Chris Jacobson, The Scottsboro Saga: An Ideology on Trial (1992)

By the 1930s, the frequency of lynching had declined. But many of the same forces behind lynching led to a number of "legal lynchings"--judicial proceedings with only the faintest resemblance to a fair judicial process. One of the most famous legal lynchings was the Scottsboro Trial. In 1931, in the small Alabama community of Scottsboro, nine black teenage boys were arrested and charged with the rape of two white women. The boys were convicted and sentenced to die solely on the untrustworthy testimony of the two women. Jacobson argues that this verdict was pre-ordained by an ideology of white supremacy characterized by racial and sexual stereotypes. Under the white supremacy ideology, black men were envisioned as animalistic, sex-driven rapists who would attempt to assault a white woman at any opportunity.

After the Civil War, Southern communities used lynching as a way to maintain the strict division between whites and blacks. A lynching sent a powerful message-it was both a threat to the black community and a demonstration of power for the white community. By the 1930s however, the practice of lynching was being replaced by a more "legitimate," yet equally dangerous, display of power. Black defendants would be tried with an all-white jury where a guilty outcome was assured.

This paper details the facts of the case and the events of the trial. The author's argument is that the legal system embraced the reigning philosophy of white supremacy. The sex and race of the defendants and alleged victims were more important than what actually occurred. The paper explores the way that the parties, the courts and the media played pre-assigned roles. Despite the defense's efforts to attack the undercurrent of white supremacy head on, white juries convicted the Scottsboro defendants.

 

 

Revised July 23, 2003 (MD)