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.