Mattson 3
Clarence Norris once stated, “ ‘Stand up for your rights, even if it kills you’ ” (Aretha
110). He said this in 1976 after spending forty-five years of his life in prison for a crime he did
not commit. Norris was one of the nine Scottsboro Boys who were accused of raping two white
girls. One accusation from the mouth of a white woman started “the Scottsboro case, the most
prominent civil rights-related case of the first half of the twentieth century” (Aretha 109). The
case began in 1931 and did not end until Norris was pardoned in 1976. The Scottsboro Trial
influenced the Civil Rights Movement and the 1930s by setting new legal precedents as well as
bringing to the public’s attention how unjustly African Americans were treated in the South.
March 25, 1931, the day that will change nine boy’s lives forever, starts out like any
other, until “a fight breaks out between white and black young men who are riding as hoboes on
a Southern Railroad freight train” (“Scottsboro” paragraph 1). The nine African Americans,
Clarence Norris, Charlie Weems, Haywood Patterson, Olen Montgomery, Ozie Powell, Willie
Roberson, Eugene Williams, Andy Wright, and Roy Wright, all knew they were in trouble when
suddenly rape charges were added on top of assault charges after Victoria Price and Ruby Bates
falsely accused the boys of raping them. “A grand jury indicts all nine ‘Scottsboro Boys’ ” and
in their individual trials all nine are convicted and sentenced to death, except the youngest, Roy
Wright, who receives life in prison (“Scottsboro” paragraph 1). The Scottsboro Trials were
appealed through the state court system to the Supreme Court twice. Both times the Supreme
Court ordered a retrial based upon evidence presented that proved the defendants were denied the
right to due process. This occurred over the time span of many years and eventually all the
Scottsboro Boys were convicted and had to serve jail time. The prison “was the pride of the
Alabama prison system” and part of it “had been designated death row” where the convicted
Mattson 4
people had to stay (Goodman 95). Eight of the nine boys died in prison and only Clarence
Norris was pardoned after spending most of his life in shackles.
The Scottsboro Trial resulted from discrimination against blacks in the South.
Governments in the south passed “ ‘black codes’ forbidding African Americans from basic
citizen rights, such as the right to serve on juries, bear arms, rent and own land, drink alcohol,
travel, and even learn to read” (Aretha 21). White Southerners hated African Americans so
much they “considered blacks not just inferior to whites, but subhuman” (Aretha 21). The Great
Depression also influenced the setting of the inciting incident and the trials politically. During
the depression “millions were unemployed and thousands of men had left their homes and took
to riding freight trains-called hoboing-in a desperate attempt to find work” (Aretha 9).
Additionally, “the economic and social unrest occasioned by the Great Depression had provided
a catalyst for the Communist Party to recruit disaffected workers,” and “communists perceived
the Scottsboro Boys case as a vehicle for making inroads in the South” (Acker 4). The
International Labor Defense (ILD), a communist organization, saw the Scottsboro Trial as a
perfect venue to recruit African Americans in the South, so the organization provided legal
counsel for the nine defendants. Consequently, the case “thus became infused with politics and
social class, in addition to having sectional and racial dimensions” (Acker 4).
Not only did the case become socially and politically significant, it illustrated the flaws in
America’s justice system. It “was likewise a gross miscarriage of justice, despite the important
precedents established by the U.S. Supreme Court” (Salter paragraph 12). Despite the injustice
and discrimination in the South, the trials “united radicals, liberals, and moderates, as well as
blacks and whites, in a common-if often contentious-alliance” (Salter paragraph 6). Many
people who heard of the trials were inspired to help the nine defendants. This led to the
Mattson 5
formation of two organizations, the American Scottsboro Committee (ASC) and the Scottsboro
Defense Committee (SDC), in order to spread awareness of the Scottsboro Boys and to help
them. The two committees organized protests and did their best to provide legal counsel apart
from what the Communist Party provided, but nonetheless the nine were still found guilty.
Even though the Scottsboro Trial ended tragically, the case set important legal precedents
and greatly inspired the Civil Rights Movement. America shall always remember the Scottsboro
trial because “the legal precedent established by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Powell v.
Alabama, including the right to counsel, and Norris v. Alabama, prohibiting racial discrimination
in jury selection, had solidified the cases’ place in American constitutional law” (Acker 198).
Unfortunately, “the defendant’s lives were shattered by the long legal battle and the horrific
conditions in the Alabama prison system” (Salter paragraph 12). For the majority of the
Scottsboro Boys, they spent their teenage years in prison, and none of them ever quite recovered
from the awful ordeal. Yet at the same time, “as a political and social movement and a cultural
symbol, however, the Scottsboro case played an immeasurable part in undermining the structures
of white supremacy in Alabama, the South, and throughout the nation” (Salter paragraph 1). The
trial paved the way for other African Americans to stand up for their rights and start the Civil
Rights Movement. Even though the nine boys endured hardships, pain, and discrimination, they
made it possible for all people to be equal today.
The Scottsboro trial illustrated the unfair and harsh treatment of African Americans in the
South, and impacted modern society as well as the 1930s by establishing new legal standards and
sparking the Civil Rights Movement. The incident began when two white women wrongly
accused nine black boys of raping them. The court cases went to the Supreme Court two times
and both times retrials were ordered because the original trials denied the nine their rights to due
Mattson 6
process. The Scottsboro Trial was fueled by Southern hatred for African Americans, and became
politically as well as socially significant. In a way the trials united Americans and the “cases
speak volumes about America, about the country’s hopes and fears regarding race relations, class
distinctions, regional mores and cultural traditions, political divides, and about the media and its
representation of social and legal injustices” (Acker 208). The Scottsboro Trial made people
aware of the injustice in the South and inspired others to start the Civil Rights Movement. Even
though those nine boys died before they experienced equality and true freedom, they made it
possible for people to be free of discrimination and segregation today. As Clarence Norris
displayed, the fight for justice is always worthwhile.