Scottsboro Boys Research Paper

Words: 1458
Pages: 6

“The Trials of “The Scottsboro Boys”” was a famous case throughout American history. This case showed the racial injustice in our corrupt criminal justice system. In 1931, nine young African Americans were accused of raping two white ladies in the train in Scottsboro, Alabama. In the case, there was a mix of both African Americans and white men who were on the train, but the white men tried to get the African Americans off the train because they stated that only whites were allowed. Eventually, the nine young African Americans were able to get the whites to get off the train, but the whites had stated that the Africans were the ones who “attacked” them. The African American boys were soon arrested because there were two white ladies stated that they have been raped by these boys. After the accusation, the nine boys were all sent to an all white jury. The state of Alabama kept trying to convict those nine black boys of sexual assault, but James Horton, one of the trial judges, stated that they were innocent and because of this, he was not elected (Wormser). According to the doctors, they stated that during the examination there was little to no evidence that there was a sexual assault. (Burnham 9) The two ladies only had a couple of bruises and they didn’t show signs of traumatization. …show more content…
If we have no idea of how to answer the question “How are minority’s treated unjustly in crime cases?”, then we definitely have no idea of how to answer the bigger questions “How come being a minority, particularly being an African American, gets a harsher sentencing than being a white person?” If we can’t answer ““How do we expose the social injustice and stop unfair trials?” then we can’t answer a bigger question and a more important question ““How do we expose the social injustice and stop unfair trials?” How does race, particularly being an African American, play a role on the outcome of a crime