Injustice The Scottsboro Case shed light on the racial practices expressed in law that made a great impact on the legal system today. The actual victims of the Case did not receive a fair trial due to the color of their skin. The ones who played the victims planned the crime, and their stories made no sense. But like many of the trials during the time it wasn’t based on the actual evidence that was found,or even the defendants ' stories. Therefore, if one was colored the trial wouldn’t be in their favor. The trials either would end in the conviction of death or the least likely, time in prison. In the Scottsboro Case and the book To Kill a Mockingbird the victims lived hard lives and were influenced by others. Aside from that the physical evidence was weak as well as the testimonies. The Scottsboro Case was the only crime in American History to produce many trials, convictions, and retrials as the alleged rape of two white girls by nine black teenagers on March 25, 1931 (Linder). Two mill girls hoboed their way by a freight train from Huntsville, Alabama to Chattanooga, Tennessee (Ransdall). The two mill girls, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates told members of the posse (men the sheriff would summon to enforce the law) they have been raped …show more content…
The Scottsboro Boys Case and To Kill a Mockingbird were cases of the injustice of black men. Harper Lee was trying to point out that a person 's skin color or race does not justify the actions they done, that anyone who practices prejudice is foolish. That prejudice is an actual reality that a person experiences first hand and hurts others in the process. Like Harper Lee with her father being a lawyer she must’ve experienced it first hand. These stories teach us that you shouldn’t judge a person by their race. When one can judge another is once one has been in that person’s shoes, living the life
The Similarities between The scottsboro case and To Kill a Mockingbird From books to real life cases, one can see the American system of injustice towards the blacks of America and its lopsided juries. A system of which if you’re born of the wrong skin, you are judged with no crime being committed. A country where when you have a dark complexion, you are guilty until proven innocent. In To Kill a Mockingbird and Scottsboro boys, we meet different figures who all in common, are prejudice, racist, and ignorant. Even so, we still meet people who stand for what is right, especially since the evidence points towards their innocence.
ScottsBoro Boys Trial V Maccomb The 1930s were a time of difficulty for people of color in the United States, especially in the south. African Americans were kept separate from white folks and were treated below them, simply because of the color of their skin. During this time, we saw monumental events that spiked up the civil rights movement and had people of color begin to fight for equal rights. One of these events was the Scottsboro trials.
In the story To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, it displays how many racial issues occurred in the southern part of the country during the 1930’s. An example being when Tom Robinson who is a innocent black man who is being accused of assault against Mayella Ewell. At the courthouse, every witness stated that Tom Robinson raped Mayella Ewell on November 21st and punched her in her right eye. But, Tom Robinson can’t use his left arm so there was no possible way that Tom Robinson punched Mayella Ewell. Atticus Finch attempts to prove Tom Robinson’s innocence by using strong, emotional appeals to convince the jury.
Scottsboro Trials Racism played a part in the Scottsboro trial. According to Jack Schafer, racism is the intentional abuse of social custom and legislative power that prevents a race to make decision. Racism can happens for many reasons one is that people push other races down to gain higher status (Rutledge). Another reason people would discriminate against other races is to keep power over those people (Schafer). From the Scottsboro trails the reader can see both of these reasons.
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 man 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 women 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.
"Racism is a refuge for the ignorant. It seeks to divide and to destroy. It is the enemy of freedom, and deserves to be met head-on and stamped on." (Pierre Berton) The Scottsboro Trials impacted America in a way that cannot be explained by words.
In the early 1930s, a group of African American boys were accused of raping two women aboard a train in southern Alabama being called the “Scottsboro Boys.” The boys were not given a fair trial because of the racial injustice in the south during this time. The trial was even brought to the supreme court which would help overturn the verdicts in favor of the boys. This trial was extremely significant because it really brought to light the racial injustice and inequality present during this time, especially in the legal system, as well as being a kind of spark for the civil rights movement in America.
Research paper Everybody knows the feelings of being falsely accused of something. Just imagine one false accusation that almost ended the lives of twelve innocent men. The Scottsboro boys were nine blacks boys boarding a train illegally just searching for work but got involved in more than what they expected. The following months and years for these nine boys were miserable and almost ended up in their near death. During the 1930’s, racism played a huge factor in almost ending the lives of nine black boys known as the scottsboro boys who were falsely accused of raping two white girls.
In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, the theme is discrimination to others can lead to the wrong assumptions. For example, Tom Robinson was never given a fair chance during his trial because of his race. The story quotes “I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man” (Lee 279). The jury ended up convicting Tom Robinson guilty because of his skin color, not because he was truly was. The jury has the wrong assumptions about Tom Robinson and his race .
Scottsboro Racism Paragraph The Scottsboro trials were a long horrific eighteen-year-long trial about eight black boys in Scottsboro, Alabama. According to Anderson in the video lecture “Scottsboro Boys” a large group of people had gotten on a train to find work when a large fight broke out on the train. The fight was between eight black men and a few white men, the train stopped in Scottsboro when two white women got off the train and accused the eight black men of rape. The eight boys were brought into court and trialed. There were multiple cases of racism in the Scottsboro trials, one included that all the boys were trialed together and in only one day.
In the article Scottsboro Boys and “To Kill a Mockingbird”: Two Trials for the Classroom it stated that, “The lessons of the infamous 1930s Scottsboro Boys case in which two young white women wrongfully accused nine African American youths of rape illustrate through fact what Harper Lee tried to instruct through her fiction. ”This quote shows that black people were always accused from white people and the judge will always believe the white race. Also in the article “To Kill a Mockingbird”: Two Trials for the Classroom it stated that, “Both historical and fictional trials express the courage required to stand up for the Constitutional principle providing for equal justice to all under the law.” This quote shows that people should get equal rights to make them feel they are equal for
One of the ways Harper Lee relates to conflict in real life are the Jim Crow laws and shows us that they were very unfair. The Jim Crow laws were very unfair to all the African Americans and it made the white people more superior than the African Americans. The Jim Crow laws were unfair because the blacks could not eat with the whites, the African Americans could not show love affection with their partners in public (Pilgrim). Another reason they were unfair was because at every intersection people had the right away no matter what (Pilgrim). In To Kill a Mockingbird, there is evidence of the Jim Crow laws because of many reasons.
Racism played a major part in the Scottsboro Trials. According to Schafer, “Racism highlights the classic struggle between the rulers and the ruled.” This quote means that people that have more power than the rest, will find a way to separate themselves from other people. In this case, they are separating them by skin color. Because most of the people in power had white skin, they wanted to be better than black people, so they made laws that were unfair towards the black people.
Racism played a part in the Scottsboro trials. In the case, nine black men were wrongly accused of raping two white women after stepping off of a train (Anderson). The trial was over the course of 18 years, but the but the boys were convicted on the first day. According to Schaefer, racism highlights the classic struggle between the rulers and the ruled. Often times racism occurs because certain people push others from an opposite race down to gain higher status.
All of their trails had an all white jury and the boys did not have adequate representation in any of their trials. “In the first set of trials in April 1931, an all-white, all-male jury quickly convicted the Scottsboro Boys and sentenced eight of them to death.” Part of the expectations for a court case is to have adequate representation in the jury for the defendant, meaning that if a person of color is on trial, then people of color should be included in the jury. However, due to the fact that white people viewed people of color as inferior to them, especially in the 1930s, the Scottsboro boys did not have adequate representation in their trials. This enabled the jury to declare unfair sentences on the boys based mainly upon their race.