Alabama Governor Robert Bentley Ceremoniously Signs Scottsboro Boys Pardon at the Museum in Scottsboro

The Scottsboro Defendants with their Attorney Samuel Liebowitz. Alabama National Guard flank the defendants on the left and right. University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law presentation of the case which changed American Jurisprudence: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scottsboro/scottsb.htm

 

AP-Video: The Scottsboro Boys Pardon, Decades in the Making

 

 

"The governor officially signed Senate Bill 97, legislation that allows for posthumous pardons, on April 11 so it could meet its deadline. The defendants known as the Scottsboro Boys still have to be officially pardoned by the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles. The governor also signed House Joint Resolution 20, a resolution sponsored by Representative John Robinson that formally exonerates the Scottsboro Boys." http://www.theclarion.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6082:governor-bentley-signs-legislation-exonderating-the-scottsboro-boys&catid=42:clarion-rotation-stories&Itemid=142

 

Huntsville Times - Al.com:

"SCOTTSBORO, Alabama - Nine boys lined the center aisle of Joyce Chapel United Methodist Church, each waiting his turn to walk to the alter rail.
One-by-one the black youths moved forward, some shuffling their feet, nervous at the thought of speaking in front of so many people, others stepping confidently to the task at hand.
At the rail, each would light one of nine white candles, then turn to the people crowding the pews and announce in whose memory it was lit." http://blog.al.com/breaking/2013/04/the_black_and_white_of_the_sco.html

"Clarence Norris Jr. was able to fill in some pieces of his childhood this morning when Gov. Robert Bentley signed historic legislation posthumously exonerating the nine young men known as the Scottsboro Boys, one of whom was Norris' father, a man he never knew." http://blog.al.com/breaking/2013/04/post_1132.html

(Fair Use - educational not for profit)"al.com" photo by/Bob Gathnay

Slide Show of event: http://photos.al.com/huntsville-times/2013/04/scottsboro_boys_legislation_1.html

 

Early Scottsboro Boys Museum history photo-video

 

(Photo video by Garry Morgan)

Video of the Pardon Event


(You Tube video by Left in Alabama)

Scottsboro Boys Pardon Likely to be Signed This Week (In Scottsboro?) An Example of "White Guilt" or Republican Grandstanding?

{fair use-Gov Bentley's Face Book photo, cropped)

 

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley is likely to sign Scottsboro Boys Pardon this week in Scottsboro sources report.

Update Apr 13, 2013: Scottsboro's Daily Sentinel reports Gov. Bentley will be in Scottsboro Thursday, Apr. 18 to ceremoniously sign the bill. The local paper also reports Jesse Jackson may also be in town for the signing.

 

"Jeremy King, a spokesman for Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, said he expects the bill to be signed this week allowing the posthumous pardons, reversing convictions that became a symbol of racial injustice in a case that led to the end of black exclusion from juries in the South." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-08/alabama-pardons-scottsboro-boys-82-years-after-injustice.html

 

(photo, fair use - http://wowcatherine.tumblr.com/image/44615443692 )

 Director of the Scottsboro Boys Museum, Sheila Washington, announces introduction to the Scottsboro Boys Act at the Alabama Statehouse. Catherine Schreiber Productions blog: http://wowcatherine.tumblr.com/page/2  

 

Dr. Shelby Steele describes "white guilt": "Steele believes that the use of victimization is the greatest hindrance for black Americans. In his view, white Americans see blacks as victims to ease their guilty conscience, while blacks attempt to turn their status as victims into a kind of currency that will purchase nothing of real or lasting value. Therefore, he claims, blacks must stop "buying into this zero-sum game" by adopting a "culture of excellence and achievement" without relying on "set-asides and entitlements.^{" "} Steele, Shelby (2006-05-02). White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era. Harper Collins.  http://www.law.uc.edu/sites/default/files/fcj1.1.steele%20reviewed%20by%20ryan.pdf

About Dr. Steele, from Stanford University: http://www.hoover.org/fellows/10347

 

The question remains, what will the pardon act accomplish; does it create a race relations education program in the state; does it provide adequate criminal indigent defense funding? The answer is no.

http://arklite.blogspot.com/2012/12/watch-for-snakes-particularly-in-our.html

 

Alabama Republicans claim they know what is best for women: http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/02/07/1552611/alabama-trap-laws/?mobile=nc

 

Will Alabama Republicans continue their efforts to destroy the Voting Rights Act and Public Education, the great equalizer, in Alabama?

Civil Rights Attorneys file suit to protect Voting Rights: http://www.lawyerscommittee.org/projects/voting_rights/page?id=0073

  

Days of Remembrance

"The United States Congress established the Days of Remembrance as our nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust and created the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as a permanent living memorial to the victims. Holocaust Remembrance Day is Monday, April 8, 2013."  http://www.ushmm.org/remembrance/dor/

2013 Days of Remembrance Theme

Never Again: Heeding the Warning Signs

"Seventy-five years ago, momentous changes were occurring in Central Europe. Few understood the historic significance of the times, and fewer still saw these events as precursors to what would become one of humanity’s darkest hours."

"By 1938 the Nazis had been in power for five years, during which they systematically removed Jews from public life in Germany, stripping them of their rights as citizens and severely limiting their employment opportunities. In that pivotal year, the year before Germany invaded Poland and ignited World War II, the treatment of Jews took a dramatic turn for the worse. With the German Reich’s annexation of Austria in March and its incorporation of the Czech border areas—which the nations of the world failed to prevent at the Munich conference in September—an additional 200,000 Jews fell under Nazi rule and became targets of intense persecution, humiliation, and violence." Learn more at:
http://www.ushmm.org/remembrance/dor/years/detail.php?content=2013

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Online Exhibitions

These special online exhibitions present new subjects and also extend the reach of Museum public programs and special exhibitions.

• Rescue and Resistance
• Children
• U.S.
• Antisemitism
• Persecution
• Aftermath
• Camps

• Ghettos
• Propaganda
• Documentation and Evidence
• Remembrance/Commemoration/Legacy
• Film
• General Reference

For more information:  http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/