jI’ts)
‘Scottsboro
Scottsboro, BY
P jail
bound
the
Benjamin ‘,Var the
the
war to emancipation, most, white became
and
class
of economic
following University
the
3,000
like mobs.
of thousands
on in To been
was accusation:
famous wrote Hose
a Cranford, punishment burned
outrage OPPOSITE
Though
V
EMILY
Lynch
brutalize V white
on
hands lynchings
National front In
the
American
the
time
and
the
events,
the that
victims
trumped
erhaps and jailed that accused
Maich
train African 1899,
citizens,
was
On
dismemberment victims
CHIEF
in
the
murder
of the
alive.
by anti-lynch
was court, of
Meek
man
HOFFMAN
Reconstruction the
mobs poor
they
an
competition
many
his burned
a
of lynching V-vCttL
$COTTSBORO
might
the Alabama,
suggest the centerpiece
for Massachusetts’s
“spectacle
Guard.
of
social
the the
crowd 25,
and
invented,
was white
1899
practice that To Americans when of
employer. Revolution,
happened up
does
lynchings
lynch killing
divvied NAACP,
with Miller, whites
charge,
were rape against 1931, biggest
occasions
raping
make
easily
intimidate
to
deemed
to
upheaval
took
of
pamphlet.
crusader BOYS families that
to blacks
ensure
teach
as
the
mob
of
2,000
his
lynchings,”
had composed
who
them,
1931 began who and of
the up
DEFENSE
from of An
a
have
however,
Cranford’s two
shock
place the at were
between
freed faced
implicit is
white
Sam
punishment
gathered
inadequate. the a
the the among
burning
were
it
all.
example
uncertain, in added
broke
Springfield
the
campaign bitterly
in
Chicago of
white
Ida
faced ATTORNEY
wasn’t
former
they
white
Newman,
“Hose, black in killings to
sheriff
The
Negroes Hose,
in death of
attendance,
Reconstrnction,
black
employer,
furor
still
B.
be
was
the
primarily
with
precedent the
to
the
sanction
1880
must nine summary outside
girls a
wife.
must Wells,
SAMUEL abolitionists;
Tribune,
until
used
a Americans.
considered the resented
at certainty
not
slaves.
Context
of Scottsboro
a but
were
added years man
crowd This men
of’terror
Republican
had
that hundreds
the
servant,
black
Georgia. and
the
on
charge
not
be
called
According
LEIBOwITZ
Alfred
statistics
after
systematically
the
the
burned
and
mass,
hands
existed
no made. of
a Negro and
and
The immediately
mob. of
and execution 1930.
an
resist,” as
boys
Memphis-
the Scottsboro
and
legislators
rape
matter
Governor
body
working-
waged the
of
souvenirs.
property, additional SPEAkS
lynching
called
had
Tuskegee
Cranford. women.
after Hose
and
carnival-
number
reported of Before
charge Ordinary
“Samuel falsely
at to
____
murder.”
kept
must
feared
since
Civil
charge
lynch
to
Wells
death
parts feast killed
WITH
even
what V
the
is in at had
by V
the
at
be
DEFENDANT
of
falsely weeks unspeakable
upon
on crimes
myth
and the
historically argued such
cooled
enemies charge with and
1921 of many A rape
black
Hose’s as was after
The the
67-i7
HAYW000
chance,
The
James to
Rape case
an
a
invented
claim
in
invoked.
ground
All magazines
homes masters V. in found blades woman.
the but of their
others—their their against of long
Negro
myth averted abominable there “Memorandum. reported
in
refusing
lynchings
accomplice preacher Georgia,
as
our
power
their
perpetuating
was
in these ..
PATTERSON,
his
and
through Weldon life in
true.
barbarim,” a
had ______.
mothers
four wives,their
expeditious
was
point was
for black friends,”
hanging
which
that
in
in LA.5Zf5
by
1894 had
not
women.”
pockets, “Of
Yet (q3)
of of
Lynching,”
eyes,
same
or
of
existed
a nearly
their
Its white the
“kly never
years
to
the
whom the
1933
political Negroes
where
has
charged the
southern
every the
the man
is Johnson,
speech
crime
perpetual
admit cases
in the
were
field own
increasing
Negroes,
South
the nation,
from blood
one
12 SETTMANN/CORBIS)
wrote the southerners only
a Wells of all led
myth
treason,
his
would
Here
during
Re:
daughters,
single
moment.
opportunity late
Hose the
men
brutality:
have terrible
left invention, the
lynching
was of
now enslavement are
“The
against
to killing
men
explained
apologists
a
case
were
Relations
victim
stained
a continued,
rebellion,
cannot T’LJC
Douglass,
Wells
persimmon
war, lynchers
in with
lynched
reiteration
lynched something
even
always
leader in instance
in
was
and
alleged (or
the
Lessons
and
hate
in
some
their
conflict,
absent
him.
to
As
of
while
the charged the
before)
their
was \
said
emerging which refers
during
of absolute
justify—to
hands,
be N
TTCQ/3D(1
women rape justify
of
to Cranford.
that
only
Frederick
and
during
gave
measure between
hearts,
Elijah
myth
vile
of of
with
speaking
against
not
overstated. “It the
commit
to
sisters,
in from of
tree the
such the to he
a
because “there
when
dark
“outrage”
with
the
all
have
rape
purpose
has our white
the
their NAACP, even seeking
the custody
bullets
that, at
that
had cy3ocJ
negro,
broad
to
with
slave
Strickland,
those
their QflVC csu
crime
themselves accepted a Civil
him, 4/4t’I
Hour,”
newspapers
heated
the
an
suspicion.”
and
Douglass oilier
insidious as
Strickland,
particular
the mentioned the
regard
savagery
accused have
reign
woman.
not
if
of
assault
a
a
“It
Crimes
given
their
War: cause.”
blood- was
in
done,
six
been
of
no
our has
the
his
us
of
V
a • .-•
HOUSE WHERE THEY PRESENTED A PETITION TO THE PRESIDENT URGING FOR ThE ORIGINAL CAPTIOet •SEVERAL THOUSAND PERSONS TODMRQl5D THRUTHE STREETS OF WASHINGTONTd THE WHITE stained piece of paper pinned to his chst on which was The understandingwas that in retum for deliveringthe written, “VVemust protect our Ladies.” The terrible “brutes” (s the .Hintsville Times referred to them) to the a irony is that the myth mirrored and masked the truth court, the courtwouldrewardthe peopleof the countywith of racialized sexual violence in the South, where white swiftconvictionandsentenceofdeath.The all-whitejury did men continued to rape black women with impunity, as not disappoint.When the firstguiltyverdictwas announced, they had done systematically during the era of slavery. a brassband outsidethe courthouseerupted into “There’llBe It is ndt incidental, then, that when Victoria Price and a Hot Time in the Old TownTonight”and “Dixie.” Ruby Bates, two poor white women from the mill town Over the next seven years, the Boys would be taken of Huntsville, Alabama, were caught hoboing on the through a seriesofappealsbytheirlawyer,SamuelLeibowitz, same freight train as nine black boys, they chose to claim a New Yorkeremployedby the International Labor Defense the boys had raped them in order to avoid punishment. (ILD), alegalarmof the CommunistParty whichtookup the The girls were impoverished prostitutes who were known Boys’cause immediatelyfollowingtheir 1931 conviction.In to consort with black men—in other words, “the lowest the 1933retrial,Batesrecantedher accusationand the doctor of the low” in the eyes of the South, as Hollace Ransdall who examined the girls after the alleged incident testified noted in the 1931 ACLU report on the Scottsboro that there had been no physicalevidenceto support Price’s case. They played the strongest card they had; they charges;despitethis, the jury returned another guiltyverdict, must have known how readily they would be believed. and the retrialsdraggedon. In 1937,Liebowitzstruck a deal When Governor Miller calledin the National Guard to with the state of Alabama,managingto securethe releaseof protect the Scottsboro Boys, he intended to savethe Boys fourof the Boys:the twoyoungest(EugeneWilliamsand Roy from the lynch mob, not from death. The local newspapers Wright), Olen Montgomery(whowas severelynearsighted), shared this sentiment.“Ifever there wasan excusefor taking and Willie Roberson (who had been seeking treatment for the law it-ito their own hands,” the editor of the Scottsboro a debilitating case of syphilis and gonorrhea when he was ProgressiveAge wrote, “surelythis was one.” Nevertheless, arrested). Between 1943 and 1946 Clarence Norris, Ozie he continued, the peopleof Jackson County “havesavedthe Powell, Charlie Weems, and Andy Wright were paroled. good narrae of the county and state by remainingcool and Haywood Patterson was never paroled, but he escaped in allowingthe lawto take its course.” 194$. In 1976, the state of Alabama pardoned Clarence
20 AMERICAN cONSERVATORY THEATER ACT-SF.ORGI47S.749.2223
1931 7932 7933: 7934 I ““‘1: I
IC
Strauder v WestVirgrnza(1880)and Neal Delaware(1881), oubiesome burden has been lifted from Norris v Alabama gave teeth to the earlierverdicts,proving Alaban Cbattaoga Times, which had reported that the court would not tolerate disobedienceAnd, in fact, cheerily on the mob gathered outside the Scottsboro jail, Governor B;bb Graves of Alabamaresponded to the ruling now conclu41td“There,is no sadder story in the annals of by sending copies of the decision to every solicitor and Amencaz juisprhdence’than that of the Negroeswho for the judge in Alabama, reminding them, “Whether we’like the past sixy hve1ivedin the shadowof the electricchair.” decisioti or not, it is the patriotic duty of e’Jerycitizen and It is a very different America today than the America the sworn duty of everypublic officerto acceptan&uphold that saw the arrest and indictment, of the Scottsboro them in ktter and inspirit. . . This decisiOniani that Boys. That, is beyon’4’;dispute. Segregation and all we must put the names of Negroes in jury boxes in every legal barriers have beeti lifted; black Americans hold county in the State.”Though the composition of juries by the highest positions in every field. To use a common no means changed overnight, the decision struck a crucial contemporary encapsulation: we have a black president. blow to the all-whitejury,that mainstayof white supremacy; And yet, when it comes to interaction with the criminal As important as the legal decisions—and, accordingto justice system, the position of black Americans is more leadersof the CommunistPartywho mountedthe Scottsboro similar to the days of Scottsboro than we would like Boys’defense,a great pressurebehindthe decisions—werethe to think. “It hasn’t changed,” The &ottsboro Boys book massmobilizationsthe trialsinspiredaroundthe world.In the writer,.Dvid Thompson, said in a recent interview. “We weeks following the 1931decision,thousands of letters and just have anotlir way to talk about it that makes us telegrams streamed in, to the great surpriseof localofficials. either feel better or feel like certain issues are put to bed.” “Althoughmainlyfrom ordinarymen andwomen,”Goodman According to The Baldus Report, a 1983study of racial writes, “they [also] came from John Dos Passos,Theodore discriminationand the death penalty;killersof white victims Dreiser,Fiàrello La Guardia,Hamilton Fish,ThomasMann, were (at the time the report was published) 4.3 times more Albert Einstein, Maksim Gorky;and H. G. Wells.”In June likely to receive the death penalty than killers of black 1931, the Communist Party and the League of Strugglefor victims, an echo of the relative value placed on white and Negro Rights led a march of 1,500through Harlem, carrying black lives during the heyday of lynching. On the whole, signsproclaiming“Smashthe legallynchingof the Scottsboro black Americansare 6.5 times morelikelyto be incarcerated Boys.” Another 3,000 attended an NAACP rally in New than white Americans,and one in ten blackmen is in prison York.In 1933, 10,000gathered in New York’sUnion Square. or jail on any given day,The SentencingProject has found. Other protests followed around the world as far as Berlin More black men are in prison today than were enslaved and Havana. In Alabama, Rosa Pa,ks’shusband, Raymond, in 1850. Because ex-felons cannot vote, more African worked on the National Committee to Savethe Scottsboro Americans are disenfranchised now than were in 1870. Boys. By many accounts, it was a formative consciousness- Sensational accounts of wrongful convictions make raising experiencefor the woman who would becomea titan headlines from time to time—such as the recent execution in the history of civil rights. The movement had begun. of Troy Davis in Georgia—but a widespread critique of With such intensive media attention over such an criminal justice as it is practiced in the United States extended period of time, the Scottsboro trials became an (with 2.3 million people currently behind bars, the United embarrassment for the state of Alabama.Those who in 1931 States has the highest incarceration rate in the world) is expected praise for their restraint in leaving the execution onlyjust beginning to get airtime. As Haywood Patterson to the courts instead of the lynch mob had changed their wrote in his autobiography Scoü’sboro Boys, “What tune by 1937 when charges were dropped against four of happened in the Scottsboro case wasn’t unusual. What the Boys.The BirminghamNewspublished a piece tided “At was unusual was that the world heard about it.” The world Last We Are Rid of the Scottsboro Case,”which concluded heard once; perhaps it is time for the world to hear again.
22 AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATER ACr-s1.ORGI4JS.74g,,,g Spreb’iJ1t AIbarnaf con
I()NF.J(r
___]I
j935
A
JOHN Immediately, whea
Scottsboro
the am country.
Scottsboro apparent headlines, politicians boys
Why our that
to remember up of
conversation The
Note
As
The KANOER give
my
sure
in
conversations
kitchen
$cottsboro
a
determined
the
was
we
Kansas
Scottsboro group
career.
voice there (LEFT)
I
From
why
began Scottsboro
Boys.
it
also
and
how
the
Boys ic
easier AND 1936
that
table
the were of
to
Boys 2 I
remember
lawyers it City.
spectacle,
FRED
As
much
Boys
am
innocent
gradually
to
those
was John
to
I
case
with
to EBB
a
know
similar
conversations
has
write
prove
eager young
And
is
believe
Boys
so
the
was
that
a
who
been
my
Kander
you
story important
i’pr9isa
when
the
it
Mtogr
story Rbbe
The boys that
for conversations boy
the disappeared
were
jumped
parents
touches
are 1937
will that
one
ongoing
you that
story growing
&ottsboro
they
the
touched
could
marginalized
first
take
of
lie
free&4
continued:
written Nearly
Fred
Scotisboro One Fred’s project. Ebb, idea: Stroman, still
one a to we chaptr
court
headlines
of about
mattered. the out to
than -
musical
me
in
In
join
back
be
up
nine
resonates
trials
tell
turned
from
and
based
most morning
the Ebb’s
at at
what me
order
even table,
trials
Boys,
destroyed in
every
it
started
what
us
to kitchen
1938
us
One
young
their
was
David I in Kansas
as headlines.
the
Boys and
began your
about were
rewarding and
was How
And
if
or
more
kitchen a to
American eager
of
it
musical
on
to
to the
of
today
young
we
national
story.
as
disenfranchised.
the was
African find
the in
become Thompson, own
is
gathered the
tables
City accept
us
the as
an
an was
to
by a
trials
were
today.
to
no
2002,
histrionics
true
proposed collaborators, 20th
as
immediately
fade
story idea
inspiratin,
kitchen 1943-46 I
a important
boy I
Weem
PoeiIard Behind start
table.
I
landmarI
experiences
different.
we
it
idWiitar
remember
have
single
across
remember
spotlight.
the American
to
meant.
history.
century.
part
story— possible
around
Writing
and growing around
struggle
Susan
Noms
of a
write
truth?
Fred
ever
new
The
table.
the
of the
the
lie?
the an
of
I
a I
1948-50
TI-IF
I
c(Y)TTcRflRfl
bW
“Ii
Norris
6iii
1979 -.
ROVc
1989 J Willie Roberson (Age 17) Scottsboro Profiles Willie Roberson’s father walked out on the ws failly when Rokerson I two months old; his mother died two years later He. reached the seventh grade beforq quatting to work as a The Defendants - hotel busboy Ri&ig the train, he was Olen Montgomery (Age 17) looking btoØf work, but also for Olen Montgomeiy had a fifth-grade a fr.e hospital to treat his severecases education of the few of syphilis and gonorrhea. He also oro Boys able to write when sufferedfromasthma. - in March 1931. He
- hted and nearly a cataract.Before ht ttain to Memphis, tryin to earn Hanw pair of glasses.
(Age 18) .s was the son of father had beenborn father died,Norrisleft :Qnce riding the rails k, he was caught and
1cops;another :td for vagrancyand seiitencebreildngup
) son (Age 18) Memphis-bound taii. on was the fourth of he was young,he for Jewish merchants Andrew”Andy” Wright (Age 19) family, but at 14 he : AndyWright wasborfl in Chattanooga; way he could help he didwell in school, and could read t at home.He started: and write a bit,.but had had to quit in -t trains, and by age the sixth grade after his father died in .thobo. He was on order to help his mother support his his to find workwhen brother and younger sister.
Ozie Powell (Age 15) Ozie Powell ras born to an abusive Leroy “Roy” Wright (Age 13) father who left the familywhen Powell Roy Wright was a young-looking wala small boy. He worked odd jobs, 13-year-old when he was jailed in and at 14 he ran away from home Scottsboro. He quit school early to a.ndbounced from highway camps to work in a grocery store in his home sawmillsfor weeksor months at a time. town of Chattanooga, and he wasoften
•k— in the company of his older brother, Andy.His journey to Memphis was his first trip awayfrom home; his mother did not evenknowhe had left.
24 AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATER ACT-SF.0RG1415.749.2228 “The
After Others Samuel Party’s
Leibowitz, the represented
with convicted.
a pay)
as and black southern
examinatin most The The
Interlocut.r the
at show. comedic they and
CONNECT
mainstream
a
the
Boys. Accusers
savvy
mid northerner
for interrupted
class—based
Interlocutor,
tradi hated the
played,
witnesses
Mr.
International
center
Libowitz
the
1
conventions initial
pranksters
litigator, Leibowitz
Tambo 9th
tional
Leading
WITH
people
a
78
Boys.
was
Jewish of
the century,
Democrat of
defendants
with Scottsboro the
US in
the
causes), a the minstrel
tambourine
and Victoria
Victoria Alabama,
mother. in the Price’s and prostitute
Huntsville
Although Ruby than Ruby escaped father,
semicircle shack was Hers block a prostitute.
Leibowitz
Mr.
proceedings difficult
up who was
Alabama. Labor
master southern
lawyer respect
Mr. by
age
used
shifts
frequently
Tambo,
to
was
demanding not her
in Bates Bates
who with sat
but
reputation
Bones
Bates of
She
show, on
the
Price
trial in
Defense set a from Price R
of
were
a
ten; at the Price. from while and
was a black friend.
and he a
of trial
was
began Communist
had her
ceremonies, courtroom.
rituals passionate, snail either
Scottsboro
had (Age
with
in lived
(named
only
chairs and
which agreed
Chattanooga. conditions
(Age
described
her low-paying
widely
the lived
hampered mother
for
New
1931, never section
not He
a
that working shackwith
(ILD)
as
their
white
17)
Mr. in After end alcoholic,
bones)
and
better murder:
21)
became
hedging
and
a
for had
to York, a in
prosecutors the
been
hard-drinking established
Bones of bare antics.
(in of in who characters. He well-prepared,
as fight
the family Huntsville, hired
were
case, structured
its the the
in by Communist town. and a Huntsville. reputation were
fact,
her challenged “notorious
none associated to but instruments
sat one a
heyday his his
abusive (without semicircle
dismal family mill
scarce.
Samuel
he
defend
on ailing
he
onstage the clean
Bates
status cross of
were
treat had the
was at in
The
the
two
the
in
tOW...