Racism Paragraph Essay: The Scottsboro Trial

In the south back in the 1930’s there were many Americans who did not know the meaning of equality for all. With this being the case, many black people faced discrimination daily and it followed through to the legal systems especially in the south where both being compared took place. The evidence provided in both trials proved to be weak. Despite this, both defendants had determined lawyers who believed in justice.

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.

The Scottsboro trials was heard of everywhere. Everyone knew about it, so the people of the south couldn't do their version of justice without everyone everywhere getting extremely upset. If it had been up to just the south the nine boys would have been found guilty in the first trial and sentenced to death, but because it was so public they couldn't just sentence them to death. For example one of the trials had to be re done because the nine boys didn't have proper defense. So they brought in a guy from the north named Samuel Leibowitz.

The Scottsboro trials were trials in which two white women wrongly accused nine black men of rape (Anderson). Racism is very prevalent in the Scottsboro trials, as racism can be defined in this case as Whites pushing Blacks down to gain higher status (Schafer). It was found during the trial that many of the men were not in the same boxcar as the women and there was no doctor’s evidence of rape (Anderson). Anderson also states that the black men were given drunk, and clearly incompetent lawyers for this case. Even after one woman admitted that the rape never happened, the jury would not give in and the case continued (Anderson).

Throughout the trial new evidence against the two women’s claims started to appear and one of the women even says that it did not happen and that they had lied(Johnson). Eight of the nine are sentenced to death and the ninth is declared mistrial for his young age (Johnson). This is very similar to the book To Kill a Mockingbird, for countless reasons. Both of the situations are in the 1930’s during the Great Depression a time of large amounts of racism. Both of these trials revolve around racism and prejudice, and without it the trial would have been just another ordinary they are right and they are wrong.

The Scottsboro Trials and To Kill a Mockingbird In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the famous father named Atticus says “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it (Judith 2).  This quote is said during a time of intense racism. “Not long after Obama took office, the National Urban League released its 2009 State of Black America report. The findings showed that racial inequities continued in employment, housing, health care, education, criminal justice, and other areas” (Buckley 1).  This essay will primarily focus on the criminal justice area of this when discussing the Scottsboro trials and comparing the trials to the famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird.

The forefathers of the United States built this country on the ideals of freedom and equality for all people. Unfortunately, the fight for equality and freedom did not end with the revolutionary war. The fight has continued throughout the decades. Many of these issues were fought in the courtroom. Auburn University created an online Alabama Encyclopedia, there, the following quote stated, “Scottsboro became an international cause celebre that dramatically encapsulated the American south troubled post reconstruction history of legal and extralegal racial violence, the social and political upheaval of the great depression, and the lingering cultural divide between the north and south.”

This shows that the discrimination of race can determines the outcome of a trial. In addition, Harper Lee shows discrimination about Scouts clothes and the way she dresses. As stated in To Kill a Mockingbird, “well you won’t get very far until you start

A wise arthur once wrote in her book “ I think there 's only one kind folks, folks.” Meaning that all men are the same but, that 's not how people thought during the time of the scottsboro trials and even to this day. In the time of 1931 there were many whites that had a problem “playing nice” with the black residents of the United State. This caused multiple incidents to occur where blacks were punished and they did absolutely nothing wrong. The blacks could have been punished by being put in jail anywhere to being lynched or beaten to death.

Topic: Scottsboro Trials Sources: Remembering Scottsboro: The legacy of an infamous trial, The Trials of the Scottsboro boys, and Scottsboro and its legacy: The cases that challenged american legal and social justice. Thesis: The Scottsboro Trials were an important piece of history because it was a huge stepping stone of the civil rights movement and it showed the racial inequality in America which was then taken to the supreme court. (support statement) No crime in American history, produced as many trials, convictions, reversals and retrials as did the alleged gang rape of two white girls by nine black teenagers. (Supported Statement 2)

1962, Mississippi Race Riots Over First Black Student Mississippi Race Riots in 1962 over the First Black Student James Meredith was viewed as a significant crossroads in the historical backdrop of social liberties in the United States. The Ole Miss mob of 1962 was battled between Southern segregationist regular folks, government and state strengths which started the night of September 29, 1962; segregationists were dissenting the enlistment of James Meredith, a black US military veteran, at the University of Mississippi (referred to warmly as Ole Miss) at Oxford, Mississippi. Two regular citizens were executed amid the night, including a French writer, and more than 300 individuals were harmed, including one third of the US Marshals conveyed

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

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.

The Scottsboro case revolved around nine innocent African-American teenagers charged with the gang rape of two white women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, on a train in 1931. It dealt with issues of racism, prejudiced juries, and rushed trials, causing it to be cited

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).