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Courtesy Morgan County Archives, Used under Fair Use

On March 25, 1931, nine unemployed young black men, illegally riding the rails and looking for work, were taken off a freight train at Scottsboro, Alabama and held on a minor charge. The Scottsboro deputies found two white women, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, and pressured them into accusing the nine youths of raping them on board the train. The charge of raping white women was an explosive accusation, and within two weeks the Scottsboro Boys were convicted and eight sentenced to death, the youngest, Leroy Wright at age 13, to life imprisonment.

The American Communist Party (CP), in this period at the height of its organizing focus in the American South against racism and economic exploitation, immediately took the case on, and largely through activist efforts, sparked a mass defense movement. The CP brought in their legal arm, the International Labor Defense (ILD) to represent the nine. After two trials in which an all-white jury, fueled by a biased Alabama press, convicted the nine, the ILD and the CP began a national protest campaign to overturn the conviction, marked by numerous street marches, national and international speaking tours, and popular songs. Because of their principled leadership in the campaign, the CP gained much widespread respect among African Americans and civil rights activists. When they traveled to Washington, D.C. to demonstrate, the CP stopped at segregated restaurants to stage sit-ins against discrimination, helping to turn the campaign into a trial of the system of segregation and racism in America, presaging the sit-in tactics of the 1960s civil rights movement.

Although initially hostile to the Communists and wary of being involved in the touchy issue of black men raping white women, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) ultimately joined with the CP and other civil rights organizations to form the Scottsboro Defense Committee. Eventually, one of the white women, Ruby Bates, came forward to repudiate her testimony, acknowledging that she and Price had been pressured into falsely accusing the Scottsboro Boys, and she became part of the campaign to save their lives.

The case went to the United States Supreme Court in 1937, and the lives of the nine were saved, though it was almost 20 years before the last defendant was freed from prison. The trial of the Scottsboro Boys is perhaps one of the proudest moments of American radicalism, in which a mass movement of blacks and whites-led by Communists and radicals-successfully beat the Jim Crow legal system.

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Scottsboro Boys Trial and Defense Campaign (1931-1937) *

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The Scottsboro Boys were nine young black men, falsely accused of raping two white women on board a train near Scottsboro, Alabama in 1931. Convicted and facing execution, the case of Charlie Weems, Ozie Powell, Clarence Norris, Olen Montgomery, Willie Roberson, Haywood Patterson, Eugene Williams, ...

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SCOTTSBORO, Alabama -- As the process gets underway to pardon the Scottsboro Boys, nine black young men unjustly accused in 1931 of raping two white women, their unusual case is being remembered across the state and internationally.

Here are brief biographies and the ages of the Scottsboro Boys at the time of their 1931 arrests, according to the PBS documentary " Scottsboro: An American Tragedy" and a trial project from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (Visit these sites for photos):

Haywood Patterson, age 18. Patterson was tried and convicted four times, more than any other defendant. His second trial was held in 1933 in Decatur and presided over by Limestone County's Judge James Horton in one of the more famous trials of the case because Horton overturned the all-white jury's guilty verdict. Patterson escaped prison twice, including once in 1947 after which was arrested in Detroit after a bar fight ended in a man's death. Patterson died in a Detroit prison in 1952 at the age of 39.

Clarence Norris, age 19. Norris was paroled in 1944 and fled the state in violation of parole, only to be returned to prison when he came back to Alabama to help the remaining two Scottsboro Boys defendants. He was paroled again in 1946 and assumed his brother's identity. He was pardoned in 1976 and died of Alzheimer's disease in 1989 at the age of 76.

Andy Wright, age 19. Wright was traveling with his younger brother, Roy, on the train that day. He was paroled in 1943 and, like Norris, fled North against his parole conditions. He, too, was lured back to Alabama with promises of leniency but was put back in prison until 1950.

Roy Wright, age 13. He was paroled in 1937 and, for a while, he joined a speaking tour with other Scottsboro Boys organized by the Scottsboro Defense Committee. After his release, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson paid for Roy to attend vocational school. He later served in the Army, joined the merchant marine, and married. In 1959, Roy returned home from a tour of duty and found his wife with another man. He killed her and then shot and killed himself.

Ozzie Powell, age 15. Powell was shot in the head by a guard in 1937 after he stabbed the officer during a prison transfer. He survived. He was paroled in 1946 and went to live in his native Georgia.

Willie Roberson, age 16. Roberson had an IQ of only 64. He was headed to Memphis to be treated for gonorrhea and syphilis when he was rounded up with the other black men on the train that day. He was not treated for his sexually transmitted disease while in prison until 1933. He was paroled in 1937. His date and place of death are unknown.

Charles Weems, age 20. Weems was on his way to see his family in Tennessee in 1931. He was paroled in 1943 and later married and took a job at a laundry in Atlanta.

Eugene Williams, age 13. He was paroled in 1937. After his release and a brief entertainment career, Williams moved to St. Louis where he had relatives who helped him adjust to a relatively stable life.

Olen Montgomery, age 17. When he was arrested, his glasses were broken and he did not receive another pair in jail for two years. He was paroled in 1937 and attempted to have a career in vaudeville. When that failed, he lived out his days in New York or Atlanta, drinking heavily.

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The sad ends of the Scottsboro Boys: Their lives in brief biographies

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SCOTTSBORO, Alabama -- As the process gets underway to pardon the Scottsboro Boys, nine black young men unjustly accused in 1931 of raping two white women, their unusual case is being remembered across the state and internationally.

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The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow . Jim Crow Stories . The Scottsboro Case | PBS