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The Impact Of The Scottsboro Trials On The Civil Rights Movement

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The Effects of the Scottsboro Trials on the Civil Rights Movement The United States constitution gives all Americans “the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury”. Although this is the sixth amendment in the constitution of our nation, there have been many instances where the accused were not given this basic right. Many of the trials helped to spark the Civil Rights movement, and advance Civil Rights from the 1930s to the 1960s. The Scottsboro Trials of the 1930s are just one of the many cases in United States history that helped to start the advancement of Civil Rights in America, showing blatant racism by convicting innocent people because of their racial background. The novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, as well as empirical research, prove that the Scottsboro Trials positively impacted the Civil Rights movement.
According to an article titled, “Scottsboro Trials”, the Scottsboro Trials of the 1930s left a lasting impact on Civil Rights in America. In April of 1935, the United States Supreme Court declared that the …show more content…

Alabama Governor Bibb Graves reportedly agreed to parole the four boys who were convicted, but after facing public backlash changed his mind. Three of the four boys convicted, Charlie Weems, Clarence Norris, and Andy Wright, were all paroled by 1950, because the courts found that the boys were denied a fair trial as there were no African American people allowed to serve on a jury in Alabama at that time. Clarence Norris was sent back to jail when he broke parole. Norris remained in jail until he was pardoned by the Alabama governor in 1976 (Thomas 3). Haywood Patterson escaped prison and fled to Detroit, Michigan. When Patterson was caught in Detroit, the governor of Michigan, G. Mennen Williams refused to allow Patterson to go back to prison in Alabama, so he was set free in Detroit

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