The Effects of the Scottsboro Trials on the Civil Rights Movement The United States constitution gives all Americans “the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury”. Although this is the sixth amendment in the constitution of our nation, there have been many instances where the accused were not given this basic right. Many of the trials helped to spark the Civil Rights movement, and advance Civil Rights from the 1930s to the 1960s. The Scottsboro Trials of the 1930s are just one of the many cases in United States history that helped to start the advancement of Civil Rights in America, showing blatant racism by convicting innocent people because of their racial background. The novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, as well as empirical research, prove that the Scottsboro Trials positively impacted the Civil Rights movement.
According to an article titled, “Scottsboro Trials”, the Scottsboro Trials of the 1930s left a lasting impact on Civil Rights in America. In April of 1935, the United States Supreme Court declared that the
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Alabama Governor Bibb Graves reportedly agreed to parole the four boys who were convicted, but after facing public backlash changed his mind. Three of the four boys convicted, Charlie Weems, Clarence Norris, and Andy Wright, were all paroled by 1950, because the courts found that the boys were denied a fair trial as there were no African American people allowed to serve on a jury in Alabama at that time. Clarence Norris was sent back to jail when he broke parole. Norris remained in jail until he was pardoned by the Alabama governor in 1976 (Thomas 3). Haywood Patterson escaped prison and fled to Detroit, Michigan. When Patterson was caught in Detroit, the governor of Michigan, G. Mennen Williams refused to allow Patterson to go back to prison in Alabama, so he was set free in Detroit
The Similarities between The scottsboro case and To Kill a Mockingbird From books to real life cases, one can see the American system of injustice towards the blacks of America and its lopsided juries. A system of which if you’re born of the wrong skin, you are judged with no crime being committed. A country where when you have a dark complexion, you are guilty until proven innocent. In To Kill a Mockingbird and Scottsboro boys, we meet different figures who all in common, are prejudice, racist, and ignorant. Even so, we still meet people who stand for what is right, especially since the evidence points towards their innocence.
He was back in prison for trying to forge a ten dollar check at a gas station in Maryville. On March 18, 1959 he escaped from prison and attempted a burglary. Charles was caught and was given an extra two years in prison. Hatcher was released from prison on July 14, 1954. Then he stole a third car a Ford in Orrick and was subsequently to four years in prison.
Scottsboro Trial Two young women is all it takes to create one of the most tragic epoch's of African-American history after the abolishment of slavery. When Victoria Price, and Ruby Bates decide to ride the rails to look for some incentive in their lives, they witness an opportunity to ruin nine young black boy's life. A fight broke out after a gang of white boys agitated, and tried to force a gang of black boys to jump off a train.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a story about an african american man who has there life on the line because his being falsely accused of raping a white woman. To Kill a Mockingbird was based off the true story of the Scottsboro boys who were a group of african american teenagers who all had their lives on the line for being falsely accused of raping two white women. Both of these cases are similar because they both have to do with african american men who are being falsely accused of rape, deal with racial injustice or hatred, and are both represented by kind white lawyers. Both the Scottsboro case and the Tom Robinson case, where about black men that had their lives on the line for being falsely accused of rape. On April 9th,1931 an Alabama judge sentenced
ScottsBoro Boys Trial V Maccomb The 1930s were a time of difficulty for people of color in the United States, especially in the south. African Americans were kept separate from white folks and were treated below them, simply because of the color of their skin. During this time, we saw monumental events that spiked up the civil rights movement and had people of color begin to fight for equal rights. One of these events was the Scottsboro trials.
A similarity between the two is racial injustice. Atticus explains the court that they cannot simply judge someone based off the color of their skin in which case is happening (Lee 208- online). The Scottsboro trial is known as one of the most shameful examples of injustice in the nation’s history (Linder 9). Back in these times, racism was common and there was still great tension between those of white skin and those of colored. Things we hear and know today are very different from that of Racism and The Great Depression.
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
Comparing and Contrasting the Trials of To Kill a Mockingbird and The Scottsboro Boys The Great Depression of the 1930s affected every race living in the United States but no race was hit harder than the African Americans. Africans Americans were usually the victims of injustices by the hands of white people. In courtrooms race was valued more than evidence when giving a verdict for an African America. This is similar to the fictional trial of Tom Robinson in Harper Lee’s
The ever present distaste from whites in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, shows the issues that blacks had to deal with constantly. Lee was able to portray this hatred by putting and important character, Tom Robinson a black man, on an unjust trial for the alleged rape of a white woman, Mayella Ewell. This classic story reveals the awful conditions and intense racism during this time in the southern Unites States. Some of the many African Americans affected by southern white racists in court or otherwise include the Scottsboro
In the early 1930s, a group of African American boys were accused of raping two women aboard a train in southern Alabama being called the “Scottsboro Boys.” The boys were not given a fair trial because of the racial injustice in the south during this time. The trial was even brought to the supreme court which would help overturn the verdicts in favor of the boys. This trial was extremely significant because it really brought to light the racial injustice and inequality present during this time, especially in the legal system, as well as being a kind of spark for the civil rights movement in America.
In the Scottsboro trials after the first retrial, the case was appealed because the jury violated the 6th amendment and the court did not allow due process. The jury book for the town of Scottsboro did not even have the name of an african-american male on it so the jury was very clearly biased before it was even picked (Scottsboro American Tragedy). In both trials, the defendants were set up for conviction by a jury that put aside the evidence and convicted them because of the color of their
Scottsboro Racism Paragraph The Scottsboro trials were a long horrific eighteen-year-long trial about eight black boys in Scottsboro, Alabama. According to Anderson in the video lecture “Scottsboro Boys” a large group of people had gotten on a train to find work when a large fight broke out on the train. The fight was between eight black men and a few white men, the train stopped in Scottsboro when two white women got off the train and accused the eight black men of rape. The eight boys were brought into court and trialed. There were multiple cases of racism in the Scottsboro trials, one included that all the boys were trialed together and in only one day.
Scottsboro Boys- The scottsboro were 9 young black boys. They were falsely accused of raping 2 white woman on board a train near Scottsboro, Alabama 1931. They were convicted and actually facing execution. The case
All of their trails had an all white jury and the boys did not have adequate representation in any of their trials. “In the first set of trials in April 1931, an all-white, all-male jury quickly convicted the Scottsboro Boys and sentenced eight of them to death.” Part of the expectations for a court case is to have adequate representation in the jury for the defendant, meaning that if a person of color is on trial, then people of color should be included in the jury. However, due to the fact that white people viewed people of color as inferior to them, especially in the 1930s, the Scottsboro boys did not have adequate representation in their trials. This enabled the jury to declare unfair sentences on the boys based mainly upon their race.
Injustice The Scottsboro Case shed light on the racial practices expressed in law that made a great impact on the legal system today. The actual victims of the Case did not receive a fair trial due to the color of their skin. The ones who played the victims planned the crime, and their stories made no sense. But like many of the trials during the time it wasn’t based on the actual evidence that was found,or even the defendants ' stories.