1 gen 1932 anni - Scottsboro Case

Descrizione:

Scottsborro Case

Overview: Nine black teenagers were arrested by Alabama policemen after a fight broke out on a train. The fight was between the black boys and some white boys. All arrests were minor charges, however when two white women (Ruby Bates, and Victoria Price) were questioned by the police the women accused the teenagers of raping them. When the train was stationed at Paint rock, Alabama the police and a mob of white people were waiting angrily for the boys (the train conductor had called the police).This case had many trials and appeals and ended with most of the nine boys sentenced to death. Even after the lab result tests for the two women did not coincide with their story and one of the women (Ruby Bates) recanted her initial testimony and got on the defendant's side the all-white jury still decided on the death penalty for most of the boys.

History: During the 1930s the Jim Crow laws Were in full effect.
1. A black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a white male because it implied being socially equal. Obviously, a black male could not offer his hand or any other part of his body to a white woman, because he risked being accused of rape.
2. Black people and white people were not supposed to eat together. If they did eat together, white people were to be served first, and some sort of partition was to be placed between them.
3. Under no circumstance was a black male to offer to light the cigarette of a white female -- that gesture implied intimacy.
4. White people did not use courtesy titles of respect when referring to black people, for example, Mr., Mrs., Miss., Sir, or Ma'am. Instead, black people were called by their first names. Black people had to use courtesy titles when referring to white people, and were not allowed to call them by their first names.
5. If a black person rode in a car driven by a white person, the black person sat in the back seat, or the back of a truck.
6. White motorists had the right-of-way at all intersections.

White people had a sense of superiority during this time. During this time America was also Going through the great depression. Southerners suffered from very low wages, many people would hitch rides on the freight trains to try and find jobs around the country. It was a known fact that crossing state lines for immoral purposes was illegal. Siding with a colored person while on a jury was dangerous and frowned upon at this time.

FACTS: The scottsboro group( Charlie Weems, Ozie Powell, Clarence Norris, Andrew and Leroy Wright, Olen Montgomery, Willie Roberson, Haywood Patterson and Eugene William) were on the train that night to go around the country looking for a job. They were all arrested on minor charges. One of the women to say she was raped (Victoria Price) was a prostitute and got on the train for immoral purposes (and illegal). Ruby Bates, the second woman recanted her testimony and said she had never met the boys prior to the trial, and both of the women's lab results did not coincide with the story that they were “gang raped by 6 boys”.One of the judges who later appealed for the case of the young men was not allowed to run for office again. The very first trial was only an hour long and it was an all white jury. In this time colored people were not able to serve on jurys.
ISSUE : The scottsboro group were not receiving a fair trial, as most other African Americans were not.
RULE OF LAW: The scottsboro group were denied their right to council (14th amendment) so judges kept appealing.
APPLICATION: After many trials of appealing death sentences and life in prison charges for a crime they did not commit 2 of the boys got the death sentence one was accused of assaulting an officer, four of them were exonerated, and two got life in prison.

CONCLUSION : The court knew that giving the boys the death sentence was unconstitutional due to lack of evidence.

Related Cases
Brown v Board of education – declared separate but equal was illegal and unfair. It was overturned January 1, 1954


ARTICLES
https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/scottsboro-boys
https://blackamericaweb.com/2013/02/10/little-known-black-history-fact-the-case-of-the-scottsboro-boys/
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/verdict-is-announced-in-scottsboro-case
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmsYLmqx3wg

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