Scottsboro Boys: Nine Black Teenagers Sentenced to Death on False Charges

On March 25, 1931, nine Black teenagers, Haywood Patterson, Clarence Norris, Charlie Weems, Ozie Powell, Willie Roberson, Eugene Williams, Andy Wright, Roy Wright, and Olen Montgomery, were removed from a freight train in Alabama and accused by white women Victoria Price and Ruby Bates of rape. All nine were tried within two weeks; eight received death sentences. The trial lasted one day for some defendants. The case became an international cause célèbre. Ruby Bates later recanted her accusation entirely.