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- Youngest of the Scottsboro Boys
- His time on the train was his first time away from home

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- Brother of Roy
- Both were looking for work to support their single Mother
- They got on the train to get a government job hauling logs

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- Worked -- was a dishwasher at a Cafe
- He hopped the train coming home from work

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- He was never able to attend school, he had to support his whole family because his Father was ill and Mother was no longer alive
- He went on the train to visit family when he was arrested

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- Raised by his Grandmother and worked at a hotel
- He wanted to find new work and was arrested on the train

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- Did not know how to read and write, so was forced to fend for himself
- He left home at age 14 searching for work, which is when he was arrested

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- Worked as a sharecropper, but left his family to find work
- Was on the train on his way to visit his Aunt

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- Worked as a sharecropper, but then started working as a steel worker
- On the train when he was going to a new job

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- Traveling to Memphis looking for a job to support his family and buy him glasses to help his one blind eye

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Victoria Price-- left
Ruby Bates-- right

Taking the train illegally with their boyfriends. This violates the Mann Act which criminalizes those who cross state lines with "immoral purposes"

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Scottsboro Boys arrested

Nine black teenagers are arrested after a fight with a group of white teenagers on a train to Memphis

The black boys are accused of rape by Ruby Bates and Victoria Price

Girls confirmed six raped them but all nine were then accused of it

Created accusation because she violated the Mann Act

Criminalized those who crossed state lines with “immoral purposes”

Girls wanted to get back at the guys who forced her boyfriend off the train

Allegedly occurred on a freight train railroads run from Chattanooga to Memphis

Common activity to jump rail cars and ride freights

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First Trial

An all-white jury is assembled for the trials

Judge Hawkins declares a mistrial and sentences eight of the Boys to death by electric chair

the youngest, 13-year-old Leroy Wright, ended in a hung jury. He would remain in prison awaiting the final verdict on his co-defendants

Unfair trial

Newspapers had already claimed they were guilty prior to trial

First trial verdict was announced and verdict heard from second trial

Biased jury

Only witnesses for defense were themselves

Tried in groups of two rather than individually

Asked no questions and cross examination of other witnesses

No closing argument by defense

Some kids : Eugene Williams age 13 was tried as an adult

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The International Labor Defense (the legal wing of the American Communist Party) took on the case, seeing its potential to galvanize public opinion against racism
hired famous criminal defense attorney-- Samuel Liebowitz

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First appeals

The Alabama Supreme Court upholds seven of the eight convictions

Lawyer used arguments:

Prior trial had no black jurors

Genetic info of semen and medical examination

Questioning things that had changed in Price’s claims

Proved price a liar

Used friend Bates who decided to own up “to frame up a story"

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U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Scottsboro defendants had been denied the right to counsel, which violated their right to due process under the 14th Amendment

overturned the Alabama verdicts and remanded the cases to the lower courts

sets an important legal precedent for enforcing the right of African Americans to adequate counsel

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The Lawyer Who Changed the fate of the Trial: Sam Liebowitz

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The Lawyer Who Changed the fate of the Trial: Sam Liebowitz

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Second Trial

Samuel Liebowitz is retained by International Labor Defense to serve as attorney for the Boys’ appeals

Haywood Patterson and Clarence Norris are retried and found guilty again. They are sentenced to death

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Public Outcry

Seven of the trials are postponed due to public hostility towards the accused

Thousands of activists march on Washington, DC to protest the trials in support of the defendants

The ILD spearheads a national campaign to free the boys and letters stream in protesting the verdicts

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Supreme court overturns guilty verdict and rules that the exclusion of blacks on Jackson Country juries denied a fair trial to the defendants Suggests that the lower courts review Patterson’s case

Helps integrate juries across the nation

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NAACP and other civil rights organizations join the ILD that year to form the Scottsboro defence committee which reorganized the defense effort for the next set of retrials

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Patterson is convicted a fourth time and sentenced to 75 years in prison

First time a black man convicted in the US of raping a white woman was not sentenced to death

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Ozie Powell attacks two police officers with a pocket knife after being threatened

One of the officers shoots Powell in the head

Both officers survive, but Powell suffers permanent brain damage

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Ruby Bates (one of the women who accused the boys of rape) tours with the International Labor Defense, apologizing for her role in the Boys’ convictions and advocating for their freedom

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Charges dropped

Rape charges against Powell are dropped as part of a plea bargain, and he is sentenced to 20 years for assaulting the deputy who shot him

After four years in prison, all charges are dropped against Olen Montgomery, Willie Roberson, Roy Wright, and Eugene Williams

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Charlie Weems, Clarence Norris, and Andy Wright are paroled

Norris and Wright later return to prison after violating their parole

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Haywood Patterson escapes from prison

Patterson publishes his book The Scottsboro Boy

Patterson is arrested by the FBI for escaping prison, but Michigan’s governor denies extradition

Patterson is convicted of manslaughter after his involvement in the death of another man in a bar fight

Patterson dies of cancer in prison

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Exoneration

Over 82 years after they were wrongfully accused, the Scottsboro Boys are officially granted a pardon by the Governor of Alabama

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Made supreme court realize seating of black jurors was necessary

The case and rulings of the SC helped fuel the rise of the civil rights movement later in the 20th century

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How was the trial portrayed in the media throughout the country?

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The south celebrated the trial as a victory of legal due process

In addition to the falsehoods that were spread about the nature of the Scottsboro Trials, prejudice and racism was extremely prevalent surrounding media coverage of the trials in the south

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The ILD became prevalent through its work defending trade-union activists and working-class immigrants

The strategy provided by the ILD was to provide legal protection while generating a media campaign to sway the public opinion

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The movement for the Scottsboro Boys became widespread

In November 1932, a group of five thousand black workers protested at the Jefferson County courthouse to demand jobs, relief, and freedom for the Scottsboro Boys Additionally, the Alabama Share Croppers Union sought for the Scottsboro Boys’ freedom as one of their demands

Although the decision was not ultimately overturned for the Scottsboro Boys, their case evoked a nation-wide response

The national media, including the Universal Press and Associated Press, had correspondents who were present at the Decatur courthouse. They reported angry crowds who were held off by National Guardsmen

It was clear that the jurors had already had made up their minds long before trial proceedings

The New York Herald Tribune: “National opinion everywhere will accept this outcome as proof of the impossibility of securing a really just verdict in Alabama”

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Not only was the movement spread through national news media, but also through American music media

In the northern cities, protests, rallies, and demonstration took place in places of worship, parks, schools, and city streets

Duke Ellington arranged and performed concerts for the benefit of the Scottsboro defense

Langston Hughes wrote a multitude of plays and poems which dramatized the boys’ hardship and suffering

The main city for protesting was Harlem: over 3,000 supporters waited for Leibowitz's arrival to stand in solidarity with his efforts

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1. Why do you think the boys were convicted without much evidence and why did it take so long for them to be exonerated? Why was Victoria Price's testimony accepted without evidence?

2. Would something of this magnitude occur in 2021? Why or why not?

3. How do you think the heavy media coverage of the case may have influenced the verdict?