Scottsboro: A Novel
Scottsboro: A Novel

Author: Ellen Feldman

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2008-04-17

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 0393068390

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A powerful novel about race, class, sex, and a lie that refused to die. Alabama, 1931. A posse stops a freight train and arrests nine black youths. Their crime: fighting with white boys. Then two white girls emerge from another freight car, and fast as anyone can say Jim Crow, the cry of rape goes up. One of the girls sticks to her story. The other changes her tune, again and again. A young journalist, whose only connection to the incident is her overheated social conscience, fights to save the nine youths from the electric chair, redeem the girl who repents her lie, and make amends for her own past. Intertwining historical actors and fictional characters, stirring racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism into an explosive brew, Scottsboro is a novel of a shocking injustice that convulsed the nation and reverberated around the world, destroyed lives, forged careers, and brought out the worst and the best in the men and women who fought for the cause.

Scottsboro
Scottsboro

Author: Dan T. Carter

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 2007-09

Total Pages: 528

ISBN-13: 0807135232

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Scottsboro tells the riveting story of one of this country's most famous and controversial court cases and a tragic and revealing chapter in the history of the American South. In 1931, two white girls claimed they were savagely raped by nine young black men aboard a freight train moving across northeastern Alabama. The young men-ranging in age from twelve to nineteen-were quickly tried, and eight were sentenced to death. The age of the defendants, the stunning rapidity of their trials, and the harsh sentences they received sparked waves of protest and attracted national attention during the 1930s. Originally published in 1970,Scottsboro triggered a new interest in the case, sparking two film documentaries, several Hollywood docudramas, two autobiographies, and numerous popular and scholarly articles on the case. In his new introduction, Dan T. Carter looks back more than thirty-five years after he first wrote about the case, asking what we have learned that is new about it and what relevance the story of Scottsboro still has in the twenty-first century.

Remembering Scottsboro
Remembering Scottsboro

Author: James A. Miller

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-07-13

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 1400833221

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How one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in the United States continues to haunt the nation’s racial psyche In 1931, nine black youths were charged with raping two white women in Scottsboro, Alabama. Despite meager and contradictory evidence, all nine were found guilty and eight of the defendants were sentenced to death—making Scottsboro one of the worst travesties of justice to take place in the post-Reconstruction South. Remembering Scottsboro explores how this case has embedded itself into the fabric of American memory and become a lens for perceptions of race, class, sexual politics, and justice. James Miller draws upon the archives of the Communist International and NAACP, contemporary journalistic accounts, as well as poetry, drama, fiction, and film, to document the impact of Scottsboro on American culture. The book reveals how the Communist Party, NAACP, and media shaped early images of Scottsboro; looks at how the case influenced authors including Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and Harper Lee; shows how politicians and Hollywood filmmakers invoked the case in the ensuing decades; and examines the defiant, sensitive, and savvy correspondence of Haywood Patterson—one of the accused, who fled the Alabama justice system. Miller considers how Scottsboro persists as a point of reference in contemporary American life and suggests that the Civil Rights movement begins much earlier than the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955. Remembering Scottsboro demonstrates how one compelling, provocative, and tragic case still haunts the American racial imagination.

Scottsboro, Alabama
Scottsboro, Alabama

Author: Lin Shi Khan

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 165

ISBN-13: 0814751776

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A unique graphic history of one of the most controversial legal decisions of all time—with 118 powerful linoleum prints In 1931, nine black youths were falsely accused of raping two white women on a freight train traveling through northern Alabama. They were arrested and tried in four days, convicted of rape, and eight of them were sentenced to death. The ensuing legal battle spanned six years and involved two landmark decisions by the Supreme Court. One of the most well known and controversial legal decisions of our time, the Scottsboro case ignited the collective emotions of the country, which was still struggling to come to terms with fundamental issues of racial equality. Scottsboro, Alabama, which consists of 118 exceptionally powerful linoleum prints, provides a unique graphic history of one of the most infamous, racially-charged episodes in the annals of the American judicial system, and of the racial and class struggle of the time. Originally printed in Seattle in 1935, this hitherto unknown document, of which no other known copies exist, is presented here for the first time. It includes a foreword by Robin D.G. Kelley and an introduction by Andrew H. Lee. Mr. Lee discovered the book as part of a gift to the Tamiment Library by the family of Joe North, an important figure in the Communist Party-USA, and an editor at the seminal left-wing journal, the New Masses. A true historical find and an excellent tool for teaching the case itself and the period which it so indelibly marked, this book allows us to see the Scottsboro case through a unique and highly provocative lens.

Scottsboro Unmasked
Scottsboro Unmasked

Author: Peggy Allen Towns

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Published: 2018-02-20

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 1546226486

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What is the picture of inequality? Is it race, gender, ethnicity, age, or place? Time and time again, our American history gives us the answer to that age-old question. In 1933, attorney Samuel Leibowitz argued that it was disparity in the jury pool and the innocence of nine. Sadly, the horrible malignancy of racism continues to exist and is the primary root of many prejudices and inequalities in our country today. This powerful historical narrative paints an amazing picture of the color line and the incredible bravery of people who took a stand for justice. The author resurrects the voices and the infamous case of the Scottsboro Nine. Their unmasked stories unfold against the backdrop of an economically depressed town, energized with an inferno of bigotry and violence. This groundbreaking research presents the courage of fearless men who rattled Americas conscience by challenging decades of discrimination and injustices within Alabamas legal system. On the other hand, the book reveals the sentiment of those who embraced the Old Souths ideology of inequality and exclusiveness, which put at risk the lives of nine innocent victims, young men who changed Americas judicial system. Fiat justitia rual coelomthis is Latin for Let justice be done though the heavens may fall. These are words that my grandfather, Judge James E. Horton, learned at his mothers knee. It seems he followed those wise words as he set aside the verdict and death sentence and ordered a new trial for Haywood Patterson. Though his decision cost him the next election, there were never any regrets. John Temple Graves, a Birmingham columnist, wrote of him, He does the right thing as he sees it, with no particular sense of the scene about him, but with an enormous sense of right-doing, ancestors gone and example-bound descendants to come. His social conscience is vertical rather than horizontal. We are the beneficiaries of his vertical conscience and I hope we will all strive to live by his example (Kathy Horton Garrett, Judge Hortons granddaughter).

A Scottsboro Case in Mississippi
A Scottsboro Case in Mississippi

Author: Richard C. Cortner

Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published: 2005-06-06

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9781578068159

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An absorbing analysis of a 1936 case that exonerated three black sharecroppers tortured into confessing a murder they did not commit

Accused!
Accused!

Author: Larry Dane Brimner

Publisher: Astra Publishing House

Published: 2019-10-15

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1629797758

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This chilling and harrowing account tells the story of the Scottsboro Boys, nine African-American teenagers who, when riding the rails during the Great Depression, found their lives destroyed after two white women falsely accused them of rape. Award-winning author Larry Dane Brimner explains how it took more than eighty years for their wrongful convictions to be overturned. In 1931, nine teenagers were arrested as they traveled on a train through Scottsboro, Alabama. The youngest was thirteen, and all had been hoping to find something better at the end of their journey. But they never arrived. Instead, two white women falsely accused them of rape. The effects were catastrophic for the young men, who came to be known as the Scottsboro Boys. Being accused of raping a white woman in the Jim Crow south almost certainly meant death, either by a lynch mob or the electric chair. The Scottsboro boys found themselves facing one prejudiced trial after another, in one of the worst miscarriages of justice in U.S. history. They also faced a racist legal system, all-white juries, and the death penalty. Noted Sibert Medalist Larry Dane Brimner uncovers how the Scottsboro Boys spent years in Alabama's prison system, enduring inhumane conditions and torture. The extensive back matter includes an author's note, bibliography, index, and further resources and source notes.

The Man from Scottsboro
The Man from Scottsboro

Author: Kwando Mbiassi Kinshasa

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2002-12-16

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 9780786415380

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In March 1931, Clarence Norris, a self-described hobo, and eight other black men were arrested in Paint Rock, Alabama, and charged with raping two white girls who were also hoboes on the train he was riding. The one day trial of the nine men, better known as the "Scottsboro Boys" resulted in conviction and the death sentence despite a paucity of evidence. Though later pardoned, Norris spent 13 years in jail. (He died in 1989.) Clarence Norris's description of his arrest, trial and sentencing is both tragic and inspirational. His letters to his family, attorneys and supporters show his spirit as he struggled against a biased judicial system. A lengthy 1980 interview with Norris is supplemented by contemporary newspaper accounts of the trial, articles by Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter and Alabama Appeals Court Judge James E. Horton, and legal opinions of the defendants' attorney, Samuel S. Leibowitz.

Black Communists Speak on Scottsboro
Black Communists Speak on Scottsboro

Author: Walter T. Howard

Publisher: Temple University Press

Published: 2007-12-07

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 1592135994

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On March 25, 1931, Alabama police detained nine young African AMerican men at a railroad stop not far from Scottsboro. In the process, they encountered two white women -- who promptly accused the young men of raping them. Soon after, all-white juries found the nine youths guilty and eight of them were sentenced to death. Although many Americans were outraged by the injustices of the case, the loudest voices raised in protest were those of members of the American Communist Party. Many white Communists spoke out, but black Communists took the lead in organizing public protests and legal responses. As this surprising book makes clear, they were acting at the direction of the Communist International (Comintern), which had directed them to address the "Negro problem." Now, with the opening of formerly inaccessible Communist party archives, this collection of primary documents reveals the little-known but major roles played by black Communists in the case of "the Scottsboro Boys."