Salem Witch Trials Vs Scottsboro Research Paper

The case of Powell v. Alabama was a landmark trial heard by the United States Supreme Court. The case determined that in a legal trial, the defendant is always awarded access to a lawyer if he or she requests one . Defendants in all capital cases are awarded this right because of the due process clause of the United States Constitution. The case begins with events that occurred in the spring of 1931. During this time, Nine African American boys were accused of raping two young white girls, named Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. The boys, who were called the Scottsboro Boys, were travelling on a train with nine white people. A fight between the two sides broke out and all but one of the white males was thrown from the moving train. The white women

The Scottsboro Boys were a group of nine boys who were wrongfully sentenced from 1931-1937 and not proven innocent until 1977 to a tedious life of trials and prison, tribulations and death. Everything started when the nine boys set off on a southern railroads train heading towards Memphis from Chattanooga, looking for honest work. They started a little scuffle with the white teenagers in the train until eventually a white boy called the conductor, who in turn called the police. Despite the whites having just as much to do with the fight as the blacks. The police arrested every black teenager they could find, and not a single white was bothered. The nine boys they found were deemed the name: The Scottsboro Boys. After they were hauled off to prison, two girls Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, falsely accused the boys of raping them. This is what started the trials, and highlights how prejudiced people were at the time.

One of the events which sparked massive discussions of racial inequality across America was the famous trial of the Scottsboro boys, nine African American boys who were the victims of a false accusation of the rape of two white girls. The alleged rapes occurred on March 25th, 1931. Due to the Great Depression, “hoboing” or riding freight trains free was common at the time, and the train’s passengers - two white girls, four white boys, and nine black boys who did not know each other - were all illegally onboard. Around halfway through the train’s journey through southern Alabama, a fight erupted between the white boys and the black boys, resulting in the black boys forcing all but one of the white boys off the train - Haywood Patterson, one of the soon-to-be infamous Scottsboro boys, pulled Orville Gilley, the white boy, back onto the train when he realised

The Scottsboro Trials of Alabama, started in 1931. Nine African American boys were accused of raping two girls on board a train near Scottsboro, Alabama.(A Tragedy of the American South) A fight broke out between white and black groups of youths. Victoria Price and Ruby Bates accused the boys of rape.(A Tragedy of the American South) Instead of the two girls getting charged with vagrancy and prostitution, they blamed the black boys of raping them..(A Tragedy of the American South) Rape was a politically explosive charge in the south.(A Tragedy of the American South) The case went to the US Supreme court in 1937, where Clarence Norris called the girls liars and was then struck by a bayonet.(A Tragedy of the American South) After going to court the boys spent two years between their first trials and second round. (Tragedy of the American South) One

In 1906, Ed Johnson was convicted after witnesses claimed he sexually assaulted white female by using a leather strap. Although Johnson provided numerous alibis about his part in the sexual assault, he was still convicted for the crime and sentenced to death by a jury of only white people. While in jail, Johnson was brutally murdered by a mob that broke in. Twenty-five years later, the Scottsboro Boys were convicted for gang rape of two white women while traveling on a train. Of the nine Scottsboro boys accused in this case, eight of them were sentenced to death. This conviction raised public awareness and was one factor that saw the birth of the Civil Rights Movement. Just a few years later, three African American men, Ed Brown, Arthur Ellington and Henry Shields were all beaten and tortured into confessing for the killing of a white farmer in Mississippi. This incident became the well known Supreme Court decision titled Brown v. Mississippi (Grimsley). These were just average African American men living average lives when suddenly they are accused of crimes they did not commit. Earl Smith and Angela J. Hattery says in their journal that “many of them were at least twenty six years old when incarcerated whereas, some were sent to prison while they were still in their late teens and early 20s.” Before they were incarcerated, many of them were still getting their education and building careers and relationships. While these men were accused of their crimes based on their race, there are other factors that play a role in a wrongful conviction.

In 1931, nine men of the black race were accused of rape to two women of the white race, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. The men were: Charles Weems, 20, Clarence Norris, 19, Andy Wright, 19, Ozie Powell, 15, Olen Montgomery, 17, Eugene Williams, 13, Willie Roberson, 16, Roy Wright, 12, and Haywood Patterson, 18. Eight of the defendants were sentenced to death. The youngest, Roy Wright, was the only one that was not given a death penalty.

In the year 1931, all nine of the Scottsboro boys Haywood Patterson, Charles Weems, Clarence Norris, Andy Wright, Ozzie Powell, Olen Montgomery, Eugene Williams, Willie Roberson, and Roy Wright are arrested and tried on charges of assault from fighting white boys on a train. Along with accusations made by Victoria Price and Ruby Bates that the boys raped them. Their trial begins April 6, 1931. All of the boys except for Roy Wright are tired and convicted, with the result of the death sentence, Roy Wright’s trial ends in a mistrial. Later the NAACP and International Labor Defense, fight to represent the boys. Even though there was no proof that the boys committed these crimes they

Unfortunately sometimes a disastrous situation must occur for changed to take place. The Scottsboro trials can be a great example of just that. On March 25, 1931 nine young black men ranging in ages from twelve to twenty were arrested and were convicted of allegedly raping two women on a freight train traveling from Alabama to Tennessee. Accused by two white women Victoria Price and Ruby Bates the men were brought to trial. The trials lasted up to almost six years and were named The Scottsboro Trials. It can be said that the trials were prominent and necessary to take place to shape the future lives for the African American people.

Back then when if you were black you would be guilty until proven innocent, no matter what. The reason for that was because people were more racist back then than today and black people were the main target. Even if you did nothing and you were black, if someone told on you and accused you of doing something really bad even if there is no proof you would still get in trouble. In Scottsboro Boys there was nine black boys who went to a train men were fighting them because they illegally rode the train. There were also 2 women that falsely accusing them of rape. You can find all this information on the “False Accusations” part of The Scottsboro Boys. They had to go through a lot to prove their innocence. Not that much changed today 5 young black men got accused of raping a woman not to long ago. Then young men had to go to court to prove their innocence, comparable to the time when in To Kill a Mockingbird when Tom Robinson got accused of raping Bob Ewell's daughter, Mayella. She got caught lying a lot in court and Tom Robinson was innocent but it was unfair for black people back then so he was guilty even though he was innocent and went to

The Scottsboro Trials exposed the racism of a courtroom when nine, young, innocent men were falsely accused of raping two white women and unjustly sentenced to death. The teenagers were sentenced to death after facing an

The Scottsboro boys trial took place in March of 1931, a trial that was dictated by race and not by actions. The accusations were faulty, as was the evidence. Yet the boys were all sentenced for death or life imprisonment. The trial was unfair at least, the nine black boys were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Salem Witch trials has definitely impacted history and the harsh technicalities the people of Salem had to experience was unimaginable and harsh. The period between February 1692- May 1963 introduced a whirlwind of speculation and accusations of the ordeal form in witchcraft and involvement with the devil. Almost all the people of Salem, Massachusetts were faced with trial and prosecution even when no act of witchcraft was evident. The spreading of rumors and the toil that societal tensions inflicted, caused heavy distress in the town. To this day, the legacy and past of the Salem Witch trials has left a transparent mark of its history that the people of Salem underwent. From gossiping, to trials, to lies, to hangings, the little town

On March 25, 1931, With the Great Depression gripping the nation after the stock-market crash of 1929, people jumped on to freight trains to travel from one city to another city in hope to search for work. A group of whites and a group of blacks who are later called the ‘Scottsboro boys’ got in a fight on a train. The Scottsboro boys were defending themselves and they kicked the white group off in Jackson County. Then, two women who were on the train were trying to avoid arrest therefore falsely accused the nine black youths (who range from the age of thirteen to nineteen years old) of raping them. The Scottsboro boys were then arrested with assault and rape charges added against all nine of them after the allegations were made by Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. It was a rousing allegation in the Jim-Crow South, where many whites were attempting to maintain power just 66 years after the end of the Civil War.

According to American history, prejudice is shown through the courtroom’s jury when making decisions to send the alleged African Americans to jail. On March 24, 1931, nine African American lives were jeopardized with the false accusations of rape that further scrutinizes the nation’s controversial look upon justice. Referring to Abigail Thernson and Henry Fetter when talking about The Scottsboro Trials it states, “Represented by unprepared out of date counsel who had no more than a half an hour consult

In Scottsboro, Alabama, March 9, 1931 nine African american boys, Olen Montgomery, Clarence Norris, Haywood Patterson, Ozie Powell, Willie Roberson, Charles Weems, Eugene Williams, Andy Wright, and Roy Wright were incriminated of rapeing two white women on the subway. As they were accused of raping Ruby Bates and Victoria Price they were put on trial. This trail was long and unfair.