The book “To Kill a Mockingbird” written by Harper Lee and the article “Scottsboro Boys Trial” both contain controversial court cases. For “To Kill a Mockingbird” a black male named Tom Robinson was accused of raping a white woman named Mayella Ewell. In the “Scottsboro Boys Trial” nine young black men and teenagers are accused of raping two white females named Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. Both cases transpired in the 1930s in Alabama. This is bad for the accused as racism was at an all-time in the 1930s especially in the deep south. This was around the time when the Jim Crow Laws were still intact and black people were not still considered people and they would still lynch black people. If a black man was accused of any crime involving a white person the jury would take the white man's word over the black man’s word. These exact things …show more content…
First, it both featured a well-experienced, well-respected lawyer, who knew who to win a case and had great evidence that proved their innocence that should have led to their freedom but lost due to the prejudice of the jury. Next, it also revealed that the women white who accused the black men of rape was lying and made this lie up to deflect the blame for their previous actions they committed. It worked since the jury would always take a white person’s word then a black person’s word. Finally, it ended with racism and unfairness inside jury duty. They did not let a black man judge another person’s fate as they think that they did not have enough character to do that. It is seriously hypocritical as it is not fair for black defendants who are accused of anything. These similarities explain the racism, prejudice, and lack of justice in the book and article. It’s unfortunate that their skin color lost them their case for Tom and the Scottsboro Boy trial but that was the life of a black man in the deep south of the
Click here to unlock this and over one million essays
Show MoreBefore we can explain the trials, we need to understand what racism is. Routledge states, “...people sometimes use prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory behavior to boost their own self-esteem.” An example of this at Scottsboro is during the trial, where all the black boys were tried together at the same time. Normally, only one person would
Relationships among races have evolved within the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The majority of race-related conflicts were negative. Some of the trials that took place throughout this time period were the Scottsboro Trials, the Emmett Till Murder Trial, Loving v. Virginia, the Trial of Peter Liang, and the Johnson v. California trial. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, there was a fictional trial that dealt with the relationship between a black man and white woman. Racial relations does not only deal with African-Americans and whites but other races including Asians, South Africans, etc.
and it was really not that at all. There were roughly twenty women hanged and possibly more because of these false accusations. There were many more lives lost in vain. The Scottsboro Trial was different, these nine young black men were falsely accused of a crime they did not commit. After the American Communist Party took the case and the National Association for the advancement of the colored people joined with other Civil Rights organizations, eventually one of the white women came- forwarded to repudiate her testimony.
Nine boys Charlie Weems, Ozie Powell, Clarence Norris, Olen Montgomery, Willie Roberson, Haywood Patterson, Eugene Williams, and Andrew and Roy Wright were accused of raping two white women on a freight train, on March 24, 1931. The boys were caught for illegally riding on a freight train, and were originally charged with that until one of the police found the two white women VIctoria Price, and Ruby Bates and pressured them into saying that the boys had raped them on the freight tra in. All the Scottsboro boys were sentenced to death in the first trial, except Roy Wright who was only 13 was sentenced to life in prison. After two more trials with an all white jury, got the attention of the nation because it was showing how racist the U.S court system was. Ruby Bates eventually went out and retold her statement saying that she was pressured into telling the jury that the Scottsboro boys had raped them.
There are many racist caucasian people that serve in juries. They believe that African Americans should be in a position under them so they would do whatever they could to keep them down. During the Scottsboro Trials nine African American men were arrested for something that they did not do. They were accused of raping two white girls
Racism and Segregation in the South During the 1930’s, the Great Depression caused poverty throughout the United States. People all over the country went to extreme measures to earn money and survive. Several people hopped on trains illegally to travel and try to start new lives for themselves. Some women resorted to prostitution around these hobo camps to earn their living. Two such women were Ruby Bates and Victoria Price.
Compare and contrast of Tom Robinson’s trial and the boy’s. Prejudice, racism, classes, apathy, justice. These are the wonders and horrors of the American judicial system. Both the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the play “Twelve Angry Men”, portray those subjects in both similar and different ways. The trials in “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Twelve Angry Men” had many similarities, but all of those stemmed into differences.
Under this white supremacy ideology, black men were envisioned as animalistic, sex-driven rapists who would attempt to assault a white woman at any opportunity. Throughout the case, the sex and race of the defendants and alleged victims were more significant than what actually occurred. Despite the defense's efforts to diminish the reign of white supremacy in Alabama, the all white jury convicted the Scottsboro
Scottsboro Boys PB’s American Experience has impacted the view of racism towards blacks immensely. This event was a very prominent turning point in American history. The Scottsboro boys case has been one of the largest cases involving a black man (men) and a white women in the case of rape. This event has affected how people are judged now including taking age into consideration, not getting the facts correct, and the fact that black’s used to be very unfairly treated just because of the color of their skin. Laws, punishments, and law enforcement have changed very much since the 1930’s.
Plessy vs Ferguson is a similar topic of the book To Kill A Mockingbird. In both cases there was a bunch of segregation. Both people were found guilty because everyone on the jury was racist. Plessy and Ferguson was involved in this case. Plessy sat in the all white railroad cars instead of the all black railroad cars.
When do you decide that racism is not just a collection of non-isolated isolated incidents? When instead does it become a whole system set up for the benefit of a particular segment of society?” (Baylor). The trial of the Scottsboro Boys is an example of racial injustice and discrimination at its peak. The infamous trial of nine black teenagers who were accused of raping two white women spread like wildfire across the South, which had been polluted with racism by Jim Crow and years of slavery that had come to an end.
In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the story is set in the 1900’s, Maycomb, Alabama. During this time there was racism in the south and segregation which separated the whites and blacks from everything. There was also the Great Depression, the whole country was poor and people living in the country had to trade and do other jobs for people to either pay them off or to buy something from them. The trial in this book is about Mayella and Bob Ewell, two white people, claiming and arguing that Tom Robinson, a black person, raped Mayella Ewell. This trial is really important because at that time in the south, white people took advantage of black people and their kindness and thought they would take that or shut up just because they were black.
In the book “To Kill A Mockingbird”, by Harper Lee and the short story, “Only the Accused were Innocent”, by David Oshinsky, have many similarities. Two of these similarities that were important were that both judges were obviously disagreed or were troubled by the verdict and that both of the ladies that accused these men of raped to hide there own guilt. In the article “Only the Accused Were Innocent”,when the jury of the scottsboro trial had made their decision on the verdict the judge seemed to disagree with it, “But Horton, a wealthy landowner with deep antebellum roots in Alabama, was clearly troubled by the case”(Oshinsky). In “To Kill A Mockingbird” when judge Taylor finds out the verdict, he seems confused, “Judge Taylor was something.
None nice, and none fair, nothing but disrespectful, and hatred towards those who where different from them, mainly those of a different color. For the nine boys to be accused of rape by none other than Southern white woman, sent the South into nothing but pure rage. When South white men where appointed to the jury, the trial was already set up for those boys to be guilty; They didn't need to hear any evidence, that verdict was already set in stone. Lawyer Samuel Leibowitz presented every piece of evidence that could've proved the boys innocence, but anybody could've guessed that the trial the boys got was anything but fair. It wasn't until Samuel Leibowitz stated that the boys hadn't gotten a fair trial and suggested that there needed to be an African American man on the jury, that was when the people started listening.
This case involved a black man named Tom Robinson who has been accused of raping white girl named Mayella Ewell. During the time period the novel takes place African American people were no longer slaves but were still denied a lot of rights that white people had. So one can only imagine how this whole town would react to someone who would help a black man who was accused of rape. This is why the novel contains vulgar language, racial comments and words like “nigger” and Negro, and to some people this is a problem. “To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the most widely read novels of all time.