The Scottsboro Boys
Imagine 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. This became reality to nine young boys on March 25, 1931. When the Scottsboro boys were convicted, everyone involved was extremely happy. Yet when the boys persuaded the judges to have retrial after retrial, it became a mess. Despite the conflicting testimonies of the Scottsboro boys, Victoria Price, and Ruby Bates, the court was able to discern the truth and deliver justice to everyone surrounding the trial. The Scottsboro trials were important because the sixth and fourteenth Amendment was challenged and carried through and the evidence presented was undeniable.
On March 25, 1931 a deputy sheriff group in Paint Rock, Alabama stopped a freight train traveling from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Hoboeing was a common "pastime" in the Depression year of 1931. It was when men, and sometimes women, caught trains traveling to different places to try and find jobs. On the twenty-fifth of March two dozen men rode on the Chattanooga bound train, yet the deputies only arrested nine young black men, in age ranging from twelve to twenty, for potential rape and violence (or fighting). The arrested men were Roy and Andy Wright, Olen Montgomery, Clarence Norris, Haywood Patterson, Ozie Powell, Willie Robertson, Charles Weems, and Eugene Williams. In addition to the two dozen mixed men, they found two white males and two white women dressed in men's overalls. While going over a top of a box car, one of the white men stepped on the hand of Haywood Patterson. A "stone-throwing" fight broke out between the white boys and the group of black boys. The two women who witnessed the fight were Victoria Price and Ruby Bates (Players 1).
Roy and Andy Wright were brothers, who were arrested along with the other seven boys. At the time Andy was nineteen and Roy was twelve. Andy was described as the "best natured" out of the
On March 25, 1931 a deputy sheriff group in Paint Rock, Alabama stopped a freight train traveling from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Hoboeing was a common "pastime" in the Depression year of 1931. It was when men, and sometimes women, caught trains traveling to different places to try and find jobs. On the twenty-fifth of March two dozen men rode on the Chattanooga bound train, yet the deputies only arrested nine young black men, in age ranging from twelve to twenty, for potential rape and violence (or fighting). The arrested men were Roy and Andy Wright, Olen Montgomery, Clarence Norris, Haywood Patterson, Ozie Powell, Willie Robertson, Charles Weems, and Eugene Williams. In addition to the two dozen mixed men, they found two white males and two white women dressed in men's overalls. While going over a top of a box car, one of the white men stepped on the hand of Haywood Patterson. A "stone-throwing" fight broke out between the white boys and the group of black boys. The two women who witnessed the fight were Victoria Price and Ruby Bates (Players 1).
Roy and Andy Wright were brothers, who were arrested along with the other seven boys. At the time Andy was nineteen and Roy was twelve. Andy was described as the "best natured" out of the