Existing comment:
Letter from "Miss South Carolinian" to President Roosevelt, April 10, 1933.
"Since it may be in your power..."
"I don't know whether I am doing a right deed as to plead to you. But I do know that I am all right to plead for my race... I am a Southern colored girl in New York."
-- Miss South Carolinian, April 10, 1933
Clarence Norris, Charlie Weems, Haywood Patterson, Ozie Powell, Willie Robertson, Eugene Williams, Olen Montgomery, Andy Wright, and Ray Wright were known as the "Scottsboro Boys." In 1931, the nine African Americans were tried and convicted of assault and rape in Alabama by all-white juries within two weeks. Eight were sentenced to death. In this letter to Franklin Roosevelt, "Miss South Carolinian" asked for the President's help.
The initial speedy trials, the young age of the defendants, the racial bias of the juries, and the severity of the sentences led to arguments that the defendants never received fair trails and a movement to free them. Their case went to the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled they were denied the right to counsel, violating their right to due process under the 14th Amendment. Eventually, their sentences were commuted, and charges against four were dropped, but their lives were forever changed as most spent years in jail. On November 21, 2013, posthumous pardons were issued by the state of Alabama to Charlie Weems, Andy Wright, and Haywood Patterson. |