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The cause célèbre of
the 1930s, equal to the Sacco-Vanzetti case of the
previous decade and the Tom Mooney frame-up of the 1910s,
was the Scottsboro Case. In March 1931, nine male black
teenagers were hauled off a freight train in northern
Alabama after a fight with a gang of white youths. Very
shortly, however, they faced charges of rape on the word
of two white prostitutes, who had been taken off the same
train. Despite the fact that medical examinations showed
no evidence, the "Scottsboro Boys" were convicted and
eight of them sentenced to death in a Roman carnival
atmosphere, so prejudicial that the U.S. Supreme Court
ordered a new trial. The trials, the rival defense
committees with their publicity campaigns, the sufferings
of the victims, and the illogical verdicts form a saga of
civil rights in the 1930s. As they became less useful to
partisan causes and to further fund-raising, the
Scottsboro Boys sank into obscurity. It was not until
1950, nineteen years after the arrests, that the last
victim of the false rape charges left the Alabama prison
system.
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Introduction
