TKAM Unit The Scottsboro Trial

Studying these trials will… sharpen your understanding of the historical trial(s) & the fictional one and how they reflect the prevailing attitudes of the time.

that arise because of those attitudes. To Kill A Mockingbird Explores: social Problems legal problems that arise because of those attitudes.

IMAGINE: The Police come to your house and arrest You. You are put on trial for a crime you didn't commit and the sentence is death.

IMAGINE: that you are tried over and over again, and each time you go back to death row.

The Scottsboro Boys

Background In 1930’s, poor people would ride in railroad freight cars, trying to get to a town that might have work.

What happened? In 1931, two white females were riding the trains along with two groups of men: one white and another black.

What happened? A fight broke out between the two groups of men (said to have originated from a hand being stepped on). The group of black teenagers won and threw the white group off the train.

What happened? The group of white boys reported this to the local sheriff, and the train was stopped in Scottsboro, Alabama. Everyone on board was arrested.

WHY LIE? Victoria Price was in serious trouble because her friend, Ruby Bates, was a minor. It's a federal crime to take a minor across state lines for the purpose of prostitution. In order to get out of trouble, Victoria and Ruby said that the black men had raped them to deflect attention.

Problematic because in 1931… rape was punishable by death. accusers (white) and accused (black) the normal response would have been a lynching Held Trial Instead

the result had been decided before the trial began. Of Course... the result had been decided before the trial began. The Scottsboro Boys were convicted and sentenced to death - at the first trial.

But that was only the beginning. Trials dragged on for six more years resulted in two Supreme Court rulings.

Timeline: March 30: A grand jury indicts all nine "Scottsboro Boys." April 6-7: Before Judge A. E. Hawkins, Clarence Norris and Charlie Weems are tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. April 7-8: Haywood Patterson is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. April 8-9: Olen Montgomery, Ozie Powell,Willie Roberson, Eugene Williams, and Andy Wright are tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. April 9: The case against Roy Wright, aged 13, ends in a hung jury when 11 jurors seek a death sentence, and one votes for life imprisonment.

U.S. Supreme Court reversed convictions twice on procedural grounds Results: U.S. Supreme Court reversed convictions twice on procedural grounds 1. the youths' right to counsel had been infringed. 2. no blacks had served on the grand or trial jury.

Important info: January 5, 1932 A letter from Ruby Bates to a boyfriend surfaces; in it, she denies having been raped.

Important Information: January, 1933: The I.L.D. asks Samuel Leibowitz to take the case while acknowledging its inability to pay any fees. He agrees.

one of the women recanted her previous testimony… At the second trial… one of the women recanted her previous testimony…

April 6, 1933 Ruby Bates appears as a surprise witness for the defense, denying that any rape occurred and testifying that she was with Victoria Price for the whole train ride. Her assertion that she and Price were with boyfriends the night before explains the incriminating bodily fluids.

Judge Horton: described both women as poor witnesses who contradicted their own stories. wrote that all women deserved protection under the law, but then went on to suggest that historically, women of low character were known to lie.

Results continued… The belief that the case against the “Scottsboro boys” was unproved the verdicts were the result of racism caused 1930’s liberals and radicals to come to the defense of the youths.

Quotes from Trial: Victoria Price (victim): "I ain't done nothing but told the truth and nothing but the truth. I told it in every trial...; there has been over a thousand pages and every one of my pages is alike and if I had to do it all over... it would be the same thing again. Truth will stand where a lie will fall."

Quotes from trial (1976) Dan T. Carter: William Bradford: "I am convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that she was never raped. I am convinced to a moral certainty that, as Judge Horton put it, she "knowingly testified falsely in many material aspects of the case." I have read the prison letters of the Scottsboro defendants and talked to a bitter Clarence Norris. I cannot forget the suffering she needlessly inflicted upon nine black teenagers.... But if she had lied about the rape, she had done so because she lived in a setting which encouraged and rewarded this monstrous lie." (friend of Ruby Bates SchutE) “Nine black boys on a train with two white girls? It was the most logical thing in the world."

Conclusion: After the broadcast of "Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys," Ruby Bates, now Ruby Bates Schute, and Victoria Price, now Katherine Queen Victory Street, sued NBC for slander and invasion of privacy. Bates Schut died before the case came to trial, but Mrs. Street took the stand as before. The suit was dismissed.

Food for Thought: Do injustices of this magnitude still occur today? If so, can you think of a current event that is similar to what happened with the Scottsboro Boys Trial?

The Jena Six http://rightwingnews.com/uncategorized/what-they-dont-want-you-to- know-about-the-jena-6-case/ http://scholarsandrogues.com/2007/07/11/the-mockingbirds-song/ Video clip: http://www.democracynow.org/2007/7/10/the_case_of_the_jena_six Anticipatory Activity https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#safe=strict&q=to+kill+a+mockingbir d+anticipation+guide