How the Scottsboro Trials
link to the book To Kill A
Mockingbird
By: Alyse Kullmann
Andrea Ohmann
Chelsae Walsh
Lauren LaGoo
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March 25, 1931: Two white
women, several white men,
and nine black men were
traveling from Tennessee to
Alabama in freight cars of a
train. When the train arrived
in Paint Rock, Alabama, all of
them were arrested (probably
for vagrancy).
The two white women were
Victoria Price and Ruby Bates.
Price was a prostitute, and
Bates was a minor. Price was
probably afraid of being
charged for violating the
Mann Act, which prohibited
the taking of a minor across
state lines for immoral
purposes. She and Bates
immediately deflected all
attention onto the nine black
men by accusing them all of
rape.
Clarence Norris, Charlie Weems, Haywood Patterson, Olen
Montgomery, Ozie Powell, Willie Roberson, Eugene Williams,
Andy Wright, and Roy Wright were the nine black men, who
immediately became known as the “Scottsboro Boys.” The
nine men, who didn’t all know one another and ranged in
age from 12 to 20, were roped together and placed in the
Scottsboro jail. The National Guard had to be called to
protect the men after an angry mob appeared outside the
jail.
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The nine men went to court
only twelve days after their
arrest. Their court-appointed
lawyer, Stephen Roddy, who
was unfamiliar with Alabama
law, had only 25 minutes to
meet with them before
presenting their defense. Price
and Bates gave sordid details of
their alleged rapes, and the
nine black men (most of whom
didn’t know one another)
started blaming one another.
No witnesses were called in
their defense, and the jury was
completely made up of white
men.
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All nine men were found guilty. Eight were
sentenced to death by electric chair, but
Roy Wright, who was only 12 years old,
was granted a mistrial.
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The International Labor
Defense (part of the
Communist Party) decided
to help the “Scottsboro
Boys.”
November 7, 1932: The
United States Supreme
Court agreed with the
International Labor
Defense that the nine
black men had not been
given adequate legal
representation and ordered
new trials.
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The new trials included two important
figures: Judge James E. Horton and New
York defense lawyer Samuel Leibowitz.
Leibowitz began by asking for an appeal;
he claimed that the jury selection
deliberately excluded black jurors. The
motion was denied.
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This time the nine men
went to trial individually.
The first to be prosecuted
was Haywood Patterson.
Unlike his first trial, which
lasted only a few hours, his
second trial lasted two
weeks. Victoria Price was
a wonderful actress as a
witness, but Leibowitz had
done his research. He
found doctors who claimed
the women’s bodies had
not reflected rape (much
less multiple rapes). He
found witnesses to affirm
that Price was a prostitute.
Best of all, he called Ruby
Bates as a witness. This
time she admitted that she
and Price had lied at the
first trial in order to avoid
having to “lay out a
sentence in jail.”
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Despite his stellar defense, Leibowitz
offended many people in Alabama; they
viewed him as a hotshot lawyer from the
North. One of the prosecuting attorneys
even told the jury in his closing remarks,
“Alabama justice can’t be bought with Jew
money from New York!” Due to racism,
animosity toward Leibowitz, and disgust
with the communist party, Haywood
Patterson was found guilty and sentenced
to death for the second time.
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June 22, 1933: Judge
Horton went against
popular sentiment in
Scottsboro and
overturned Patterson’s
conviction. He
claimed the evidence
did not warrant a
conviction. (Not
surprisingly, Horton
was not reelected).
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Clarence Norris was the second defendant
to be tried individually. He too was found
guilty. (During this time all nine
“Scottsboro Boys” remained in jail- so far
it had been over two years.)
.
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November, 1933: New
trials were set, this time
with a different judge:
Judge William Callahan.
He denied Leibowitz’s
motion for a mistrial even
though evidence showed
that someone had
tampered with the jury
rolls.
December, 1933: Both
Patterson and Norris were
found guilty for the third
time, and the Alabama
Supreme Court refused to
reverse the convictions.
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April 1, 1935: The United States Supreme
Court reversed the convictions (because of
the evidence that someone had tampered
with the jury rolls in order to exclude
African Americans from the juries). But
this was not the end. In May of 1935,
Victoria Price swore out new warrants
against all nine of the defendants.
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New trials continued
throughout 1936 and 1937this time with a local defense
attorney:
1 received life in prison
3 received 75-99 years in
prison
1 received 20 years in prison
(for assaulting a deputy
sheriff)
4 had charges dropped and
were released (after six years
in prison)
Between 1943 and 1950,
eight of the men were
paroled. Andy Wright, the
last one to be paroled, spent
a total of 19 years in prison
for a crime that had never
been committed. Haywood
Patterson escaped in 1948
and went to Michigan. (Even
though the FBI caught
Patterson in 1950, the
Michigan governor refused to
sign the extradition papers
that would return Patterson to
Alabama).
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Clarence Norris violated his parole in 1946
by leaving Alabama. In 1976, as the only
“Scottsboro Boy” still living, he was
pardoned and allowed to return to
Alabama. He had spent the most time on
death row and had been a fugitive for
thirty years.
Scottsboro
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Took place in the 1930s
Took place in northern Alabama
Began with a charge of rape made by
white women against African American
men
The poor white status of the accusers
a was a critical issue.
A central figure was a heroic judge, a
member of the Alabama Bar who
overturned a guilty jury verdict against
African American men.
This judge went against public
sentiment in trying to protect the
rights of the African American
defendants.
The first juries failed to include any
African Americans, a situation which
caused the U.S. Supreme Court to
overturn the guilty verdict.
The jury ignored evidence, for
example, that the women suffered no
injuries.
Attitudes about Southern women and
poor whites complicated the trial
Mockingbird
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Occurs in the 1930s
Takes place in southern Alabama
Begins with a charge of rape made by
a white woman against an African
American man.
The poor white status of Mayella is a
critical issue.
A central figure is Atticus, lawyer,
legislator and member of the Alabama
bar, who defends an African American
man.
Atticus arouses anger in the
community in trying to defend Tom
Robinson.
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The verdict is rendered by a jury of
poor white residents of Old Sarum.
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The jury ignores evidence, for
example, that Tom has a useless left
arm.
Attitudes about Southern women and
poor whites complicate the trial of Tom
Robinson
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The Town of Scottsboro
Scottsboro’s just a little place;
No shame is write across it face-Its courts too weak to stand against a mob,
Its people’s heart, too small to hold a sob.
Langston Hughes
References
Johnson, Claudia Durst. Understanding To Kill a Mockingbird.
The Greenwood Publishing, Inc. Westport, CT: 1994. 14
March 2007 http://library.advanced.org/12111/scottsboro/
scottsbo.htm.
“Scottsboro: An American Tragedy.” PBS. 17 March 2007
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/scottsboro.index.html.
“The Scottsboro Boys.” That’s Alabama. 17 March 2007
http://www.thatsalabama.com/civilwrongs/scottsboro.
“The Trials.” Court TV Online. 17 March 2007
http://www.courttv.com/archive/greatesttrials/scottsboro/
trials.html.