Scottsboro Boys Trial Clippings
Scope and Contents
This collection documents newspaper media coverage of the Scottsboro Boys Trials, the retrials circa 1936 in Alabama of nine African American teenagers originally accused of raping two White women aboard a train in northern Alabama in 1931. It contains photocopies and original print pages of 1936 editions of the following newspapers: The Chattanooga Times, January 21, 1936 to January 23, 1936; The Birmingham Herald, January 21, 1936 to January 25, 1936; The New York Post, January 21, 1936 to January 24, 1936, The New York Times, January 21, 1936 to January 24, 1936; and The Huntsville Times, January 26, 1936. The collection also contains photocopies and original print clippings from miscellaneous newspapers, July 10, 1936 to July 14, 1936, and two print guides titled, “The Scottsboro Boys Trial HIstoric Route” from the Scottsboro Boys Museum in Scottsboro, Alabama.
Dates
- Creation: 1936-01-21 - 1936-07-14
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research in the Archives & Special Collections reading room. Handling guidelines and use restrictions will be communicated and enforced by archives staff members.
Conditions Governing Use
This material may be protected under U. S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S. Code) which governs the making of photocopies or reproductions of copyrighted materials. You may use the digitized material for private study, scholarship, or research. Though the University of Alabama in Huntsville Archives and Special Collections has physical ownership of the material in its collections, in some cases we may not own the copyright to the material. It is the patron's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in our collections.
Biographical / Historical
The Scottsboro Boys Trials occurred between April 6, 1931 and April 9, 1931 in Scottsboro, Alabama during the Great Depression and era state-sanctioned racial segregation, also known as Jim Crow. On March 30, 1931 a grand jury in Scottsboro, Alabama indicted nine African American teenage boys, Clarence Norris ( 1912 - 1989), Charles Weems (1911 - ?), Haywood Patterson (1913 - 1952), Olen Montgomery (1914 - ?), Ozie Powell (1916 - ?0), Willie Roberson (1915 - ?), Eugene Williams (1918 - ?), Andrew “Andy” Wright (1912-?), and Leroy “Roy” Wright (1918 - 1959). On March 25, 1931, to evade charges of vagrancy and illegal sexual activity, Victoria Price (1911 - 1982) and Ruby Bates (1915 - 1976), two white women, falsely accused the nine African American teenagers of raping them aboard a Southern Railroad freight train in North Alabama. On April 9, 1931 the judge sentenced eight defendants to death by electrocution and granted 13 year-old Wright a mistrial due to his age. Several retrials followed; however, altogether the Scottsboro Boys served more than 100 years in prison. The trials led to two significant Supreme Court decisions affirming the right to competent counsel in Powell v. Alabama and the right to trial by one’s peers in Norris V. Alabama.
Extent
1 Linear foot (1 box (oversize))
Language of Materials
English
Processing Information
Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, and competing priorities. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections as they are acquired, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.
- Author
- Vaughn Bocchino
- Date
- 2018
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the The University of Alabama in Huntsville Archives & Special Collections Repository
M. Louis Salmon Library
301 Sparkman Drive
Huntsville, AL 35899 Alabama 35899 United States of America
256-824-6526
archives@uah.edu