Scottsboro on March 25th, 1931

¶ … Scottsboro

On March 25th, 1931 nine African-American boys, none of them more than 19 years of age, most illiterate, two severely ill and one partially blind, left home in and jumped aboard a freight train heading for Alabama in search of work. It was the Depression era and many people (blacks, whites and hoboes) used these trains for transportation going from town to town seeking employment that virtually was nonexistent. During this era, racial tension was surmountable, people desperate to survive and finding no outlet. This simple train ride would forever change these boys' lives and new precedents in our Constitution would make this day historic.

As the boys were on the train, they were not alone; four white boys were on the train with them. "One of the white boys, he stepped on my hand..." "Nigger bastard, this is a white man's train," As told by Haywood Patterson, one of the nine boys.

American Heritage Enduring the Tragedy of Scottsboro) Patterson answered back and a fight broke out among the blacks and white. The black boys threw the white boys off the train which infuriated the white boys. They ran into town (Paint Rock, Al) and made a complaint with the authorities, a posse went after the train. Nine black boys, some of who were in other cars and had no idea of the fight, and a few white people.

Two of those white people were female. Victoria Price, 21, and her friend Ruby

Bates, 17, impoverished textile mill workers and afraid of a vagrancy rap themselves, accused the nine blacks of rape.

The boys were taken to Scottsboro, the nearby county, and locked in a dingy cell. By evening, hundreds of white farmers armed with pistols and shotguns were threatening to break into the jail and remove them. The governor had to call out the National Guard, to protect the boys' lives.

After two weeks the boys were put on trail and faced a jury of all whites. The girls stuck to there stories of being raped, even though there were contradictions to their testimony and doctors found no evidence of rape, and the boys having no actual counsel until the day of the trail were found guilty. Eight of the nine boys were sentenced to the electric chair.

The case was appealed and taken through the State courts of Alabama, again the boys were found guilty. The case was then taken up appeal through the U.S. Supreme

Court. The U.S. Supreme court overturned the convictions.

Justice Sutherland wrote the 7-2 majority opinion, overturning the convictions of the young black men and requiring that a new trial be held with the benefit of legal counsel appointed by the court. Sutherland wrote "No attempt was made to investigate.

Defendants were immediately hurried to trial...." The Court noted that "a defendant, charged with a serious crime, must not be stripped of his right to have sufficient time to advise with counsel and prepare his defense." To deny that, Sutherland wrote, "is not to proceed promptly in the calm spirit of regulated justice but to go forward with the haste of the mob." (U.S. Supreme Court Powell v. Alabama)

Clarence Noriss, one of the nine boys, case was overturned due to an argument that he had no jury of his peers.

There were no blacks serving as jury at his trial. No African-American had ever served as juror in that county. "Within the memory of witnesses long resident there, no negro had ever served on a jury in that county or had been called for such service. Some of these witnesses were over fifty years of age, and had always lived in Morgan County. Their testimony was not contradicted. A clerk of the circuit court, who had resided in the county for thirty years, and who had been in office for over four years, testified that, during his official term, approximately 2,500 persons had been called for jury service, and that not one of them was a negro; that he did not recall "ever seeing any single person of the colored race serve on any jury in Morgan County."