______ was the attorney who represented the scottsboro boys in the 1930s.

by Bryce Morissette Published 2 years ago Updated 1 year ago 5 min read

With prominent defense attorney Samuel Leibowitz arguing the case for the ILD, the Alabama Supreme Court unanimously denied the defense's motion for new trials, and the case headed for a second hearing in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.Feb 22, 2018

Who were the Scottsboro Boys attorneys?

The youths received no competent counsel. They were represented by Stephen Roddy, a lawyer from Tennessee who was there at the request of friends of the boys' parents (and unfamiliar with Alabama law) and the public defender, Milo Moody, a 69-year-old lawyer who hadn't practiced in years.

Who helped Scottsboro Boys?

The NAACP may have joined with the Communists to help the Scottsboro Boys, but internally they spent years trying to prove that they didn't sympathize with the Communist cause. During the 1950s, they rooted out Communist members and even helped J.

Who was Samuel Leibowitz?

When New York attorney Samuel Leibowitz receieved a call from the International Labor Defense asking him whether he would defend the Scottsboro Boys in their new trials, he was considered by many to be the "new Clarence Darrow," the man to call if you were charged with a capital crime.

Who was the judge in the first Scottsboro trial?

The heroism of Judge James Horton and the "Scottsboro Boys" trial that brought him fame have receded from public memory. The central characters of the legal battle are all dead. The two women whose accusation of rape against nine black teenagers started it all died in the early 1980's.

Who was Ruby Bates?

Ruby Bates was, like Victoria Price, a poor Huntsville millworker who became one of the two accusers of the Scottsboro Boys. But, unlike Price, Bates later recanted her story of rape aboard a Chattanooga to Memphis freight train, and went on to actively campaign for the release of the jailed black defendants.

Who was Victoria Price?

Victoria Price Street, whose charge that she was raped by a group of young blacks on a train prompted the Scottsboro Boys trial of the 1930's, has died in Huntsville Hospital. She was 77 years old. Mrs. Street was a resident of Fayetteville, Tenn., in the last years of her life.

Who is James E Horton?

James Edwin Horton Jr. was born in Tennessee in 1878, the son of a former slave owner. He studied medicine at Vanderbilt for a year and then received a B.A. and Bachelor of Law at Cumberland University, in 1897 and 1899. His father was a probate judge and Horton clerked for him before entering private practice.

Who was Samuel Leibowitz's last witness on the stand?

Inside, Leibowitz called each to the stand in turn. Each denied having ever touched Victoria Price or Ruby Bates. The last to take the stand was Haywood Patterson.

What was the name of the judge who overturned the verdict of one of the Scottsboro trials *?

Horton grants Patterson a new trial The defense moved for a retrial and, believing the defendants innocent, Judge James Edwin Horton agreed to set aside the guilty verdict for Patterson.

How long was Andy Wright in jail?

six yearsHe later said that he did so after having been threatened and severely beaten by authorities. Wright kept a Bible with him at all times in jail, where he was held six years without retrial. He needed whatever comfort he could find.

How long was Clarence Norris in jail?

15 yearsMr. Norris, who was sentenced to death three times in a series of trials involving nine black teen-agers accused of raping two white women, spent 15 years in prison. He was then a fugitive for 30 years after he violated his parole and fled Alabama.

How long was Roy Wright in jail?

6 YearCharge:RapeSentence:Life ImprisonmentYears Imprisoned:6Year Crime:1931Year Convicted:193131 more rows

What were the Scottsboro boys accused of?

The Scottsboro Boys were nine African-American teenagers, ages 12 to 19, accused in Alabama of raping two white women in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial.

Who were the Scottsboro boys?

The Scottsboro Boys, with attorney Samuel Leibowitz, under guard by the state militia, 1932. The Scottsboro Boys were nine African-American teenagers, ages 12 to 19, accused in Alabama of raping two white women in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial.

When did the Scottsboro boys get their death sentence?

On March 24, 1932 , the Alabama Supreme Court ruled against seven of the eight remaining Scottsboro Boys, confirming the convictions and death sentences of all but the 13-year-old Eugene Williams. It upheld seven of eight rulings from the lower court.

When did the Scottsboro Boys get pardons?

In early May 2013, the Alabama legislature cleared the path for posthumous pardons. On November 21, 2013, the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles granted posthumous pardons to Weems, Wright and Patterson, the only Scottsboro Boys who had neither had their convictions overturned nor received a pardon.

What does Lead Belly say in the Scottsboro Boys song?

In the song, he warns "colored" people to watch out if they go to Alabama, saying that "the man gonna get ya", and that the "Scottsboro boys [will] tell ya what it's all about.".

What was the significance of Powell v. Alabama?

In Powell v. Alabama (1932), it ordered new trials. The case was first returned to the lower court and the judge allowed a change of venue, moving the retrials to Decatur, Alabama.

Did the jury find the defendants guilty?

The jury found the defendants guilty, but the judge set aside the verdict and granted a new trial. The judge was replaced and the case tried under a judge who ruled frequently against the defense. For the third time a jury—now with one African-American member—returned a guilty verdict.

What was the significance of the Scottsboro case?

The Scottsboro case also pitted the NAACP against the Communist Party in a struggle for who would control the boys’ legal defense— and claim this rare spotlight on race in America . The boys’ case seemed hopeless. After the fight on the freight train, they were falsely accused of rape by the two white women in the group.

Where were the boys arrested?

They were immediately arrested by a posse, thrown into jail in Gadsden, Alabama, and threatened by a lynch mob. Then, all but one were swiftly convicted by all-white juries and sentenced to death.

What did the NAACP do in the 1950s?

During the 1950s, they rooted out Communist members and even helped J. Edgar Hoover as he put together his blacklist and pursued suspected Communists during the Red Scare. In an age of bias and discrimination, NAACP’s leaders worried that they’d be destroyed if they associated with Communism.

What happened at the end of the train ride?

But by the end of the train ride, nine young men—all African American, all teenagers—were headed toward their death by an unjust, vigilante mob and a legal system that didn’t value their lives. They were the Scottsboro Boys, and their trial, death sentences, and dramatic appeals helped expose the injustice of the American legal system during ...

What amendment did Scottsboro have?

Alabama that the Scottsboro defendants had been denied the right to counsel, which violated their right to due process under the 14th Amendment.

When did the Supreme Court overturn the guilty verdicts?

In January 1935 , the Supreme Court again overturned the guilty verdicts, ruling in Norris v. Alabama that the systematic exclusion of blacks on Jackson Country jury rolls denied a fair trial to the defendants, and suggesting that the lower courts review Patterson’s case as well.

What book did Harper Lee write?

Harper Lee reportedly drew on the boys’ experience when she wrote her classic novel To Kill A Mockingbird, and over the years the case has inspired numerous other books, songs, feature films, documentaries and even a Broadway musical.

Overview

The Scottsboro Boys were nine African American teenagers, ages 13 to 20, accused in Alabama of raping two white women in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial. The cases included a lynch mob before the suspects had been indicted, all-white juries, rushed trials, and disruptive mobs. It is commonly cited as an example of a mis…

Arrests and accusations

On March 25, 1931, the Southern Railway line between Chattanooga and Memphis, Tennessee, had nine black youths who were riding on a freight train with several white males and two white women. A fight broke out between the white and black groups near the Lookout Mountain tunnel, and the whites were kicked off the train. The whites went to a sheriff in the nearby town Paint Rock, …

Lynch mobs

In the Jim Crow South, lynching of black males accused of raping or murdering whites was common; word quickly spread of the arrest and rape story. Soon a lynch mob gathered at the jail in Scottsboro, demanding the youths be surrendered to them.
Sheriff Matt Wann stood in front of the jail and addressed the mob, saying he …

Trials

The prisoners were taken to court by 118 Alabama guardsmen, armed with machine guns. It was market day in Scottsboro, and farmers were in town to sell produce and buy supplies. A crowd of thousands soon formed. Courthouse access required a permit due to the salacious nature of the testimony expected. As the Supreme Court later described this situation, "the proceedings ... took pl…

Decatur trials

When the case, by now a cause celebre, came back to Judge Hawkins, he granted the request for a change of venue. The defense had urged for a move to the city of Birmingham, Alabama, but the case was transferred to the small, rural community of Decatur. This was near homes of the alleged victims and in Ku Klux Klan territory.

Aftermath

Governor Graves had planned to pardon the prisoners in 1938 but was angered by their hostility and refusal to admit their guilt. He refused the pardons but did commute Norris's death sentence to life in prison.
Ruby Bates toured for a short while as an ILD speaker. She said she was "sorry for all the trouble that I caused them", and claimed she did it because she was …

In popular culture

• African-American poet and playwright Langston Hughes wrote about the trials in his work Scottsboro Limited.
• The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Leeis about growing up in the Deep South in the 1930s. An important plot element concerns the father, attorney Atticus Finch, defending a Black man against a false accusation of rape. The trial in this novel is often characterized as based on the Scottsboro case. But Harper Lee said in 2005 that she had in min…