So began the Scottsboro case, one of the 20th century's fieriest legal battles. I'm sure he could feel their presence and he thought about them, why me? Clarence Norris. GOODMAN: So he asked her dozens of questions about Ms. Callie Brochie and where she lived and what she looked like and had she ever met her before. By 1931, the Communists were a small but dynamic force. Scattered among the cars of the freight were some two dozen hoboes -- black and white. Organizers believed they needed a striking example of what they called "Southern lynch justice" to rouse blacks to action. And black Alabamians assumed that they would not serve on juries. But Leibowitz was unconcerned. More than 800 letters arrived at the Horton home, nearly all praising the verdict. In this video clip from PBS's American Experience: Scottsboro: An American Tragedy, they tell a piece of his story. BANKS: Each time he would say: "I did not touch any of them. I hung my hat on a little limb and went to having intercourse with Ruby... by firelight I saw Victoria's boyfriend had intercourse with her. The boys drifted back into obscurity -- their pleas for help to their former sponsors frequently went unanswered. But Horton was a man of the South, and the South was speaking in a single voice. The Scottsboro Defense Committee was formed on December 19, 1935, with the objective to provide a united defense for the Scottsboro defendants. At one o'clock on Saturday afternoon Judge Horton gave the case to the jury. With the Scottsboro trials, the anti-lynching forces hoped to prove that in Alabama the rule of law would prevail against the passions of the mob. Bates: She said we might have to lay out a sentence in jail. People pulled into history who never wanted to be pulled into history suddenly put on a national platform, and tragically paraded out for everybody's benefit but their own. Until she was made angry, and then she would shout, 'I don't know anything. KELLEY: If the prosecutors were gonna win and win big Haywood Patterson was the best person to put on trial. 1. VOICE: Workers, Farmers, Negro and White.... With control of the case, the communists set about to bring Scottsboro to the attention of the entire world. CARTER: By the time she gets down off the witness stand what should have been the most effective witness for the defense, as one of the jurors said later, 'we never even considered her testimony. Leibowitz asked the doctor if the girls had shown any signs of a struggle -- bruises, or scratches? Scottsboro: An American Tragedy movie reviews & Metacritic score: Covering several decades, this documentary examines the Scottsboro case, an often-overlooked chapter in our nation’s history. MARY LICHT, Communist Organizer: I told them if the International Labor Defense comes we don't believe in just having a trial. Opportunistic and organized, they seized on the Depression as proof of the inevitable decline of capitalism and the rise of a workers' paradise. Leibowitz: What sort of food, what did you do in the evening, what sort of bed or room? While Northern papers praised Leibowitz's cross-examination of Victoria Price, Southerns viewed this as what? Glen Shauer, Film Processing FLYNT: Alabama in the 1930's was literally a world coming apart, with massive unemployment in a state that had always been poor, with increasing conflict between both classes and races. LLOYD BROWN, Former Communist: The view was that in the south we had a uncompleted revolution. The crowd commenced to hollerin' let's take these black son-or-a-bitches up here and put 'em to a tree. They grew more hopeless about their situation. GOODMAN: There was demonstrations in Germany. ROBERT LEIBOWITZ, Defense Attorney's son: He had a supple baritone instrument for a voice which he could use like a Paderevsky or a Yasha Haifitz so to speak. After their release from prison, most of the Scottsboro defendants led troubled lives in the North. This is a fill in the blank worksheet for American Experience's Scottsboro An American Tragedy. “The Scottsboro Trials” PBS Documentary—The American Experience. Thankfully all the boys have now all been pardoned. Once again, Patterson would go first, but this time Alabama authorities were taking no chances. Peoples' Weekly World Hear the rattle of gravel as it rides whistling through the day and night. HORTON: At one point I remember he arose from his chair, went and sat down on the bench and watched the manner in which Victoria Price testified. With the Supreme Court decision in Norris vs. Alabama, he also set in motion the integration of Southern juries, which would make possible many of the civil rights victories in later decades. The events that culminated in the trials began in the early spring of 1931, when nine young black men were falsely accused of raping two white women on a train. This video of the American mini-series is well worth it for anyone interested in the detail of the truly awful miscarriage of justice that is associated with these nine boys. And we noticed a flatbed stake-body truck stop in front of the jail with a guard with rifles on each corner. Patterson had become a creature of Alabama's prisons. Leibowitz: Isn't it a fact that the night before you left Chattanooga you and your boyfriend and Ruby and Lester Carter went walking along the railroad tracks? Questions relating to Scottsboro Trial Video to help you study for Section 3 test. He had no idea. Morgan Country Archives Guards rushed their cells and beat them. And what he didn't understand was that each with each attack on Victoria Price he was weakening his case. Comprehension Questions. Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley And to this day I can feel that spit running down my cheek. It was bigger, lots bigger -- that is a toy. For months, he had waited for this moment: the chance to confront Victoria Price in a court of law. Scottsboro: An American Tragedy, PBS Video, 040552. The defendants had just one twenty-minute meeting with their lawyer, during which he urged them to plead guilty. Not him. And the next morning there it's in the newspapers all over Alabama. After being brutally raped, why would Price show only minor scrapes and bruises to an examining doctor, and only traces of dead semen? Was it likely that nine black teenagers could have raped two white women in full view on a slowly moving train and then made no move to escape? Douglas Linder But we weren't goin' nowhere so there was a fight. Stop! The crowds outside the courthouse were drawn by what one newspaper called the "most unspeakable crime in the history of Alabama.". But she was gonna be a hell of a witness for the prosecution. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library What did Victoria Price spend time in the work house for, and how many times had she been married? The trials of the nine young men would draw North and South into their sharpest conflict since the Civil … They started to fight with one another. Dan Carter Kwando Kinshasa evasive . Because his own clients had told him where and it did not coincide with where she claimed she was. GOODMAN: Leibowitz was, first of all, a remarkably thorough researcher. WGBH Educational Foundation How did the fight between the whites and blacks on the train start? The communists seized on Scottsboro's notoriety to reach a wider audience. Amanda Harberg Leibowitz, SOT: " I will fight to my last breath to send these boys back to their parents and to their loved ones.". GRIGG: He didn't like the South and the South didn't like him in numbers. Rachel Dretzin Whatever Leibowitz had been when he entered the case, he was now a different man. The trial of the nine falsely accused teens would draw North and South into their sharpest conflict since the Civil War, yield two momentous Supreme Court decisions and give birth to the Civil Rights Movement. CARTER: A lot of Southerners begin to say look this thing is more trouble than it's worth. by . Hoboes were frequenting the railroads by the thousands and the tens of thousands. THORNTON: White Alabamians did not believe that blacks ought to serve on juries. I told you that before, and I'll tell it to you again.'. Haywood Patterson killed a man in self-defense in a bar fight and died in a Michigan Penitentiary at the age of 39. The twelve men filed out of the courthouse, less than two weeks after they had been sworn in. The four were spirited out of Alabama in July, 1937, after six years in jail. Voice: He left little if anything undone to arouse the resentment if not the bitterness of everyone in the courtroom, including members of the jury. LEIBOWITZ: The spermatozoa were non-motile, that means they were dead. 13. If you don't quieten' down I'll take you around to that gallows and hang you myself.' CARTER: Judge Callahan was from the old school in many ways. Susan Bdzell, Morgan County Archives We will not!" STEVENSON: For any black man in Alabama whenever you saw a group of white men with guns in the menacing ominous way in which people were collected in Paint Rock, Alabama, you knew you were in a lot of trouble. production in association with the American Experience. Wade Wright, one of Knight's co-prosecutors, opened with an emotional appeal. Very sober. Stop! To beat you. Judge James Edwin Horton Jr. and Judge William Washington Callahan presided over the second trial of the Scottsboro defendants in Decatur, Alabama. Get the best criminal lawyer around. Explore the events of a trial that drew North and South into their sharpest conflict since the Civil War, and yielded two momentous Supreme Court decisions. 1310C2. It was almost to the floor. When Charlie Weems was discovered reading Communist literature, guards dragged him from his cell and beat him until he begged for mercy. Willie Roberson suffered from syphilis so severe he could barely walk. Someone who was Jewish, totally foreign to their religion. Haywood Patterson. Two hundred national guardsmen ringed the courthouse to keep the crowd from rushing its doors. This video of the American mini-series is well worth it for anyone interested in the detail of the truly awful miscarriage of justice that is associated with these nine boys. Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University I dreamed bad dreams, with freight trains, guards' faces, and courtrooms mixed up with the look of the sky at night. Series American Experience Program Scottsboro: An American Tragedy Program Number. James Miller Written by Kay Boyle And Lord knows there was plenty of evidence. LEIBOWITZ: After my father met with Brodsky and Patterson of the ILD and their agreement was finalized, he said to them look, if I don't bring these nine boys back and dump them in your lap, I'll buy both of you the finest hats that Stetson makes. And no state was hurting worse than Alabama. Because he remembered getting off that train with those other eight guys and here he was getting his pardon alone. GOODMAN: He finds dozens, scores of inconsistencies. With dogs in pursuit, he waded through streams for days, and was harbored at night by sympathetic black families. He was simply saying: 'Come on boys! Carter: We walked up the yards 'til we came to the (hobo) jungles. All nine boys were sent back to Kilby's death house. I just thought that I was gonna die. Leibowitz had won a motion to try the defendants separately. They worked together in the poorest of the town's textile mills. Patterson and Norris feuded constantly over gambling debts; Norris once stabbing Patterson with a prison shank. In 2013 the Alabama parole board voted to grant posthumous pardons to the three Scottsboro Boys who had not been pardoned or had their convictions overturned. Suddenly, from the shadows of a box-car, emerged two white women: pale and disheveled. The minute a Jewish lawyer from New York City came to Alabama that case was lost. Almost immediately after Judge Horton's decision the state announced that it would retry the Scottsboro prisoners. He had no idea what it was like going into a different country. Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research Leibowitz: Haywood Patterson, did you rape this girl? In March 1931, two white women in Alabama accused nine young black men of gang-raping them aboard a freight train they had all been riding illegally. What did Haywood Patterson say caused the fight on the train? Though he survived, Powell was never the same. It wasn't that they were raped. Norris says well the other eight did it but I didn't do it. They unfastened my overalls while I was standing up and then they threw me down on the gravel and finished pulling them off my feet. Leibowitz: Did Victoria tell you what would happen to you if you didn't follow her story? The jury, one reporter said, "smelled the North" on Ruby. So after that, Attorney General Knight knew it was all right. Leibowitz: Isn't the reason why you are making these charges you were found hoboing on a freight train? Alabama would entrust the prosecution of the case to its highest-ranking lawyer -- Attorney General Thomas Knight. All nine Scottsboro defendants were convicted of rape. On an October day in 1976, Norris received word that Governor George Wallace had pardoned him. In February, 1935, the Supreme Court of the United States heard Norris vs. Alabama, which would determine whether Alabama had purposely excluded blacks from their juries. The brutal manner in which Leibowitz cross-examines Mrs. Price makes one feel like reaching for his gun. Every effort by the prosecution and defense to find her had come up empty. It would draw North and South into their sharpest conflict since the Civil War, and yield two momentous Supreme Court decisions. Olin Montgomery, nearly blind, had been looking for a job to pay for a pair of glasses. Robin Kelley Leibowitz: Haywood Patterson: Did you have anything to do with a white girl? The crowd is buzzing. Jack Wheeler His brother Roy, youngest of the defendants, served in the army and married. In the end, it was not letters, marches, or editorials, but time alone that brought the Scottsboro affair to an end. There was demonstrations in Moscow. Daniel Anker and Barak Goodman, Voices And the next thing was, how we going to get them to Scottsboro? A CD of the Scottsboro soundtrack, composed by Edward Bilous, is also available at shopPBS. So whenever the guard would pass, the crowd would push beyond the sting, and the guard would turn on his heels, throw his gun down, and say:' get back!' Series Description. Jury selection took place under heavy security. GLASSCOCK: She just pointed at Haywood Patterson and said: "He raped me" right there in the courtroom. Raymond Fraley Leibowitz: You testified at Scottsboro that six Negroes raped you and six Negroes raped Victoria. GRIGG: If the train had gone another 300 yards I believe it was it would have been in Madison County, and we certainly wouldn't have objected. Knight pointed out that either she was lying now or had lied two years earlier in Scottsboro. Word of the fight reached the tiny town of Paint Rock, Alabama, where the train was scheduled to stop and take on water. BROWN: He was he was probably as provincial as most New Yorkers were then and I think still are in the sense of thinking that things would be the same down there. GRIGG: Mr. Broadway sent up to the store to get a skein, I never did hear that word before, a skein of ploughline, and the rope was cut into pieces where they could tie the hands of the ones that was under arrest. Judge James Horton. That's what you most fear in a racial confrontation is the unexpected. Price: No sir, we never have been on the railroad together. The switch is thrown. 4. It also shows a piece of a press conference that followed his pardon and some of Norris' thoughts on the famous event in his own words. He answered: 'No'. PERRY BRUSKIN, Former Activist: Will you let them murder the nine Negro boys in Scottsboro? As the state prepared to present its case, newspapers reported the mysterious disappearance of Ruby Bates who was rumored to have been kidnapped or even killed. STEVENSON: The Supreme Court in a precedent-setting decision for the first time held that poor people like the Scottsboro defendants get effective assistance from lawyers, and where they were denied effective assistance from lawyers they would be afforded new trials. CARTER: The NAACP's position is these people are revolutionaries. I was busy living from minute to minute. The last of the Scottsboro boys was free. Gillian Goodrich Archive Photos And the sentence: death by electrocution. Grover Hall, The Montgomery Advertiser. What was she doing in New York? Leibowitz had found a witness, a drifter named Lester Carter, who claimed that he knew where Price and Bates had really been the night before the train ride: with himself and a friend in a hobo camp near the train yards. They quickly unloaded the prisoners. Walk-in services are still available. Horton Family Private Collection Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States Norris, SOT: I have no hate toward any creed or color. Scottsboro Boy was published in June 1950. Performed by Leadbelly, Opening Poem Knight hammered away at her: GOODMAN: He asks her where she got her pocket book, where she got her hat, where she got her coat. The state called to the stand Dr. R.R. It wasn't that he'd never had a difficult witness before. "Scottsboro" has stigmatized Alabama throughout the civilized world. Royer: And she fired right back at him immediately; she said you are a pretty good actor yourself. The verdict had finally made plain to Leibowitz himself how naive he had been. And basically the state said, all right, we'll give you those. On March 25, 1931 during a racial confrontation on a train traveling from _____Chattanooga_____ a group of ____black_____ travelers fought a group of _____white_____travelers and kicked them off the train. 2013. William Watts and Family They identified themselves as Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. In his closing argument, Leibowitz called Wade Wright's summation for the prosecution a "hangman's speech". On many stages, the mothers were joined by Ruby Bates. Will you let them murder the nine Negro boys in Scottsboro? That Alabama made a mistake in the 1930s and Clarence Norris never raped anybody. BROWN: "Black and white unite and fight". The prisoners were loaded onto a truck and driven to the nearby town of Scottsboro. And there are really are serious questions here and maybe the best thing to do is to settle this case. I remember seeing this documentary long time ago on Television. The sheriff said to me: 'see that gallows, nigger. Add to that, he was a showman. A special narration track is added to the series by Descriptive Video Service® (DVS®), a service of … Price had claimed that she and Bates had spent that night in a boarding house in Chattanooga owned by a Mrs. Callie Brochie. Finally, he hopped a freight north to Detroit where his sister and her family were waiting. The Scottsboro defendants, now convicted rapists, were taken to Kilby prison near Montgomery, the pride of the Alabama system. Grant Maxwell Only three weeks after the Scottsboro trials, the communists launched their first demonstration on behalf of the Scottsboro defendants. When help did come, it was from the most unlikely of sources: the Communist Party of the United States. Leo Seltzer Scottsboro: An American Tragedy (A Great Tragedy, Accusation of Rape, The First Trial) 20 min. Grades: 10 th, 11 th, 12 th. Janie Patterson, who had never traveled more than 100 miles from her home, led a protest march on the White House. Stories of Scottsboro. Michigan Chronicle She told the truth the first time, now she's lying for the money and for the clothing. As the rancorous attacks on Alabama ended, the state at last bowed to reason and exhaustion. its about Southern prejudices in Scottsboro, Alabama in the 1930's. But it aburptly dropped the charges against the other four: Olen Montgomery, Willie Roberson, Roy Wright and Eugene Williams. Voice: Cable to the Brooklyn Eagle: There's intense feeling here because we have brought the question of Negro rights into the open. But inside, their lawyers were appealing the Scottsboro verdict before the Supreme Court of the United States. They immediately send word of this up to party headquarters in New York saying this is a wonderful opportunity to publicize all the things we're trying to publicize in the South. CARTER: When they announced the verdict of guilty, people ran out. This video of the American mini-series is well worth it for anyone interested in the detail of the truly awful miscarriage of justice that is associated with these nine boys. Read by Conrad Lynn, Special Thanks to Leibowitz: Just look at this little replica and tell me it fairly represents the general appearance of the box car you rode on? The prosecution doesn't have the slightest idea of what's going on. I'll take care of him.' By a vote of 7-2, they concluded that it had. But as soon as he would turn his back, they were back again. With Nesbitt Blaisdell, Andre Braugher, Sam Catlin, Jeffrey DeMunn. In November, 1943, the Alabama Parole Board met for a fourth time. "An American tragedy" 9 young men was accused of raping Two White women and didn't get a fair trail. He began his cross-examination by setting out an exact replica of the freight train which he had procured from the Lionel Toy Corporation. Educators & Librarians may order Scottsboro: An American Tragedy at PBS Video. Upon his return to New York, Leibowitz was swamped by more than three thousands admirers. Andy Lanset Performed by The New York City Labor Chorus, "The Scottsboro Boys" He studied every aspect of a case. FLYNT: The first thing they try to do is concoct an excuse for themselves. The only reason she's doing this is because she's been bought and paid for. To torture you. And some of them were armed, most of them had shotguns. CHRIS DOSS: He had all kinds of pressure from friends, both personal and political friends, saying 'Don't do what we think you may do. Alabama Department of Archives and History ROBERT WANN: As the situation became desperate, my father took his pistol off and he gave it to his deputies.... he walked out the front door right through the middle of the mob and the crowd separated for him, not a hand touched him. Virtually every man in Paint Rock with a gun or a rope shows up. Much less sensitive to these issues and in fact to an extraordinary degree, a creature of his own prejudices. The train was stopped by an armed posse in the tiny town of Paint Rock, Alabama. Explain in detail. From his home in Brooklyn, Leibowitz prepared a motion asking Judge Horton to overturn the verdict and order a new trial. We brought them cigarettes and chocolate. Frustrated, Leibowitz finally shouted: "You're a pretty good little actress aren't you?". closed due to building maintenance. Very mannerly. He broke parole in 1946 and fled Alabama, making his way to New York. With Leibowitz gone, Alabama quickly convicted five of the defendants. Name: _____ Period: _____ “The Scottsboro Trials” PBS Documentary— The American Experience Comprehension Questions 1. attack on Southern womanhood. The Justices considered whether in Scottsboro trials, the boys' legal defense had been so inadequate that it violated their rights to legal due process. Voice: If you ever saw those creatures those bigots whose mouths are slits in their faces, whose eyes popped out at you like frogs, whose chins dripped tobacco juice, bewhiskered and filthy, you would not ask how they could do it. The five thousand people who were lynched from 1880 to 1940, most of those were cases of black men accused of raping or sexually assaulting a white woman. Harris Yulin, Additional Cinematography For Leibowitz, the notion that he shared blame for the convictions of his own clients was almost too bitter to swallow. 90 minutes Source: PBS Video. Hall quietly began to lobby for an end of the Scottsboro prosecutions and the parole of the defendants. Sync Sound, Inc. Assistant Camera To prove that they had, Leibowitz brought with him the huge jury rolls from Decatur. There's just no doubt, we were using, yes. Tamiment Library, New York University. Their first night in Kilby, the boys rioted, tearing up their bedding and hurling their food through the bars. CLYDE BARCLAY, Paint Rock Resident: A bunch of people here got the guys off the train, marched them up here about where this old building, right across from where the white wrecked car is there -- lined them up against the wall there. Again: 'No.'. He literally could have been an actor. Louder: No! Raise your voices. She comes right out and says said that: 'I made the whole story up because Victoria told me to make it up.' Leibowitz: What occurred in the hobo jungles that night? Roger Phenix In March 1931, two white women stepped off a box car in Paint Rock, Alabama, with a shocking accusation of … While the trials had been going on in the South, outrage over the Scottsboro affair had migrated from radical circles to ordinary people. In November 1932, Communists took their public protests to the steps of the Capitol, where they were routed by the police. Harriett Glickman DAN CARTER, Historian: At first they weren't even aware that they were women. We can lick this Jew from New York.' Tom Hurwitz In 2013 the Alabama parole board voted to grant posthumous pardons to the three Scottsboro Boys who had not been pardoned or had their convictions overturned. Grover Hall, Editor, The Montgomery Advertiser. Charlotte and Jerry Anker He came into Alabama as the voice of bigotry and arrogance. © 2000, 2001 Social Media Productions, Inc. © 2001 And then he quietly goes up to the Judge and says I'm going to have one more witness. Exhausted, embarrassed, and near broke from trial after trial, Alabama's once united front regarding Scottsboro finally began to crumble. American Experience: Scottsboro: An American Tragedy DVD - AV Item,In March 1931, two white women stepped off a box car in Paint Rock, Alabama, with a shocking accusation of gang rape, by nine black teenagers on the train. ATHLENE BANKS, Decatur Resident: I went because of history. GOODMAN: The communist realize at this point that they've got to show the world that these defendants are actually innocent. Six of them had intercourse with me. The tragedy of this are nine boys lives hopelessly, eternally interrupted, sent cascading down roads of terror and imprisonment. Julie Dretzin Everything the individual who was who was going to be executed Norris hears the last words. Premiered October 1988 As television's longest-running, most-watched history series, American Experience brings to life the incredible characters and … John Cadell Usually a witness is defensive when they say 'I I can't remember.' BROWN: Ideologically, he would be about the last man to represent the Scottsboro movement. Scottsboro helped forge a new kind of movement: whites and blacks marched side by side for the first time since the days of abolition. The image of the black man was that he was anxious at all times to rape a white woman. Leibowitz was so overcome that he took off his straw hat and punched a hole through it. But for all its historical significance, the Scottsboro story is at its core a riveting drama about the struggles of nine innocent young men for their lives-and a cautionary tale about using human beings as fodder for political causes. All you Nigger bastards unload.' He had carefully considered how the jury would see every aspect of the trial, but one: himself. He went to the courthouse and called the governor. 2. If I didn't make up the story then we would have to go to jail. Who coached you to say that? Beside him, in an unmarked grave, lies his brother, Andy. Marion Carter CARTER: I think at that moment Sam Leibowitz realized that she may have been uneducated. But Leibowitz' motion now forced him to confront his own doubts about the case. Scottsboro: An American Tragedy Film Description In March 1931, a freight train crowded with homeless and jobless hoboes left Chattanooga, Tennessee, bound for points west. Sylvia Thompson  By 1941, the Alabama Parole board met three times; each time refusing to free the prisoners. To brutalize you. Word Document File. Get the latest on new films and digital content, learn about events in your area, and get your weekly fix of American history. And it's the classic reaction of people trapped in a world where they know they're not gonna be believed; where they have no resources. As Alabama began the fourth trial of the Scottsboro defendants, he stepped aside in favor of a Southern attorney. Because Haywood Patterson was the exemplar of the bad Negro. This time, it voted to parole 31 year-old Charlie Weems after 12 years in Kilby. Hundreds more gathered outside. Steve McCarthy The second trial of the Scottsboro defendants had been moved to Decatur, a town in Northeast, Alabama.