Similarities Between Scottsboro Boys And To Kill A Mockingbird

Both the cases of Tom Robinson from the book to kill a mockingbird, and Emmett Till were judged in front of an all white all male jury and they both lost. There were a lot of similarities in the cases the white people got away with what they did. Emmett Till was murdered after he was dared to talk to a white woman and her husband, Roy Bryant ,and his half brother, J.W. Milam kidnaped and beat Till and finally killed him. Tom Robinson was accused of raping a white girl.

Scottsboro Boys Case The Scottsboro Boys were nine African American teenagers, ages 13 to 20, accused in Alabama of raping two White American women on a train in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial. The cases included a lynch mob before the suspects had been indicted, all-white juries, rushed trials, and disruptive mobs. It is commonly cited as an example of a miscarriage of justice in the United States legal system.

Everyone wants to believe that they have the power to change the world, but how many of those people are willing enough to change themselves for the betterment of those around them in their communities? Too many times have men and women stood by and watched their neighbors fall to the vicious clutches of leaders with agendas, as much today as in 1692. The Salem Witch Trials can, in many ways, be compared to the Scottsboro Boys’ trials of the early 1930’s in that both scenarios relied on the false accusations and execution of innocents, simply by consequence of immoral and deceitful people. The Salem Witch trials was a period of hysteria fueled by tensions created by mistrust and resentment between neighbors, as well as recent events such

These novels both take place in small, racist towns. This leads to discriminatory actions occurring, including a court case in both novels. The court case in To kill a Mockingbird deals with a rape victim and her extremely racist father who blames a completely innocent man for his daughter's rape. This would likely not happen in a town against discrimination and segregation. In Mississippi Trial, 1955 the court case centers around a boy who was killed for whistling at a white woman.

Miscarriages of Justice in To Kill a Mockingbird and The Scottsboro Boys Trials The purpose of the judicial system is to protect citizens by holding the perpetrator of any crime to the full extent of the law and ensure that justice is served. This is a very noble notion however, the justice system has not always upheld these principles. There are numerous accounts in which the justice system has not lived up to serving any justice at all. This was especially true during the horrific case of the Scottsboro Boys. Through the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee depicts various similarities between the key figures involved in the historical case of the Scottsboro Boys and characters in the novel such as the courageous lawyers who represented

In the south back in the 1930’s there were many Americans who did not know the meaning of equality for all. With this being the case, many black people faced discrimination daily and it followed through to the legal systems especially in the south where both being compared took place. The evidence provided in both trials proved to be weak. Despite this, both defendants had determined lawyers who believed in justice.

This essay will be about two injustices the Scottsboro trial and Tom Robinson’s trial. A few similarities are that they were treated unfairly and they were all accused of a repulsive crime, raping a white woman. In the Scottsboro trial though, two women were supposedly raped. Both trials happened in the same time period, while also noting that the women in both trials came from poor backgrounds. Atticus gave his all to his case while the nine young men’s lawyer also tried his best.

Tom Robinson & Scottsboro Boys Harper Lee’s fictional character, Tom Robinson, is a black man who was accused of raping a young white woman by the name of Mayella Ewell. He declares that he only made contact with her because he felt sorry for her and wanted to help her out. The actual case of the The Scottsboro Boys on the other hand, centered around a group of black men that were all accused of raping white women. Most of the men are unable to have intercourse with a white woman because of a condition or proof that wasn’t given.

The Scottsboro Trials and To Kill a Mockingbird In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the famous father named Atticus says “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it (Judith 2).  This quote is said during a time of intense racism. “Not long after Obama took office, the National Urban League released its 2009 State of Black America report. The findings showed that racial inequities continued in employment, housing, health care, education, criminal justice, and other areas” (Buckley 1).  This essay will primarily focus on the criminal justice area of this when discussing the Scottsboro trials and comparing the trials to the famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird.

In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the story is set in the 1900’s, Maycomb, Alabama. During this time there was racism in the south and segregation which separated the whites and blacks from everything. There was also the Great Depression, the whole country was poor and people living in the country had to trade and do other jobs for people to either pay them off or to buy something from them. The trial in this book is about Mayella and Bob Ewell, two white people, claiming and arguing that Tom Robinson, a black person, raped Mayella Ewell. This trial is really important because at that time in the south, white people took advantage of black people and their kindness and thought they would take that or shut up just because they were black.

The Scottsboro Boys story was about the boys that went to jail for a crime they didn’t commit, which is rape. Throughout their lives in jail they have gone through trials over and over again because people haven’t received justice. Justice is when the right thing or the fair thing has been accomplished. I think the boys have received their justice because throughout the years people have felt pity for the Scottsboro boys when they went through bad things, so they wanted to help them. People have been trying to help the boys to get their justice that they deserve.

In the 1930s, African American men were believed to have strong sexual desires towards white women so extreme that they couldn’t even control themselves, that whenever they saw white women they would rape them right then and there. The Tragedy of the nine Scottsboro Boys was rumored as “Negros are going to beat up the whites”. When the train got to Jackson County on March 25, 1931, dozens of armed white men rounded up with ropes and weapons in order to beat the nine black youths, and during the time of this chaos, two white women raised their voices, claiming that they had been raped by the nine scottsborro boys. At that time in Alabama, whenever black people saw a group of white men, they feared and knew they were in a lot of trouble due to the fact that Alabama was one of the most aggressive and violent states towards African Americans.

The book “To Kill a Mockingbird” written by Harper Lee and the article “Scottsboro Boys Trial” both contain controversial court cases. For “To Kill a Mockingbird” a black male named Tom Robinson was accused of raping a white woman named Mayella Ewell. In the “Scottsboro Boys Trial” nine young black men and teenagers are accused of raping two white females named Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. Both cases transpired in the 1930s in Alabama. This is bad for the accused as racism was at an all-time in the 1930s especially in the deep south.

In the South of the United States in the 1930´s, the justice system was very unfair towards colored people. Colored people that were sent to court could not receive a fair trial because of the prejudice and racism from the jury. This happened all the time, especially in Maycomb Alabama. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a colored man named Tom Robinson was convicted of assaulting a white woman just because of the color of his skin. Tom Robinson should have been found not guilty for many reasons.

The Hard on Truth There are many connections you see between the impact of Jim Crow laws on life in the South and the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Jim Crow laws impacted life in the South by creating inequality, racism, and segregation. This plays out in To Kill a Mockingbird in an immensely powerful way.