THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS

THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS

March 25, 1931, The Scottsboro Boys were nine
African-American teenagers accused in Alabama of
raping two White American women in a train on
Railway Road between Chattanooga and Memphis.

INTRODUCTION
From top left to bottom, The black teenagers were
Clarence Norris (aged 19), Charlie Weems (aged 16),
Haywood Patterson (aged 18), Ozie Powell (aged 16),
Willie Roberson (aged 16), Eugene Williams (aged 13),
Olen Montgomery (aged 17),
and brothers Andy
(aged 19), and Roy Wright (aged 12 or 13)

GROUP PHOTO

The black teenagers were Clarence Norris (aged 19),

Charlie Weems (aged 16), Haywood Patterson (aged
18), Ozie Powell (aged 16), Willie Roberson (aged 16),
Eugene Williams (aged 13), Olen Montgomery (aged
17), and brothers Andy (aged 19), and Roy Wright
(aged 12 or 13)

WHY CALLED THE SCOTTSBORO

BOYS
These
nine
African
Americans
were
called
Scottsboro Boys because they were taken to a jail
in Scottsboro.

VICTORIA PRICE AND RUBY BATES

The Scottsboro accusers Victoria Price and Ruby
Bates, the two American white women.

March 26, 1931

Grand jury indicts the

nine Scottsboro boys
for rape.

April 2, 1931
When nine young black men called The Scottsboro
Boys were arrested

APRIL 6TH 1931

These boys were brought to a court accompanied by
118 armed guardsmen.

APRIL 6TH 1931

A lynch mobgathered at the jail in Scottsboro,
demanding the youths be surrendered to them.

APRIL 6TH 1931, TRIALS BEGIN

Trials begin in Scottboro before Judge A. E. Hawkins. The trials
were conducted in front of all-white audience and boys were
represented by unfamiliar lawyers, Milo Moody and Stephen
Roddy, while Roddy was also representing Bates and Price.

APRIL 7TH 1931

Clarence Norris, 19, and Charlie Weems, 20, were
declared guilty with the verdict calling for the death
penalty.

WITNESSES
Two girls and a boy were called as witnesses., with Victoria Price
cracking jokes in witness stand. A farmer was called, the train
passed 30 km away from whom and doctors Lynch and Bridges
who both testified that there was no medical evidence of rape.

APRIL 8TH 1931

Haywood Patterson, 18, was tried alone. The jury
delivered a guilty verdict within 3 hours and
sentenced Patterson to death. The courtroom
responded with silence.

APRIL 9TH 1931

Olen Montgomery (aged 17), Ozie Powell (aged 16), Willie
Roberson (aged 16), Eugene Williams (aged 13), and brothers
Andy Wright (aged 18), were all sentenced to death.

Willie Roberson
Willie Roberson was diseased with syphilis and
gonorrhoea, making it practically impossible for him
to have raped either girl.

ROY WRIGHT
Roy Wright , 12 at the time of arrest, was the only
boy not sentenced to death. His trial ended in a
mistrial.

APRIL 9TH 1931

11 Jurors believed that he should faced the death
penalty with the twelfth holding out for life
imprisonment.

APRIL 1931
After demonstrations in Harlem, the boys plight grabbed the
attentions of the American Communist Party. Their legal arm, the
International Labour Defence, persuades the victims parents to let
them champion their cause. Attorneys Joseph Broadsky and George
W. Chamlee were assigned to the case.

JULY 7TH 1931

Alabama Supreme Court issued indefinite stays of
executions three days before the boys were due to
be executed.

JANUARY 5TH 1932

Ruby Bates admitted in a letter that she was not
raped and policemen made her tell a lie

MARCH 24TH 1932

Alabama Supreme Court uphold seven of the eight
convictions.

MARCH 24TH 1932

Eugene William was granted a new trial and was
spared the immediate threat of the electric chair
because he was a juvenile.

JULY 4TH 1932

Ada Wright was welcomed to Glasgow
to gain
support for her sons Andy and Roy Wright during
the Scottsboro Boys trial

DAILY WORKER HEADLINE

Daily Worker, Scottsboro headline, 1932.

November, 1932
The Supreme Court, by a vote of 7-2, reversed the convictions of the
Scottsboro boys in Powell vs. Alabama. Grounds for reversal were
that Alabama failed to provide adequate assistance of counsel as
required by the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.

January, 1933
Samuel S. Leibowitz, a New York lawyer, is retained
by the ILD to defend the Scottsboro boys.

March 27, 1933 to April 9, 1933

on March 27 , Haywood Patterson's second trial
began and on April 9, Patterson found guilty by jury
and sentenced to death in the electric chair.

April 9, 1933
Potest against the decision of a jury in the trial of
Haywood Patterson, one of the nine Scottsboro
Boys

April 18, 1933

Judge Horton postponed the trials of the other
Scottsboro boys because of dangerously high local
tensions.

May 7, 1933
In one of many protests around the nation,
thousands march in Washington protesting the
Alabama trials

June 22, 1933

Judge Horton set aside Haywood Patterson's
conviction and granted a new trial and in October,
1933, the case transferred to Judge William
Callahan's court.

WASHINGTON MARCH, 1933

4000 March in Washington to Free 'Scottsboro Boys'

Nov.-Dec., 1933
Haywood Patterson and Clarence Norris were tried
for rape, convicted, and sentenced to death.

June, 1934
Alabama Supreme Court affirmed the convictions of
Haywood and Norris.

April 1, 1935
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the convictions
of Norris and Patterson because African Americans
were excluded from sitting on the juries in their
trials.

January 23, 1936

Haywood Patterson convicted for a fourth time of
rape and is sentenced to 75 years in prison.

January 24, 1936

Ozzie Powell shot in the head by Sheriff Jay Sandlin
while attacking Deputy Sheriff Edgar Blalock.

July 15th, 1937

Clarence Norris convicted of rape and sentenced to death.
Andy Wright convicted and sentenced to 99 years for
rape. Charlie Weems convicted and sentenced to 75
years. Ozzie Powell pleaded guilty to assaulting the
sheriff and is sentenced to 20 years.

JULY 24th 1937

Charlie Weems was convicted of rape and was
sentenced to 105 years inn prison

JULY 24th 1937

As part of plea bargain, the rape charge against
Ozzie Powell were dropped in exchange for him
pleading guilty to assaulting the deputy. He was
sentenced to 20 years.

JULY 24th 1937

Roy Wright, Eugene Williams, Olen Montgomery and
Willie Roberson were released after all charges
were dropped against them.

July 5, 1938
Clarence Norris's death sentence is reduced to life
in prison by Governor Graves.

September, 1943
Charlie Weems was paroled

January, 1944
Norris and Andy Wright were paroled. Both later
violated their paroles and were made to return to
prison.

June, 1946
Ozzie Powell was paroled.

July, 1948
Haywood Patterson escaped from prison.

July, 1948
Haywood Patterson escaped from prison and
published his book The Scottsboro Boys in 1950.

Clarence Norris
Clarence Norris was pardoned in 1976, published
his book in 1979. He died in 1989, the last of the
Scottsboro Boys.

January, 2004
Scottsboro
acknowledged
the
injustice
by
dedicating s historical marker to the Scottsboro
Boys outside the Jackson County Courthouse.

April 19, 2013

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley signed legislation
officially pardoning and exonerating all nine
Scottsboro Boys.

Some of the Books on

Scottsboro Boys

The Scottsboro Boys in

Their Own Words: Selected
Letters,
1931-1950:
Kwando M. Kinshasa

Some of the Books

on Scottsboro Boys

Powell V. Alabama: The

Scottsboro
Boys
and
American Justice (Historic
Supreme
Court
Cases):
Gerald Horne:

Some of the Books

on Scottsboro Boys

The Trial of the Scottsboro

Boys (Civil Rights
Movement)

Some of the Books

on Scottsboro Boys

The Scottsboro Boys Trial:

A Primary Source Account
(Great Trials of the 20th
Century

Some of the Books

on Scottsboro Boys

The Scottsboro Boys

(Essential Events)

Some of the Books

on Scottsboro Boys

The Man from Scottsboro:

Clarence Norris and the
Infamous 1931 Alabama
Rape Trial, in His Own
Words

Some of the Books

on Scottsboro Boys

Remembering Scottsboro:
The Legacy of an Infamous
Trial: James A. Miller