were the scottsboro 9 killed
[86], According to one account, juror Irwin Craig held out against the imposition of the death penalty, because he thought that Patterson was innocent.[87]. Posse member Tom Rousseau claimed to have seen the women and youths get off the same car but under cross-examination admitted finding the defendants scattered in various cars at the front of the train. [97][103], Lester Carter took the stand for the defense. "If you don't, they will kill you, Red", said the judge. [65], A large crowd gathered outside the courthouse for the start of the Patterson trial on Monday, April 2. Clarence Norris, the oldest defendant and the only one sentenced to death in the final trial, "jumped parole" in 1946 and went into hiding. were the scottsboro 9 killed. Although rape was potentially a capital offense in Alabama, the defendants at this point were not allowed to consult an attorney. "[18] For each trial, all-white juries were selected. Judge Callahan said he was giving them two forms one for conviction and one for acquittal, but he supplied the jury with only a form to convict. The Accusers. [38], This trial was interrupted and the jury sent out when the Patterson jury reported; they found him guilty. Leibowitz objected that African-American jurors had been excluded from the jury pool. It was market day in Scottsboro, and farmers were in town to sell produce and buy supplies. [96] She testified that she had fallen while getting out of the gondola car, passed out, and came to seated in a store at Paint Rock. [104] Although the defense needed her testimony, by the time a deposition arrived, the case had gone to the jury and they did not hear it at all. What you can do now is to make sure that it doesn't happen to some other woman." Both were familiar with "hoboing," or catching rides on freight trains. Jim Morrison, outlaw, ca. The Scottsboro Boys were nine African American teenagers who were falsely accused of raping two white women on a train in Alabama in 1931. (RI.CS.5) answer choices. Judge Horton was appointed. He was called in to see the judge presiding over that retrial, James Horton, who exhorted him to change his vote to guilty. [54] He wrote, "While the constitution guarantees to the accused a speedy trial, it is of greater importance that it should be by a fair and impartial jury, ex vi termini ("by definition"), a jury free from bias or prejudice, and, above all, from coercion and intimidation. The Scottsboro Boys were a group of nine black teenagers accused of rape in the 1930s South. The nine, after nearly being lynched, were brought to trial in Scottsboro in April 1931, just three weeks after their arrests. She reiterated that neither she nor Price had been raped. Ozie Powell said that while he was not a participant, he had seen the fight with the white teenagers from his vantage point between a boxcar and a gondola car, where he had been hanging on. Victoria Price testified that six of the black youths raped her, and six raped Ruby Bates. When asked if she had been raped on March 25, 1931, Bates said, "No sir." Price accused Eugene Williams of holding the knife to her throat, and said that all of the other teenagers had knives. Norris later wrote a book about his experiences. [citation needed], Judge Horton learned that the prisoners were in danger from locals. . In the end, the ordeal 90 years ago of those who became known as the Scottsboro Nine became a touchstone because it provided a searing portrait of how black people were too often treated in America, says Gardullo. On April 9, 1931, eight of the nine young men were convicted and sentenced to death. My, my, my. Price died in 1983, in Lincoln County, Tennessee. [65] The jury was selected by the end of the day on Friday and sequestered in the Lyons Hotel. Leibowitz recognized that he was viewed by Southerners as an outsider, and allowed the local attorney Charles Watts to be the lead attorney; he assisted from the sidelines. The judge and prosecutor wanted to speed the nine trials to avoid violence, so the first trial took a day and a half, and the rest took place one right after the other, in just one day. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. He set the retrials for January 20, 1936. During prosecution testimony, Victoria Price stated that she and Ruby Bates witnessed the fight, that one of the black men had a gun, and that they all raped her at knifepoint. The Court did not fault Moody and Roddy for lack of an effective defense, noting that both had told Judge Hawkins that they had not had time to prepare their cases. She had disappeared from her home in Huntsville weeks before the new trial, and every sheriff in Alabama had been ordered to search for her, to no avail. [32], After the outburst, the defense of Patterson moved for a mistrial, but Judge Hawkins denied the motion and testimony continued. Authorities in Newnan, Georgia, said the . Bates explained that Price had said, "she didn't care if all the Negroes in Alabama were put in jail." He was reported to have died in Atlanta in 1974. His first trial ended in a hung jury; the second was a. Judge Horton called the first case against Haywood Patterson and began jury selection. This was near homes of the alleged victims and in Ku Klux Klan territory.[59]. March 30: The nine "Scottsboro Boys" are indicted by a grand jury . [75], Train fireman Percy Ricks testified that he saw the two women slipping along the side of the train right after it stopped in Paint Rock, as if they were trying to escape the posse. These were poor people. Furthermore, the photograph masks the fact that they are incarcerated. At the National Museum of American Historys Archives Center, another photo shows mothers of the defendants alongside Bates, who traveled internationally with them following her recantation, to draw attention to the case, in what Gardullo calls an early act of truth and reconciliation. A notable pastel 1935 portrait of Norris and Patterson by Aaron Douglas also resides in the National Portrait Gallery along with another dated 1950 of Patterson. He remained in contact with Clarence Norris for a few years and planned on Norris reuniting with younger brother Roy, but after Roy's death, Norris never saw Andy again. Nov. 21, 2013. Sheriff's deputies arrested the nine young men, loaded them onto a flatbed truck and took them to the Jackson County jail in Scottsboro. The accused, ranging in age from 13 to 19, faced allegations of raping Ruby Bates, 17, and Victoria Price, 21. "[60], Leibowitz asserted his trust in the "God-fearing people of Decatur and Morgan County";[60] he made a pretrial motion to quash the indictment on the ground that blacks had been systematically excluded from the grand jury. A crowd of thousands soon formed. After a demonstration in Harlem, the Communist Party USA took an interest in the Scottsboro case. "[70] Threats of violence came from the North as well. Governor Robert J. Bentley said to the press that day: While we could not take back what happened to the Scottsboro Boys 80 years ago, we found a way to make it right moving forward. The American Communist Party maintained control over the defense of the case, retaining the New York criminal defense attorney Samuel Leibowitz. This Feb. 10, 2010 photo taken in Scottsboro, Ala., shows the Jackson County (Ala.) Sentinel from April 2, 1931, when nine young black men called ``The Scottsboro Boys'' were arrested on charges of raping two white women. Both were from poor families who lived in a racially mixed section of town in Huntsville, Alabama. [122], On April 1, 1935, the United States Supreme Court sent the cases back a second time for retrials in Alabama. May the Lord have mercy on the soul of Ruby Bates. Decades too late, the Alabama Legislature is moving to grant posthumous pardons to the Scottsboro Boys the nine black teenagers arrested as freight train hoboes in 1931 and convicted by all-white juries of raping two white women. Nine black teenagers ranging in . However, the Scottsboro defendants decided to let the ILD handle their appeal.[2]. After Alabama freed Roy Wright, the Scottsboro Defense Committee took him on a national lecture tour. He died sometime in the 1960s, buried in an unmarked grave beside his brother. [citation needed], The prisoners were taken to court by 118 Alabama guardsmen, armed with machine guns. If they believed her, that was enough to convict. While appeals were filed, the Alabama Supreme Court issued indefinite stays of executions 72 hours before the defendants were scheduled to die. A veteran newspaper editor, she is recently the author of The Last American Hero: The Remarkable Life of John Glenn and has authored or co-authored seven other books, focusing on 20th-century American history or Philadelphia history. 1861-1895. He was paroled in 1946 following his conviction for assault. [80], With his eye turned to the southern jury, Knight cross-examined her. "[79], Just after the defense rested "with reservations", someone handed Leibowitz a note. The Scottsboro Nines case, however, became a moment showing that despite their status as outsiders, black Americans could carry their calls for justice across the nation and around the globe. National Museum of African American History and Culture. "[83] He goes on to say that, "Until Wright spoke, many of the newspapermen felt that there was an outside chance for acquittal, at least a hung jury. Now the question in this case is thisIs justice in the case going to be bought and sold in Alabama with Jew money from New York? The Scottsboro Boys were a group of nine boys who were wrongfully sentenced from 1931-1937 and not proven innocent until 1977 to a tedious life of trials and prison, tribulations and death. [103] Patterson explained contradictions in his testimony: "We was scared and I don't know what I said. [47] The Party used its legal arm, the International Labor Defense (ILD), to take up their cases,[48] and persuaded the defendants' parents to let the party champion their cause. Wright had a brief musical career, and well-known entertainer Bill Bojangles Robinson paid his tuition to vocational school. "[35], The younger Wright brother testified that Patterson was not involved with the girls, but that nine black teenagers had sex with the girls. [94], Leibowitz led Commissioner Moody and Jackson County Circuit Clerk C.A. Thirty-six potential jurors admitted having a "fixed opinion" in the case,[96] which caused Leibowitz to move for a change of venue. "Scottsboro: An American Tragedy", PBS.org, CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (, "A wing of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the United States, devoted to the defense of people it perceived as victims of a class war. Andrew Wright, when freed in 1943, fled Alabama and was taken back to prison, where he remained until May 1950. Scottsboro . The young white men who were fighting were forced to exit the train. Some historians view it as a spark that fired the mid-20th century civil rights movement. Thinking Patterson would be acquitted, Judge Horton did not force Dr. Lynch to testify, but the judge had become convinced the defendants were innocent. The judge granted Roy Wright, the youngest of the group, a mistrial because of agedespite the recommendation of the all-white jury. [11] The posse brought the women to the jail where the accused were being held, and they identified them as their attackers. "[111], In May 1934, despite having run unopposed in the previous election for the position, James Horton was soundly defeated when he ran for re-election as a circuit judge. The History Of The Scottsboro Boys - VIBE.com The defense called the only witnesses they had had time to find the defendants. Obama wrote that Du Bois defined black Americans as the perpetual Other, always on the outside looking in . For a second time in April 1935, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in. Bates recanted her testimony in Pattersons case, which was the first to be retried; however, an all-white jury convicted Patterson and again sentenced him to death. The prosecution presented only testimony from Price and Bates. "[84] He called Price's testimony "a foul, contemptible, outrageous lie. Victoria Price, brought out for Bates to identify, glared at her. Patterson and the other black passengers were able to ward off the group. But he said that the defense attorney Joseph Brodsky had paid his rent and bought him a new suit for the trial. "[66] Leibowitz later conceded that Price was "one of the toughest witnesses he ever cross examined. "[29] The defense made no closing argument, nor did it address the sentencing of the death penalty for their clients. His case went to the jury at nine that evening. "[53] Again, the Court affirmed these convictions as well. He admitted under questioning that Price told him that she had had sex with her husband and that Bates had earlier had intercourse as well, before the alleged rape events.[41]. During the long jury deliberations, Judge Callahan also assigned two Morgan County deputies to guard him. To See Justice Done: Letters from the Scottsboro Boys Trials, Scottsboro Boys Trial Clippings, The University of Alabama in Huntsville Archives and Special Collections, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Scottsboro_Boys&oldid=1136922691, Overturned convictions in the United States, Recipients of American gubernatorial pardons, CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown, Articles with dead external links from May 2018, Articles with permanently dead external links, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2016, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2014, Articles prone to spam from February 2015, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Following his conviction, Haywood Patterson spent 13 years in prison. When the jury returned its verdict from the first trial, the jury from the second trial was taken out of the courtroom. The pardons granted to the Scottsboro Boys today are long overdue. By letting Leibowitz go on record on this issue, Judge Callahan provided grounds for the case to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court for a second time. As to representation, the Court found "that the defendants were represented by counsel who thoroughly cross examined the state's witnesses, and presented such evidence as was available. All but 13-year-old Roy Wright were convicted of rape and sentenced to death (the common sentence in Alabama at the time for black men convicted of raping white women), even though there was no medical evidence indicating that rape had taken place. Making false accusations against the African Americans youths, was the way that those white women were encouraged to respond by wider society.. Knight questioned them extensively about instances in which their testimony supposedly differed from their testimony at their trial in Scottsboro. The trials lasted from 1931 - 1937. While the Scottsboro Nine wore the faces that represented a great tragedy, their survival represented. Their case was monumental. The trial was set for April 6. By the mid-1950s, he seemed to have settled for good in Connecticut. During the retrials, one of the alleged victims admitted to fabricating the rape story and asserted that none of the Scottsboro Boys touched either of the white women. On April 9, 1931, eight of the nine young men were convicted and sentenced to death. Price volunteered, "I have not had intercourse with any other white man but my husband. justice systems, and stereotyping) or parallels of liberatory struggle (such as the Mothers of the Movement and/or movements like #SayHerName or Black Lives Matter) are not perfect. They say this is a frame-up! He also testified that defendant Willie Roberson was "diseased with syphilis and gonorrhea, a bad case of it." He had never lost a murder trial and was a registered Democrat, with no connection to the Communist Party. [52], The Court upheld the lower court's change of venue decision, upheld the testimony of Ruby Bates, and reviewed the testimony of the various witnesses. She said none of the defendants had touched her or even spoken to her. It upheld seven of eight rulings from the lower court. "[101] Gilley testified to meeting Lester Carter and the women the evening before the alleged rapes and getting them coffee and sandwiches. "[99] The many contradictions notwithstanding, Price steadfastly stuck to her testimony that Patterson had raped her. At the trial, some 100 reporters were seated at the press tables. [124], Alabama Governor Bibb Graves instructed every solicitor and judge in the state, "Whether we like the decisions or not We must put Negroes in jury boxes. In the first set of trials in April 1931, an all-white, all-male jury quickly convicted the Scottsboro Boys and sentenced eight of them to death. He is not here." He said, "Don't you know these defense witnesses are bought and paid for? The defense attorney showed that "Mr. Sanford" was evidently qualified in all manner except by virtue of his race to be a candidate for participation in a jury. [36], Co-defendants Andy Wright, Eugene Williams, and Ozie Powell all testified that they did not see any women on the train. Leibowitz's prompt appeal stayed the execution date, so Patterson and Norris were both returned to death row in Kilby Prison. However, Gilley had told her to "go to hell." The only one to survive was the youngest, who was sent to prison for life (Anderson). They kept Joseph Brodsky as the second chair for the trial. Crews were called to the park around 12:30 a.m. Once he sent out the jury and warned the courtroom, "I want it to be known that these prisoners are under the protection of this court. Nor would he allow Leibowitz to ask why she went to Chattanooga, where she had spent the night there, or about Carter or Gilley. The defense objected vigorously, but the Court allowed it.[42]. He had testified in the first Decatur trial that Price and Bates had had sex with him and Gilley in the hobo jungle in Chattanooga prior to the alleged rapes, which could account for the semen found in the women. At one point, a white man stood on the hand of 18-year-old Haywood Patterson, who would become one of the Scottsboro Nine, and almost knocked him off the train. Price's case was initially dismissed but she appealed. Some historians view it as a spark that fired the mid-20th century civil rights movement. Mrs Dare also firmly believes her husband's death wasn't planned by the trio. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said 46-year-old Stephen Miller, who was on leave from his job at the Scottsboro Police Department, was found dead this week from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a home in .
