Scottsboro Boys Research Paper

Months after the Union victory in the Civil War, an important piece of legislation was passed that drastically altered the state of African American history. This piece of legislation was the 13th Amendment. The 13th Amendment was ratified in December 1865, and it stated that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” This landmark piece of legislation constituted a time of rejoicing for African Americans across the United States. After almost 250 years of enslavement, the African American people were finally free. The hope for a newfound respect and equality resonated among …show more content…
Nine African American youth had rape charges filed against them after an altercation with white hoboes on a train. Two young white women claimed that these young men raped them, because they were afraid of being arrested and found out to be hoboes. The trial took place in 1931 at the hands of an unfair court system. The “Scottsboro Boys” were never even given a chance in court. “Their white court-appointed attorney came to work drunk each day. Three days after the trial started and 15 days after their arrest, the jurors found them all guilty.” All of the young men besides the youngest one received the death penalty, and the youngest received life in prison. The “Scottsboro Boys” received these overtly unfair sentences even after the two young white women were proven to not have been raped through a medical examination. By the 1940s, through the concerted efforts of the NAACP and the Communist Party, all of these men were released from jail. Hine writes, “Altogether, nine innocent black men had collectively served some three-quarters of a century in …show more content…
Both of these publications attempted to pose scientific evidence pointed towards proving the inferiority of different races and ethnicities. They argued that no other race would ever equal the “Great Race” of northern Europeans and their descendants, and that people of color would never be equal to white Americans. These two publications strengthened the cause of white supremacy and led to extremely severe immigration restrictions set by Congress in the early 1920’s. Throughout the Jim Crow era, several white American scholars aimed to scientifically prove that other races, especially African Americans, were naturally inferior to white

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