THE SCOTTSBORO TRIALS & HARPER LEE Po Liang Chen HAR Spring 2011

THE SCOTTSBORO TRIALS The Scottsboro Boys were nine black teenagers accused of rape in Alabama in 1931. The Scottsboro Boys with attorney Samuel Leibowitz The landmark set of legal cases deal with racism and a constitutional right: The Fair Trial Right.

   Ruby Bates & Victoria Price Facts of the case Nine black youths, Olen Montgomery (age 17), Clarence Norris (age 19), Haywood Patterson (age 18), Ozie Powell (age 16), Willie Roberson (age 16), Charlie Weems (age 16), Eugene Williams (age 13), and brothers Andy (age 19) and Roy Wright (age 12), were fighting on a train with several white males and two white women. Several white boys jumped off the train and reported to the sheriff they'd been attacked by a group of black boys. The sheriff stopped and searched the train at Paint Rock, Alabama, and then arrested the black boys. Two white girls, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, said they had been raped by the black boys. Ruby Bates & Victoria Price

Scottsboro Trials After three rushed trials, all defendants were convicted of rape and sentenced to death, except Roy Wright. The cases were reversed and tried three times. Even one of the alleged victims admitted fabricating the rape story, the jury returned a third guilty verdict.

Timeline March 25 1931 : Scottsboro boys were arrested on charges of assault. Rape charges were added against all nine boys after accusations were made by Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. April 9, 1931: The eight convicted defendants were assembled and sentenced to death by electrocution. June 22, 1931 : Executions were stayed pending appeal to Alabama Supreme Court. March 24, 1932: the Alabama Supreme Court confirmed the convictions and death sentences of all but the 13-year-old Eugene Williams. October 10, 1932: The case went to the United States Supreme Court . January 5, 1932 : Ruby Bates, in a letter to Earl Streetman, denies that she was raped.

Timeline October 10, 1932 : The case went to the United States Supreme Court November 7,1932 : The Supreme Court, by a vote of 7-2, reverses the convictions. Ozie Powell, Willie Roberson, Andy Wright, and Olen Montgomery v. Alabama, 287 US 45 (1932). May 7, 1933 : Thousands march in Washington protesting Alabama trials. November-December 1933 : Patterson and Norris convicted and sentenced to death. January 23, 1936 : Patterson is convicted for a 4th time of rape and sentenced to 75 years in prison. The first time a black man had avoided the death penalty in the rape of a white woman in Alabama. January 23, 1989 : Norris, the last surviving Scottsboro boy, dies at age 76.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TKM & THE SCOTTSBORO TRIALS Two stories are about young African Americans who were accused of raping white girls. The background of these stories happened in 1930s in Alabama. There is a racial prejudice in America. The negroes were sentenced to death without material evidence. All African Americans were tried by the all-white grand jury. Girls, alleged to be raped, belong to lower class of whites.

HARPER LEE Nelle Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama (April 28, 1926). Her mother's name was Finch. Her father was a lawyer who served in the Alabama State Legislature from 1926 to 1938. She studied at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama (1944-45), and then pursued a law degree at the University of Alabama (1945-49. She worked as a reservation clerk for Eastern Airlines in NYC until 1950s before she decided to devote herself for writing. She completed and published her first and only novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, in 1960.

HARPER LEE “To Kill A Mockingbird” was an bestseller and won great critical acclaim, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. President Johnson named Lee to the National Council of Arts in June 1966, and since then she has received numerous honorary doctorates She continues living in NY and Monroeville, but prefers private existence, granting few interviews and giving few speeches.

References http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harper_Lee http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/scottsboro/scottsb.htm http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/harperle.htm http://law.jrank.org/pages/12399/Scottsboro-Trial-History-Scottsboro-Boys.html http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0287_0045_ZS.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottsboro_Boys