Similarities Between Scottsboro Trial And To Kill A Mockingbird

From the crime to the trial, there are parallels between the crimes and trials. On March 25, 1931, a freight train was stopped in Paint Rock, a tiny community in northern Alabama, and nine young African American men who had been riding the rails were arrested. Two white women, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, descended from the freight cars, and accused the men of raping them on the train. As a result, the accused men were taken to the Scottsboro jail. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Mayella Ewell claimed she was raped after requesting Tom Robinson's help. Her dad ran in after the alleged rape; they told the sheriff, and Tom Robinson was put in jail. In the Scottsboro trials and in To Kill A Mocking, the African American men were taken from jail to

Both Mayella’s story and Ruby Bates and Victoria Price’s stories included rape claims that led to jailing of African American men. Much like the crimes, the court cases had multiple similarities. Lawyers in both cases presented evidence to show that their clients could not have committed the crimes. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch explained that Tom could not have hit Mayella and left a mark on her face as Mayella had claimed. The lawyer in the Scottsboro trials, Samuel Leibowitz, brought in a model of a train to show how the clients could not have attacked the girls as claimed. Despite how well each lawyer did, the accused in both cases were found guilty. When asked his opinion, Haywood Patterson, one of the accused Scottsboro defendants said, "The courtroom was one big smiling white face." (In Their Own Words). It came as a shock to nobody that the African American men of Scottsboro lost. At that time, a white jury rarely called an African American man innocent. Just like in the Scottsboro trial, the white jury from To Kill a Mockingbird, found Tom guilty. “A smiling white face” might be the perfect way to describe the jury from To Kill a Mockingbird. Since it’s a fictional story, Lee could have