Nine Innocent Scottsboro Boys example essay topic

Stories of Scottsboro. By James E. Goodman. (New York: Vintage Books. c. 1994. pp. 274. $16.00) Currently in the United States of America, there is a wave a patriotism sweeping across this great land: a feeling of pride in being an American and in being able to call this nation home. The United States is the land of the free and the home of the brave; however, for the African-American citizens of the United States, from the inception of this country to midway through the twentieth century, there was no such thing as freedom, especially in the Deep South.

Nowhere is that more evident than in Stories of Scottsboro, an account of the Scottsboro trials of 1931-1937, where nine African-American teenage boys were falsely accused of raping two white girls in Scottsboro, Alabama and no matter how much proof was brought forth proving there innocence, they were always guilty. This was a period of racism and bigotry in our country that is deeply and vividly portrayed though different points of view through author James E. Goodman. On March 25, 1931 nine African American youths were falsely accused and wrongfully imprisoned for the rape of two white girls. Over the next six consecutive years, trials were held to attempt to prove the innocence of these nine young men. The court battles ranged from the U. S Supreme court to the Scottsboro county court with almost every decision the same -- -guilty. Finally, with the proceedings draining Alabama financially and politically, four of the boys had the charges against them dropped with one boy plea-bargaining and the other four having to serve out their sentences given to them already by the court.

Only one of the nine innocent Scottsboro boys was ever pardoned. Over time, the Scottsboro boys grew from boys to men and with the progression of their age so to do the attitudes of this country toward racism. Granted, there are still bigots and racist in the United States and in the south especially, but they are not the majority or the accepted -- -they are the minority and the outcasts. No one would be proud to say things like", 'There shouldn't be any trial for them damn niggers -- thirty cents worth of rope would do the work and it wouldn't cost the county much.

' -- Decatur lunchroom proprietor (p. 211) " Those ignorant phrases are not common place in our country now, but we had to grow to get there. This trial brought about some of that growth, for not only was this something wrongfully done against a group of African American teens, it was injustice done to Americans and there were some in the United States who saw that and color lines began to blur. My great grandfather marched in the Scottsboro march on Washington along side blacks and Indians, all fighting for the same cause. The growth all the way to 1976 when Clarence Norris, one of the Scottsboro boys, came back to Alabama for the first time since the trials and was greeted, not by a posse or mob, but by cheers and outstretched hands to shake of all races. There were heroes in this story. Men like their defense lawyer, Samuel Leibowitz who fought tooth and nail to prove these boys innocent.

He didn't take this case up to keep up his spotless record and become famous. This was a case where he would be looked at as the scapegoat and he would probably loose. He knew, yet he took it anyway. Why? To fight for what is right. Judge James Horton.

A man who sacrificed his whole political career and life in Alabama to do what was right and turn over the case to be appealed, instead of letting the innocent die. These two men were the heroes of the war. Men who stood up for what was right over what was popular. They risked much to save a few and fight for justice. One word for this period in our history would be shame.

Shame in how people who called themselves Americans acted. We all have our differences as Americans, but that is what makes this country special is our diversity. We are not "one big smiling Whiteface (p. 6) " as Haywood Patterson referred to the courtroom, but blessed with our diversity. James E. Goodman personified how far we have come since that time by showing us that time, the height of the worst era in this country. We have come out of it and owe that to men who were examples like the Scottsboro boys. Their pain was this nation's stepping stool to becoming colorblind.

We are on our way now because of men like Clarence Norris. God bless them. Nevertheless, I am still ashamed. Not of being American, but that we went through Scottsboro, Alabama to get here.