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Scottsboro trial and tom robinson trial
Scottsboro trial and tom robinson trial
Scottsboro trial and tom robinson trial
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Orson Scott Card said “There's a reason why every human society has fiction. It teaches us how to be 'good', to behave in a way that is for the benefit of the whole community.” Society’s pressure shapes and influences individuals lives and motives that doesn’t benefit all of the community. This is apparent when you look at lives of the accusers in the Scottsboro trials: Victoria Price and Ruby Bates and the fictional character Mayella Ewell before and during the trials these women started. Society creates victims through events that these people have no control over, like the Great Depression or being born into a family that lives in poverty. Society made Victoria Price, Ruby Bates and the fictional character Mayella Ewell victims. The …show more content…
As a result of the depression, many Americans were forced to hitch hike on trains going to neighboring states in order to escape the vast sea of unemployment to find a work. On March 25th, a fight broke out between the Scottsboro boys and some white boys, later after being charged with a minor charge, Vitoria Price and Ruby Bates accused the nine black boys of raping them. Being charged with the crimes of rape and being black was a lethal combination in the south where Jim Crow laws stood tall as pillars of southern values. Not even a month later all boys charged with the exception of one were charged with death. These events can be compared to the events in the book To Kill a Mocking Bird where Mayella Ewell accused Tom Robison of rapping her after he helped her chop up an old dresser. Just like the real life trials his case moved swiftly without sufficient evidence to prove that Tom Robison committed this crime just like the nine boys who were wrongfully convicted. In both cases the evidence didn’t support the claims of the prosecution, in the Scottsboro case is was later revealed that Victoria Price showed little to no signs of being forcibly raped by six men. Just like in the fictional case in To Kill a Mocking Bird there was little evidence to show that Mayella Ewell was raped by Tom Robison; a man who was physically crippled. In both of these cases Mayella
The Scottsboro Trials, Brown v. Mississippi, and trial of Tom Robinson in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The purpose of this essay is to compare three very similar cases, the Scottsboro Trials, Brown v. Mississippi, and the fictional trial of Tom Robinson in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird; and to prove why the defendant in the third trial never had a chance. Each took place in the rural South in the 1920’s and 30’s and involved the unfair conviction of young black males by all-white juries pressured by the threat of mob violence.
The concept of a white woman being touched, let alone raped by an African American male was an assumption in the little town of Maycomb Alabama, 1930’s. During this period Mayella is considered helpless due to being a female as well as lonely and afraid considering her status as a poor white piece of trash. She manipulates people by using her social class, gender, and race to her advantage. In particular, her accusations made against Tom Robinson, an African American man. These factors lead to her gaining power with the trial and conviction of Tom Robinson. Race refers to the categorization of people based on physical differences.(“Is Mayella Powerful?” 7) Mayella Ewell had perquisites due to her race, which helped her during the conviction.
Dee Goong An, more popularly known as Judge Dee, was a well known magistrate of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). His popularity comes from his just perspective, which makes him a great magistrate. He addresses new cases with open ears and is determined to be fair at all times. He treats all people equally and relies only on hard proof to solve cases. With some help, he uncovers guilty criminals, using several techniques to find the truth. Going undercover and using torture to get people to confess, Judge Dee uses his persist approaches to make things right. He risks his job for the truth, and relies on his gut and experience to capture felons. Judge Dee's experience and righteous judgment to find the true criminals by proving them guilty, makes him an ideal magistrate of the time.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee seems like a complete replica of the lives of people living in a small Southern U.S. town. The themes expressed in this novel are as relevant today as when this novel was written, and also the most significant literary devices used by Lee. The novel brings forward many important themes, such as the importance of education, recognition of inner courage, and the misfortunes of prejudice. This novel was written in the 1930s. This was the period of the “Great Depression” when it was very common to see people without jobs, homes and food. In those days, the rivalry between the whites and the blacks deepened even more due to the competition for the few available jobs. A very famous court case at that time was the Scottsboro trials. These trials were based on the accusation against nine black men for raping two white women. These trials began on March 25, 1931. The Scottsboro trials were very similar to Tom Robinson’s trial. The similarities include the time factor and also the fact that in both cases, white women accused black men.
One of the major events in Harper Lee’s award-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird is Tom Robinson’s trial. It is based on the Scottsboro Case that took place in 1931 in Alabama, in which several black men were accused of raping two white women. Both the Scottsboro Boys and Tom Robinson are unfairly judged, however, because of prejudice against colored people. The racial discrimination makes whites’ testimony more believable even when it contradicts itself. The same happens in To Kill a Mockingbird. As we delve deeper into the case and get increasingly closer to the truth, it is quite suprising to see that Mayella Ewell is the true villain rather than a victim. She shall and must bear full responsibility for her actions because she makes the decision to tempt Tom Robinson, gives false testimony in court that directly leads to Tom’s death, and has been well aware of the consequences of her behaviors.
The Scottsboro Trial and the trial of Tom Robinson are almost identical in the forms of bias shown and the accusers that were persecuted. The bias is obvious and is shown throughout both cases, which took place in the same time period. Common parallels are seen through the time period that both trials have taken place and those who were persecuted and why they were persecuted in the first place. The thought of "All blacks are liars, and all blacks are wrongdoers," was a major part of all of these trails. A white person's word was automatically the truth when it was held up to the credibility of someone who was black.
Another fear the White Southerners had was the fear of black men exploiting white women. This fear led to many imprisonments and murders of falsely accused African American men. On March 25th, 1931, nine young African American boys were accused of raping two young white women on a train. These nine eventually became known as the Scottsboro Boys, named after the town where they were arrested. Although the boys had a lawyer fighting for them, the trial was over and the guilty verdict came automatically due to the Jim Crow mindsets of the citizens of Alabama.
Twelve days after the arrest of the men, trial began. Six of the black men denied ever raping the women or to have even seen them, but due to the beatings and assaults taken place in jail three of the men falsely admitted to sexually abusing the two women, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price. The NAACP did not rush to defend the men because they were concerned about what might happen if the boys did indeed turn out to the guilty. The communist rushed to the black men’s side because they saw it as a way to bring in Southern bl...
This term paper is on one of the most controversy discussion known as Capital Punishment. This is a topic in which the writer believes does not have a positive effect on decreasing crime in the world. For almost three years now, the writer has grown a passion for criminal behavior in some of the notoriety of a few crime cases that resulted in Capital Punishment and Wrongful Executions. One of my personal favorite crime cases in history is the Scottsboro Boys. This case represents an incident where five innocent African American men nearly faced execution after being accused and convicted of raping two white females on the back of a train back in 1931. This case is one of many reasons I am against capital punishment because it can lead to wrongful deaths of innocent men and women without justified evidences and witnesses. The writer is also
The long awaited trial of Tom Robinson has concluded yesterday, with the jury convicting him guilty under the charges of raping Mayella Ewell, daughter of Mr. Bob Ewell. The defendant, Tom Robinson, was accused by Mayella Ewell of raping on the 21st of November 1935. The defendant's lawyer, Atticus Finch, put up a strong defense to indicate Tom Robinson was not guilty. Atticus Finch conserved this evidence through each testimony. The first witness, Sheriff Heck Tate, testified that when he went on the scene, he saw Mayella wounded on the right side of her face but no doctor had been called. The plaintiff’s testimony was she asked Tom Robinson to break up a Chiffarobe and that was when Tom Robinson attacked her. She said the “next thing I knew Papa was in the room
Imagine being a black teenager in the south amid the great depression. It was hard enough for whites to find jobs during this time; I can’t even begin to fathom what it would be like being black seeking a job. Many blacks sought hoboing as a common pastime seeing it as an adventure to get them from one small job to another. And this is where the story of the Scottsboro Boys begins.
In the 30’s of Southern America, racism was prevalent; two trials changed the lives of Americans and our court systems. One of the trials real and another trial fake the words and evidence used can never be forgotten. In the South a white person’s word was the truth. Colored people considered were uneducated, unintelligent and savages. If a white person said it happened, it happened. When a white woman accuses and colored man of rape, there is no argument, the accused goes to prison regardless of evidence. The case of Tom Robinson in To Kill Mocking Bird and the Scottsboro Boys in Alabama changed Americans view on the justice system, morals and the way we viewed people.
To Kill a Mockingbird integrates the non-fictional use of plaintiffs Victoria Price and Ruby Bates as victims and accusers with the comparable story of the fictional Mayella Ewells to tell a tale of how society shapes us as individuals. Hannah Arendt’s take on society should lead as a role for how we view everyday people: “Evil rarely comes in the form of monsters, but rather in the form of relatively normal people who, for reasons of careers, ideology, or a desire for society’s approval, are indifferent to the human consequences of their actions.” So when Mayella Ewells, a fictional, strong-minded woman, Ruby Bates, a quiet, well-behaved younger sister, and Victoria Price, a working prostitute by night and mill-worker by day whom was married
Living in the south and being colored, was a rough way to live life. The Scottsboro Boys definitely had life rough. They were arrested, they were put on trial, and they were falsely accused by the whites.
These injustices have begun long before Tom’s trial, but it is his trial which epitomizes the problems with our society. The first witness was simply just a misguided fellow named Heck Tate who it seems didn’t have much to offer to the case. Next, Atticus Finch called Bob Ewell to the stand. When I saw Ewell take the stand such a fierce hatred rose within me that I began to shake and tremble. Ewell wrongfully accused Tom of raping his daughter Mayella, however, with the grace of God, Atticus Finch had shown that it was very possible that it was Bob Ewell who because he was a lefty could have beat Mayella. If it were not for great men like Atticus Finch I would have lost all hope for this world. As I watched Mayella take the stand I wondered how such a kind looking person could be someone of such poor character. Her words seemed to paint a picture of a sad life; one where a father neglects her and she has fallen under hard times. Atticus, after pointing out it was probably Bob who beat her, asked Mayella who it really was that beat her. Mayella made it clear it was Tom Robinson, upon which Atticus asked Tom to stand. To the astonishment of the court Tom was handicapped! Tom was then called to the stand where he laid open for all to see the truth, explaining that it was Mayella who came on to him (that treacherous woman!). Soon enough the trial ended and every one awaited the verdict of the jury. The next few hours were the most nerve wracking of my life.