http://blingblingauctions.freeservers.com/DVD%20DVD/racism%20civil%20rights/Racism%20-%20Afro%20amer6.jpg Although slavery is over, life for African Americans in the 1930's was extremely difficult, especially in the south, where racism was especially strong. Because of slavery, people in the south still viewed blacks as inferior, and because of the way they were treated, they often saw themselves as inferior too. Throughout a series of trials, Haywood Patterson was convicted again in 1936. He was sentenced to 75 years in prison; this was the first time that a conviction of a black man raping a white woman did not result in the death penalty in Alabama. During their trials, many of these boys were poorly treated; seven of them had to wait six years in prison before they were tried. Surprisingly, the state of Alabama dropped charges against Olen Montgomery, Willie Roberson, Eugene Williams, and Roy Wright. All of the boys eventually left Alabama, "but found limited success in life" ("Scottsboro Boys - The Aftermath"). Throughout the trials, the boys were immediately written off as guilty by many people, not just in the south. A New York Times article, published March 25, 1931, described the boys as "Negro tramps" ("TimesArticles"). In the same article, it is mentioned that a mob formed
outside of the jail that the boys were held and that the crowd became dangerous. Another article, published by the New York Times, is titled "German Communist Papers Play Up American Case---New Riots Occur." The article references a German paper that implies that the boys are "wholly innocent"("TimesArticles").
It seems like other parts of the world were aware that the Scottsboro Boys were innocent, but the American people couldn't see past their skin color and assumed them guilty before hearing the facts. The mistreatment of these boys is similar to the mistreatment of blacks in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. In the novel, Liberty Paint Company is, in essence, run by black people. Their efforts and hard work go completely unnoticed until something goes wrong, then there is an upset. This happened to the narrator, who was mixing paint colors, and was immediately fired after putting the wrong ingredients in the paint.
Another Major conection to the novel from this case is the communist party. The ILD was backed by communists who used the cases to gain popularity with the African American community. The ILD's relentless defense of the Nine gained much press and wide spread popularity for defending the rights of minorities. This is not unlike how the Brotherhood( a communist organization) uses the narrator to gain popularity in the African American Community.
The Conclusion to Ordeals of The Scottsboro Nine
In 1938, both the Alabama Pardon Board and Governor Graves denied the pardon applications of the remaining memebers of the Scottsboro Nine. Weems was paroled in 1943. Both Norris and Wright were paroled in 1944, but, both were sent back to prison for violating their probation. Powell was paroled in 1946 and Patterson escaped from prison in 1948. Norris was finally pardoned in 1976 thus bringing over four decades of injustice to an end.