Nine black teenagers were accused of raping two white women on a train in Alabama in 1931. They came to be known as the Scottsboro Boys. They were quickly tried, convicted, and sentenced to death despite evidence of their innocence and the fact that the trial was held before an all-white jury. After appeals and retrials over many years, all but one of the Scottsboro Boys had their death sentences overturned, though some remained imprisoned for decades in this high-profile case that illustrated the racial injustices of the American South.

1. Ronald Dombroski & Ryan Dunwoody

2.  A fight breaks out between white and black men
riding as hoboes on a southern Railroad freight train.
 Nine black boys are arrested for assault by an angry
posse in Paint Rock, Alabama.
 Later gang rape charges were added following
accusations from two white women who were also on
the train
 Victoria Price and Ruby Bates.

3. Victoria Price
Accusers
Ruby Bates
Haywood Patterson
Charles Weems
Clarence Norris
Andy Wright
Ozzie Powell "The Scottsboro Boys”
Olen Montgomery
Eugene Williams
Willie Roberson
Roy Wright
Samuel Leibowitz Defense Attorney
Thomas Knight Prosecutor

4.  The man to call if you were charged with a capital
crime
 Leibowitz had represented seventy-eight people
charged with first-degree murder
 His record over that period was seventy-seven
acquittals, one hung jury, and no convictions.
 Received a call from the International Labor Defense
 Asked him whether he would defend the Scottsboro
Boys in their new trials

5. -April 7-9
 The Scottsboro boys excluding Roy Wright are tried and
convicted, and sentenced to death.
 The trial of Roy Wright -age 13- ends in a mistrial when 11
jurors hold out for a death sentence while one juror asked
for life imprisonment.
 The conviction of Hay wood Patterson was the first
conviction under Samuel Leibowitz in 15 years.
 The NAACP gets involved to raise money for the
defendants
-June 22
 The execution of the boys was held up pending appeal to
the Alabama Supreme Court.

6.  seventeen years old
 Lived in a poor neighborhood of Huntsville, Alabama
 Always very vague about the rape accusations
 Many believe she made the whole thing up to gain
publicity

7.  Samuel Leibowitz agrees not to charge lawyer fees to the
boys
 The NAACP withdrawals from the case
-March 27, 1932
 Haywood Patterson’s retrial begins before Judge James
Horton
 Ruby Bates testified as a witness and denied any occurrence
of rape.
 Patterson is still found guilty and sentenced to death by
electric chair.
-June 22, 1933
 Judge Horton sets new trials.

8. -April 1st, 1935
 The US Supreme Court finds that there was an obvious
violation of the 14th amendment that states: qualifying
blacks can be on a jury.
 The Scottsboro trials were held with a biased, all-white
jury.
-January, 1936
 Patterson is found guilty and sentenced to 75 years in
prison
 Ozzie Powell slit a deputy’s throat on a bus ride back to the
Birmingham jail. He was later shot in the head by a
sheriff.(both Ozzie and the deputy lived)

9. Haywood Patterson- sentenced to 75 years in 1937; escapes prison in 1948;
arrested by FBI agents in 1950 and charged with murder in a
bar fight, soon dies in prison
Charles Weems- sentenced to 75 years in 1937; released on parole in 1938;
Clarence Norris- sentenced to death in 1937; 1939 sentence is life imprisonment;
released on parole in 1944;
Andy Wright- sentenced to 99 years; released on parole in 1951
Ozzie Powell- 20 years for assaulting an officer, rape dropped; released on parole
in 1946
Olen Montgomery
Eugene Williams charges dropped
Willie Roberson
Roy Wright

10.  The author, Harper Lee, felt that the Scottsboro trials
were an ugly reminder of racial bigotry
 The Scottsboro Trials share several similarities with
the fictional trial of Tom Robinson in the book.
 Both the fictional and real trials had all-white juries.
In the South of the 1930s

11.  The first trial began just twelve days after the arrest
and lasted only three days. This was entirely too fast to
have a thought out, unbiased verdict.
 In spite of evidence of the men’s innocence, eight of
the nine men were found guilty and, at first, sentenced
to death.
 The extreme sentences and hasty trial left many
observers outraged, and rightfully so.

12. "American Experience | Scottsboro: An American Tragedy." PBS: Public Broadcasting
Service. UNCTB, 1999. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/scottsboro/>.
Johnson, Claudia Durst. "The Scottsboro Trails." Oracle ThinkQuest. 1999. Web. 19 Oct. 2011.
<http://library.thinkquest.org/12111/scottsboro/scottsbo.htm>.
Linder, Douglas O. "The Trials of The Scottsboro Boys." UMKC School of Law. 1999. Web. 19
Oct. 2011. <http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scottsboro/scottsb.htm>.
Salter, Daren. "Scottsboro Trials." Encyclopedia of Alabama. University of Washington, 6
Feb. 2008. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. <http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-
1456>.
"To Kill A Mockingbird and the Scottsboro Boys Trial: Profiles in Courage | EDSITEment."
EDSITEment | The Best of the Humanities on the Web. McGraw-Hill. Web. 19 Oct. 2011.
<http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/kill-mockingbird-and-scottsboro-boys-trial-
profiles-courage>.