The Scottsboro Boys

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Although abolition of slavery in the South coincided with the conclusion of the Civil War, a century of institutionalized racism was widespread in the former Confederacy. This institutionalized racism came in the form of the Jim Crow laws. It was a social norm to look at African Americans as inferior or even harmful to the White population. Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan roamed around "defending" the white population from the African Americans. This defense came in forms of public executions (lynching) or intimidation. 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. The unfair trials that the Scottsboro boys received are the results of the institutionalized racism in the South; this case revealed the injustice that prevailed in the American South.

Background information of the Accusation
The 1930’s were a decade plagued by the colossus economic downturn known as the Great Depression. With unemployment levels surpassing 20%, people did anything to earn money. This included riding the rail lines in order to look for work in other cities. In the American South, the problems of economic downturn and the problems of racial tension met in 1931 during the court case of the Scottsboro Boys.
On March 24th, 1931, nine African A...

... middle of paper ...

...already had a predetermined verdict. They were automatically determined to be guilty, even though there was a lot of evidence that they were innocent including one of the victims (Ruby Bates) eventually defending the Boys. Besides all the problems this case revealed, it also showed that there was good in society. Facing the possibility of death, Samuel Leibowitz still defended the Boys as much as he could. The second judge that presided over the case actually followed the law and prevented any harm from coming to the Boys.
Fast forward to November 21st, 2013, the state of Alabama finally pardoned the Boys posthumously. (http://governor.alabama.gov/newsroom/2013/11/governor-bentleys-statement-pardoning-scottsboro-boys/) It took almost eighty years to do so. This shows that Alabama is finally publically regretting the past injustices that occurred in the state.

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