The Scottsboro Boys When Harper Lee was a child, the Scottsboro Trials took place in Alabama. These trials are commonly thought to be the inspiration for To Kill a Mockingbird, though Lee denies this. Nine black youths (ages 12-19) were accused of raping two white women on a train.

The Scottsboro Boys On March 25, 1931, the nine black young men, as well as several white young men, rode a train illegally. The boys got into a fight, and the white boys were kicked off the train. They told station masters at the closest stop they had been beaten by the black boys. Police arranged to arrest them at the next station.

The Scottsboro Boys At the next stop, to avoid being punished themselves, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price – both prostitutes -- claimed the black boys raped them. Bates later recanted her story. On March 30, 1931, all of the Scottsboro Boys were indicted by an all-white jury. Trials began a few days later, with several boys on trial at once.

Ruby Bates and Victoria Price in 1931

The Scottsboro Boys Because their parents could not afford good lawyers, all were convicted and sentenced to death – even 13-year-old Roy Wright. Wright’s trial was declared a mistrial. The cases quickly became famous, causing rallies and riots.

The Scottsboro Boys The Alabama Supreme Court upheld the convictions of all the boys except Eugene Williams, who was tried as an adult at 13.

The Scottsboro Boys In November, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned all the convictions on the ground that due process was not followed. The State of Alabama had not provided legal counsel to any of the defendants. The new trials began in March 1933, with each defendant tried separately. There was a total of four rounds of trials.

The Scottsboro Boys Haywood Patterson sentenced to 75 years, escaped, wrote a book, later arrested.

The Scottsboro Boys Clarence Norris sentenced to death, sentence commuted, later wrote book about his ordeal.

The Scottsboro Boys Andy Wright sentenced to 99 years, paroled, arrested again.

The Scottsboro Boys Charlie Weems sentenced to 75 years, served 20.

The Scottsboro Boys Ozzie Powell pled guilty to assaulting a sheriff, rape charges were dropped, sentenced to 20 years after being shot in head during escape attempt.

The Scottsboro Boys Olen Montgomery had all charges dropped because he was nearly blind and had been found alone at the end of the car at the time of the alleged crime.

The Scottsboro Boys Willie Roberson had all charges dropped because he was suffering so badly from syphilis at the time of the alleged crime that he could hardly walk.

Summary: Nine African American young men were accused of raping two white women. In spite of evidence of the men’s innocence, 8 of the 9 were sentenced to death. After many appeals, new trials, and Supreme Court involvement, 4 were freed and the rest served long prison terms.

There are several parallels between the Scottsboro trials and the case that takes place in To Kill a Mockingbird. Think about them. * We’ll come back to these notes when we near the end of the book and revisit this set of trials.