Essay About Black Young Men And Train Couples Of White Hobos

Paper Research on the Scottsboro Boys
Essay Preview: Paper Research on the Scottsboro Boys
1 rating(s)
Report this essay
Paper Research on the Scottsboro Boys
In 1931, March 25th, nine black young men took the train from Chattanooga to
Memphis, Tennessee, four of them are on their way to looking for job. At the same time,
were also in the train couples of white hobos, and two white girls riding in a different car.
The train was stopped, at the next stop by a crew of fifteen men, and the young black
men, were arrested for assaulting, after a fight broke out between them and the white
hobos. The two white girls, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, who were prostitutes, fearing
to be arrested too, accused the blacks of raping them. The nine blacks boys, whom
ages ranged between twelve to nineteen, were taken and jailed for trial to Jackson
County Seat, Scottsboro, Alabama.
Even though, the fourteenth amendment had been voted, giving the black
populations the expectations of equal protection and the right to due process, and the
fifteenth amendment, stating that the vote should not be restricted on the basis of race,
color or previous condition of servitude, in the South, the former slave owners were not
decided yet to consider the black population as equals in all the senses of the therm.
The segregation was seen and felt everywhere. There was a separation of restaurants,
bathrooms, water fountains, schools, churches just to cite those examples. and the
separate facilities were of course not equal.
In those times, “Extralegal measures such as lynching were also used against
African Americans; it has been estimated that between 1865 and 1930 more than four
thousand lynchings took place in the United States, most in the South and with most
victims being black. The alleged offenses that brought about lynchings of blacks could
be anything from making an improper advance to a white woman to failing to step aside
when a white approached. despite the two amendments cited above, taking a
black on trial, in the South, was just an official way to achieve his lynching. Because, he
was not given an adequate defense, and the whole jury was composed by white men,
usually the same individuals who were promoting the lynch. In fact, the trial just
“allowed the forms of the law to be observed, and permitted the officials and the press
to congratulate the community for its devotion to due process of law, while the end
sought by the lynch mob was also achieved” (Cortner,4).
Therefore, the nine young black men were represented by two white men,
Stephen Roddy and Milo Moody. And they were not the best a black man charged with
assault and rape, could expect as defense. Roddy was an unpaid and unprepared
Chattanooga real estate attorney. Moody was a forgetful seventy-year old local attorney
who did not try a case for years.
This trial was controversial in that, the whole case was based on a big lie. This
case was no more about to apply the law and get justice done, but rather to satisfy the
racist ego of the judicial system of Alabama. Despite the fact that “no physical evidence
suggested that any rape had occurred” (Patterson). Despite the fact that, one of the
accusing girls, Ruby Bates retracted, stating under oath that, the reason why she
supported the accusations of her friend is that because she was afraid of her Eight of
the nine boys had been convicted and sentenced to death, and the twelve-year old, Roy
Wright, was given a life sentence regard to his age.
Another fact which would support