Historical Event at The Jackson County Alabama Courthouse, Advancements of a Nation and People, History of the Scottsboro Boys Trials - 1931 - 2011 - 80 Years of History

 Jackson County Courthouse as it appeared in 1931, "Corbis" photo courtesy of Steve Kennamer, taken in April 1933.

 The Scottsboro defendants in Scottsboro behind the old Jackson County Jail under guard by the Alabama National Guard. Photo April 1931, The Progressive Age.

Rare photo of inside the courtroom at the Jackson County Courthouse,Jury Venire, April 1931. Photo Courtesy of Steve Kennamer.

Friday, March 25th, 2011, 10:00AM, a ceremony began surrounding the bench of Judge A.E. Hawkins, the racist Jackson County Circuit Court Judge whose rulings resulted in one of the most heinous miscarriages of justice in our nations history, "The Scottsboro Boys Trials." 

80 years to the day of the arrest of the Scottsboro defendants, 9 young men caught in the struggle of the Great Depression and a cultural war of racial discrimination and legal injustice of Jim Crow America. March the 25th 1931 began one of the most tragic events in American legal and cultural history lasting 45 years when Governor George Wallace of Alabama pardoned the last Scottsboro defendants, Clarence Norris in October of 1976. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scottsboro/scottsb.htm

Why you may ask is this a historical occasion, the Honorable Victoria Roberts, Presiding Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, a Black Woman. Judge Roberts sat behind the "bench" which Judge A.E. Hawkins presided in the "Scottsboro Boys" trials and told the story of the "Scottsboro Boys" trials and what the case represents to United States Jurisprudence today.

 This ceremony celebrates the advancements and achievements of Race Relations in Scottsboro, Alabama and our nation, it celebrates and memorializes the sacrifices of the young 9 Scottsboro defendants, it celebrates and memorializes the sacrifices of those who gave their lives so that Civil Rights and Racial Equality is the rule of our laws instead of the exception, it celebrates education and justice as a tool to overcome racial prejudice. Story from the Daily Sentinel:  http://thedailysentinel.com/news/article_0b87f4d4-5729-11e0-94e8-001cc4c03286.html

A plaque exists on the south side of the Jackson County Courthouse Square telling a short story of the trials. This was the back of the program dedication ceremony describing the plaque. Click on the image for an expanded view.

 This week, April 4 thru April 8 2011, 80 years after the same days of 1931,  marks the conviction and death sentence of Clarence Norris and Charlie Weems in their trial; Haywood Patterson's trial, sentenced to death; Andy Wright, Willie Roberson, Ozie Powell, Olen Montgomery and Eugene Williams trial, sentenced to death.

Roy Wright, alleged to be age 12 ( Evidence at the Decatur trials demonstrated he was 13, a juvenile at arrest.) was tried as an adult in a seperate trial, the jury could not reach a verdict due to his youth, a hung jury by one vote.  http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scottsboro/sb_acct.html

One day I pray and hope that we as a nation may be able to accept and judge all people based on their personal character, not the color of their skin or cultural background related to race, creed, sex or religious preference. Unfortunately, as a nation and culture we are not to that point at this time in our history but we have made advancements thru the sacrifices of a few. We as a people and nation have further to travel in the most deadly of wars, the "Culture War" for the souls of our citizens.


May God grant us the power to overcome racial prejudice. Education is the key to overcoming the ignorance of racial prejudice. Education is what the Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center represents, it is our mission and represents our future. As history goes, the story has just begun,

A Story of Jim Crow Injustice

                                              Ms. Recy Taylor today.

Ms. Rosa Parks was sent to Abbeville, Al. by the local NAACP to investigate the rape of Ms. Taylor.

 News articles about the 1944 rape by seven whites who were never prosecuted for the rape of Ms. Recy Taylor.

The story of Ms. Recy Taylor is a story of Jim Crow America, a story of no justice and of tyranny. The story of Ms. Taylor must be told so that we are reminded of a period in our history where racial injustice was the rule and practice. The tyranny of racial oppression can never be allowed to exist and those who perpetrate racial discrimination must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana

In Ms Taylor's case 2 all white male grand juries refused to indite the rapist. Then, as an additional indignity she was harassed by the police who should have been helping her.

Ms. Taylor's husband was offered $100 from each of the rapists as a proposed settlement. This offer was apparently approved by the local legal system.

There were seven men who openly admitted to the community and the Grand Jury that they had raped Ms. Taylor. The Grand Jury refused to return an indictment. This statement by one of the rapists was reported in local media accounts, "N***er- ain't $600 enough for raping your wife?"

"In her book "At the Dark End of the Street" Danielle McGuire writes about the rape in 1944 of a twenty-four-year-old mother and sharecropper, Recy Taylor, who strolled toward home after an evening of singing and praying at the Rock Hill Holiness Church in Abbeville, Alabama. Seven white men, armed with knives and shotguns, ordered the young woman into their green Chevrolet, raped her, and left her for dead. The president of the local NAACP branch office sent his best investigator and organizer to Abbeville. Her name was Rosa Parks. In taking on this case, Parks launched a movement that ultimately changed the world."
"Dark End of the Street" photo gallery: http://atthedarkendofthestreet.com/the-book/photo-gallery/

"Alabama State Rep. Dexter Grimsley personally apologized to Recy and her family for Alabama's failure to prosecute her rapists and deny her justice all of these years. Rep. Grimsley expressed his intent to introduce a House resolution calling for a state apology to Recy Taylor before the current session is out." http://www.examiner.com/feminism-in-dallas/alabama-may-finally-acknowledge-jim-crow-era-rape-of-recy-taylor    http://m.blackvoices.com/blog/bvblackspin/2011/3/22/southern-rape-victim-recy-taylor-deserves-more-than-an-apology/?p=1&icid=bv_bspin_art_prv_p

Tell the Alabama state legislature to support Rep. Grimsley's apology resolution click on this link to sign the petition.

Eightieth Year Commemoration of the Case We Call The Scottsboro Boys.

On March the 25th, 1931, nine young black men were arrested in Paint Rock, Alabama, Jackson County, while hoboing on a west bound freight train. The 9 young men were arrested for the crime of rape, a false charge which was compounded by a faulty system of  justice in a racist society. The trials and the case of these 9 young men is referred to as The Scottsboro Boys Trial.

The Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center, 428 West Willow Street, Scottsboro, Alabama will commemorate the sacrifice of these nine young men on March the 25th, 2011. The commemoration ceremony will begin at 1PM and continue until 5PM. Dr. Dan T. Carter, author of "Scottsboro, A Tragedy of the American South," will be the featured guest speaker at 4PM.

At 10AM Judge Victoria A. Roberts is scheduled to speak at the Jackson County Courthouse concerning how the Scottsboro Boys Case has changed the course of history in America's courtrooms, according to an article in the weekend edition of Scottsboro's Daily Sentinel. Link:  http://thedailysentinel.com/news/article_41adf84c-51a7-11e0-98db-001cc4c03286.html The news article also lists Mr. Lee Sentell of the Alabama Department of Tourism as a speaker at 1 PM, followed by Ms. Catherine Schreiber, one of the producers of the Scottsboro Boys Play. Check out the Daily Sentinel link above for more information.

A reception will follow at the Comfort Inn on John T. Reid Parkway at 6:30PM, according to the Daily Sentinel, the public is invited.

The above program is sponsored by the tax payers of the City of Scottsboro, Jackson County Alabama and the State of Alabama. Thank you, City Council, County Commission and State Legislative Delegation for this years contributions and for making this program possible.

Update Published 16 June 2011, "Southern Spaces" article by Dr. Ellen Spears, University of Alabama, "Rights Still Being Righted": Scottsboro Eighty Years Later  http://www.southernspaces.org/2011/rights-still-being-righted-scottsboro-eighty-years-later

Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center Celebrates Black History Month and 1 Year of Operation

DOD-DEOMI Special Observance Art for Black History Month.

The National Theme for Black History month this year is African Americans and the Civil War.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH
February, Black History Month at the Scottsboro Boys Museum & Cultural Center, ‏ 428 W. Willow St., Historic Joyce Chapel, Scottsboro, Alabama.

Saturday, Feb. 5 - Open 10AM-4PM. Special video presentations at 11AM and 2PM on the Scottsboro Boys Case

Saturday, Feb. 12 - Open 10AM-4PM. Special video presentation at 11AM Scottsboro Boys Case; 2PM presentation on African Americans in the Civil War by Garry L. Morgan, U.S. Army Retired, Historian Scottsboro Boys Museum.

Saturday, Feb. 19 - Open 10AM-4PM. Special video presentation at 11AM on the Scottsboro Boys Case. Special presentation by Ms. Sheryl Snodgrass-Caffey at 3PM "THE IMPACT OF THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS' CASES ON CIVIL RIGHTS - - YESTERDAY & TODAY" & "A Bit of Local Civil Rights History"

Saturday, Feb. 26 - Open 10AM-4PM. Special video presentations at 11AM and 2PM on the Scottsboro Boys Case

Black History month program, click for an expanded view of the program.

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Scottsboro's Daily Sentinel Link to the story. Video's attached to the D.S. story. http://thedailysentinel.com/news/article_f9b8b444-2e53-11e0-95f6-001cc4c03286.html

WAAY TV story: http://www.waaytv.com/news/local/story/Black-History-Month-Celebration-In-Scottsboro/OgctwSYtiEmob5QH-G5w4w.cspx

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Ms. Sheila Washington, Founder and Director of the Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center

The Scottsboro Boys under guard at Scottsboro, Alabama March 26, 1931.

Tuesday, February the 1st the Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center in Scottsboro, Alabama began our celebration of Black History Month and 1 year of operation.

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Ms. Marilyn Jones Stamps was our featured speaker. Ms Stamps says, "I have a love for history." Ms. Stamps works with the Department of Tourism in Montgomery. She delivered a moving presentation.

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"We do not have to live in the past...Our heritage is defined by our forfathers." Ms. Stamps related how her father influenced her life. She told of the sacrifices her father made, Prince Albert Jones. One of her fathers quotes was "I'd rather go to jail for something I did not do rather than something I had done."

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Ms. Stamps told the story of how local law enforcement in her home town attempted to keep her father and other black citizens from registering to vote. Another one of her fathers quotes, "Do your best, be diligent, work hard, carry yourself with pride and hold your head up."

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Ms. Stamps closed with Langston Hughes' poem "Freedoms Plow." A remarkable, revealing poem, about sacrifices, struggles and the rights of African Americans. Langston Hughes lived in Jim Crow America, born in 1907, died in 1967. His ashes are interned at the Shomberg Library Center in New York, New York.

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A small part of "Freedoms Plow:"

"...Some were slave hands

Guarding in their hearts the seed of freedom,

But the word was there always:

Freedom."

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"Down into the earth went the plow

In the free hands and the slave hands,

In indentured hands and adventurous hands,

Turning the rich soil went the plow in many hands

That planted and harvested the food that fed

And the cotton that clothed America..."

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A long time ago,

An enslaved people heading toward freedom

Made up a song: Keep Your Hand On The Plow! Hold On!

The plow plowed a new furrowAcross the field of history.

Into that furrow the freedom seed was dropped.

From that seed a tree grew, is growing, will ever grow.

That tree is for everybody,

For all America, for all the world.

May its branches spread and shelter grow

Until all races and all peoples know its shade.

KEEP YOUR HAND ON THE PLOW! HOLD ON!

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Langston Hughes' complete poem may be found at "Old Poetry." http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/12628-Langston-Hughes-Freedom-s-Plow

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A special presentation from our celebration event on Tuesday February 1, 2011 at the Scottsboro Boys Museum & Cultural Center which was attended by 85 persons.

 

WAAY TV video