females. This began when a fight broke out on a train after a white male named Orville Gilley stepped on the hand of a black male named Haywood Patterson who was hanging from the train itself (Linder, “The Trials of the Scottsboro Boys”). The white males involved went to a stationmaster to report the alleged assault which resulted with posse members coming to take the nine black males away. (Linder, “The Trials of the Scottsboro Boys”). Two white, female mill workers named Ruby Bates and Victoria Price also accused the nine black males to raping them.
The Scottsboro Trails last two decades that came along with wasted lives, ended careers, people being made into hero’s, and opening southern juries to the blacks. Much like in To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Scottsboro Trails society shaped everything and everyone around them. In this case, how did society shape Mayella Ewell, Ruby Bates, and Victoria Price into victims and accuser? Mayella Ewell and Ruby Bates are in many ways similar victims unlike Victoria Price. In the Mayella’s story she was from a very small prejudice town during the depression.
To Kill a Mockingbird To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, takes place in the fictional town of Maycomb Alabama during the Great Depression. All of the story is an allusion to the Scottsboro Trial where 9 black kids were wrongfully accused of rape only off of the word of a few white girls. The story centers around Atticus who is a lawyer, and his children Scout, and Jem. They are a poor white family who has it better off than most during the depression. Scout is the narrator and her brother Jem is the one whom she hangs out with most throughout the book.
“Elected attorney general, Thomas Knight, Jr.”, was questioning Haywood Patterson, one of the “Scottsboro Boys” during Patterson’s testimony and he asked him “‘Were you tried in Scottsboro?’ Patterson replied, “I was framed in Scottsboro.” An angry Knight shot back, “Who told you to say that?’ Patterson answered, ‘I told myself to say it’” (Linder, “The Trials of ‘The Scottsboro Boys”).
In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the story is set in the 1900’s, Maycomb, Alabama. During this time there was racism in the south and segregation which separated the whites and blacks from everything. There was also the Great Depression, the whole country was poor and people living in the country had to trade and do other jobs for people to either pay them off or to buy something from them. The trial in this book is about Mayella and Bob Ewell, two white people, claiming and arguing that Tom Robinson, a black person, raped Mayella Ewell. This trial is really important because at that time in the south, white people took advantage of black people and their kindness and thought they would take that or shut up just because they were black.
Dick Rowland (African American) was being tried for attack and attempted rape of a white woman named Sarah page. On the day of May 31, of 1921, Ms. Page opened the elevator and Mr. Rowland went to enter the elevator. He tripped because the elevator did not stop moving the way it should have, and so he grabbed what there was so he did not fall; and that happened to be Ms. Page’s arm. She let out a sharp scream and a clerk from not too far away Saw Mr. Rowland run out of the building and Later he was tried and as some white believe he did try to rape her as on the other hand African Americans did not believe in what was said what so ever.
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.
Once Hannah Arendt says “The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil”. Society shapes and influences people in many different ways. From back then to now the way people are shaped and influenced has changed drastically. Today many people are influenced and shaped by music, social media and famous people. Back then people were influenced and shaped by first class citizens, wealthy people, and the differences between whites and blacks.
According to the National Holocaust Encyclopedia titled “Nazi Camps,” from 1933 to 1945, more than 44,000 concentration and incarceration camps were established, causing 11 million people to lose their lives, and 6 million of those were Jewish. Only a small handful of people survived. Among those who survived, Ellie Wiesel was imprisoned in camps while neutral countries only watched. Because of his experience, Wiesel believes “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.”
On March 25, 1931, the Scottsboro Boys were convicted and sentenced to death for raping two white girls, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, on a train setting course to Memphis, Tennessee. All were sentenced to death but one whose name was Leroy “Roy” Wright was instead sentenced into life in prison. The struggle for the justice of Wright that he was an innocent man states an exemplary of racism through the concepts of the case and concrete details supporting it.
What is racism? According to Dictornary.com, racism is the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races. According to Gale Resources, the Scottsboro Boys were nine black teenagers accused in Alabama of raping two White American women on a train in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial. An aspect of history To Kill a Mockingbird most accurately reflect is racism.
Inspired by the 1931 Scottsboro trial, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee dives deep into justice and courage. The strength portrayed here vary in size and intensity so it shows one a wide range of application of the two concepts. From smaller battles expressing self control to saving two lives and the trial of a doomed innocent man, To Kill a Mockingbird gets readers to truly think about the applications of justice and courage in life. Harper Lee opened our minds to the idea of a deeper story behind the actions of an individual with Ms. Dubose. She constructed the character of the old woman using words tailored to make us dislike her.
To Kill a Mockingbird Argumentative Essay Racial equality and discrimination is a founding issue that has been spread throughout every part of the world, To Kill A Mockingbird was written and published by Harper Lee in 1960, this time was dominated by civil rights protests and some of the first hippie movements following the crushing reality of the Vietnam War, the 60s also saw the struggle against segregation and racial equality. It is no surprise that the extreme political conflict affecting her life and world would greatly impact her writing and influence how she perceived the world during the writing of To Kill a Mockingbird. the influence of the fight for racial inequality is shown greatly in her book as she depicts the everyday life
Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” is set sometime in the 1930s in Maycomb County Alabama. The story is told through the point of view of Scout Finch who lives with her father, Atticus, and brother, Jem. The kids like to play pretend with their friend Dill about the man who lives in a scary house down the road, Boo Radley. The kids come in a few close counters along the way during these games in which Atticus does not approve. Scouts’ father, a lawyer, is appointed by Judge Taylor to defend Mr. Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a young girl.
Argumentative Essay “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win”. Atticus Finch decided to defend Tom Robinson when he was accused of raping a white woman. I would’ve done the same thing as Atticus because I believe that back then it wasn’t a very fair world. As soon as a white person blamed a black person Police or the Judge would automatically take the word or the white person.