March 1931

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.

Nine Black teenagers — the youngest 12 years old — were pulled from a freight train in Alabama and charged with raping two white women. All-white juries convicted eight within days; one received a death sentence. The case became an international symbol of Southern racial injustice.

Nine Black teenagers were falsely accused of raping two white women on a train in Alabama and rapidly convicted in a sham trial. The Scottsboro case became an international cause célèbre, drawing massive protest and multiple appeals that produced landmark Supreme Court rulings on due process and the right to counsel.

Nine Black teenagers are falsely accused of rape in Alabama, a landmark of Jim Crow injustice.