Summary Of The Scottsboro Boys

Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, based her book off the Scottsboro trial, a great American Tragedy. There are many similarities between the two -  from setting, the accused, the defendants, and the cases themselves.  When you delve a little deeper, these two stories, fiction and nonfiction, are greatly intertwined.

In Scottsboro, Alabama, March 9, 1931 nine African american boys, Olen Montgomery, Clarence Norris, Haywood Patterson, Ozie Powell, Willie Roberson, Charles Weems, Eugene Williams, Andy Wright, and Roy Wright were incriminated of rapeing two white women on the subway. As they were accused of raping Ruby Bates and Victoria Price they were put on trial. This trail was long and unfair.

Functionalist perspective is a perspective where everyone contributes to society. There is an approach that emphasizes the contributions made by each part of the society. In this film I made a connection, a functionalist perspective where David (Bud Parker) contributes to help put out the tree that was caught on fire. He contributed to help the fire-fighters because in Pleasantville, there were no such thing as ‘fires’. So when he helped them out, by showing them how to use the water hose he became a hero to the society. Later that day when people heard about his outrageous action they wanted in on how he knew about the fire and what to do about it. Another functionalist perspective I had was when later in the

April 6, 1931, the trials for the Scottsboro boys begin(Uschan 16). The boys were represented by Milo C. Moody and Stephen Roddy who were only given twelve days to prepare for the trials. Stephen was and unpaid, unprepared real estate attorney, and Milo was a forgetful seventy year old local attorney who hadn’t tried a case in a long time (“San Marcos” line 13). The trails were completely unorganized and false information was stated throughout the whole thing. The cross examination of Victoria Price lasted minutes and the defense offered very little information to the judge. Six out of the nine boys ended up denying the rape while 3 admitted to it. Even though the three men didn’t rape the women, because of beatings and threats, they admitted to the gang rape. By the time the trail had ended 8 out of the 9 boys were convicted and sentenced to death. Since one of the Scottsboro boys was only thirteen, he was considered too young to be tried as an adult (“UMKC” par. 6-7).

In this film, each character is given a name upon how they act and what clique they interact with. A functionalist perceptive might say that each type of character has their own meaning or impact to society and without them society will become dysfunctional. Our first character named Andrew Clark on the wrestling team played the status of the “Athlete”, a person who is proficient in sports and other forms of physical exercise. Through a Functionalist perspective they would say that sports help Social systems maintain balance and operate efficiently. They help by providing opportunities for conflict management and release, Socialization, individual of different diversity to interact, and social mobility. Since Clark is participating in wrestling he is contributing to society by playing the sport because without “Athlete’s” there would be no Sports to play. Because it sport contributes to society it makes it a working/functioning part. John Bender played the status of the “Criminal”, a person who has committed a crime. He is deviant, and violates society formal laws. He is seen in the movie, disrespecting the teacher, having marijuana in his locker, and breaking rules. Functionalist Perspectives on crime is that its normal and a necessary part of society. It contributes by creating social unity, society learns not to do this behavior. A functionalist perspective on this type of character would be that he has a function in society.

In 1931 two white women were riding the train along with the other men (the blacks and whites). When the fight broke out the blacks had won and let the white men off the train, however when the white men got off the train, they reported the incident to the local sheriff and that’s when the train stopped in Scottsboro, Alabama and everyone on the train was arrested. That’s how it all started in Scottsboro, Alabama and it was just the beginning of the case. The two women on the train Victoria Price and Ruby Bates were about to be in serious trouble because Ruby Bates was a minor and in that time it was a federal crime to take a minor across state lines for the reason of prostitution. The only way they could get of trouble in their situation was to say the black men raped them. In the time of 1931 rape was sanctioned by death. Usually they would’ve responded by a lynching, which was when they hung someone who was suspected of a crime, but for this case the citizens of Scottsboro wanted to hold a trial instead. The trial wasn’t fair at all because the outcome had been decided before the trial even

In 1930’s Maycomb Alabama, a young woman is stirring up a sleepy town by accusing an African American man of rape. Mayella Ewell, a poor white woman has wrongly accused Tom Robinson of sexually assaulting her in her own home. Her testimony, as well as her fathers’, have gaping holes in them. Their stories do not coincide, and it is even implied that Mayella’s father may have been sexually abusing her.(DBQ Mayella page 15 Chapters 18 and 20) The lack of sufficient evidence and Tom Robinson’s claim that Mayella had made advances toward him should have been enough for the jury to find Tom not guilty, but unfortunately, that was not the case. Instead, the jury believed Mayella’s deceitful testimony, and Tom was sent to jail, which ultimately led to his death. Mayella used her position in society to manipulate the court, and dispose of the only evidence of her mistake. Mayella Ewell is powerful as defined by class, gender, and especially race.

Compare and contrast the infamous events and trials relating to Leo Frank (in 1913), the Scottsboro Nine (in 1931), and Emmett Till (in 1955).

There were several trials held throughout the case of the Scottsboro Boys. Most of them were unfair and obviously conducted with the odds stacked against the boys. The testimonies given by the two girls often did not match up. Victoria Price spent the most time on the stand, and on the rare occasion that Ruby Bates testified, most of what she said was disregarded because it contradicted or changed Price’s story. It was concluded that anything Bates said was no good because she was dimwitted and could not keep her story straight.

During the early nineteen hundreds many people especially in the south were often convicted of crimes for no other reason than their skin color and contrary to many ideas about our court system, we have not always been the most honest and unbiased people. One prime example of this is the case of the Scottsboro Boys and how they were accused of rape and had to go to court numerous times, almost everytime ending in the death sentence. The evidence in the case clearly points towards the innocence of the Scottsboro boys, evidence such as unclear stories from the girls, lack of bruises and marks indicating assault as well as a previous history of prostitution from both of the girls. This evidence helps to prove that Charles Weems and the Scottsboro boys were innocent and wrongly accused and convicted.

As stated in the sixth amendment, criminal defendants have the right to counsel by a jury and a lawyer which, are the defense attorneys. Defense attorneys represent children in court and are there for all the stages of the proceedings. They help with determining whether there is “sufficient evidence to warrant filing a formal petition” (Siegel and Welsh 353). The defense attorneys also help with the ruling and disposition of the case. The defense attorneys are there to help the child better his life by seeking out opportunities for alternative plans instead of jail. Although, the defense attorneys are there to help the child out a lot of the time the child does not seem to confide in state appointed attorneys; they believe that the state

the prisoners were lucky enough to escape the being lynched when they were moved into Scottsboro. In this trial, nine young, black boys were charged with the rape of two white girls while on a train. This case was a major source of controversy in the 1930’s. “Despite testimony by doctors who had examined the women that no rape had occurred, the all- white jury convicted the nine, and all but the youngest, who was 12 years old were sentenced to death” (“Scottsboro”). The boys’ lawyer, Samuel Leibowitz, did not even get assigned to the case until the first day of the trial. “If he could show a jury that these nine boys were innocent, as the record indicated, the jury would surely free them. To Leibowitz, that was simple!” (Chalmers 35). However, it was not that simple. Many white citizens would not change their minds about

Every year the retail stores open up early on Friday after Thanksgiving for amazing Christmas shopping deals. A lot of the merchandise in the participating stores becomes 30%, 40%, or even 50+% discounted. For the consumers that prefer to save money have no problem in participating in what is called “Black Friday.” Last year instead of the sells starting on Friday the participating stores started their sells on Thanksgiving around 6pm. This year the retail stores have decided to start their sells even earlier, as early as 6am on Thanksgiving sale.

A strength of functionalism is that it suggests that individuals can climb up the social ladder and can become successful. The whole ideology of meritocracy is that anyone, no matter what their background, language, gender or race, can achieve anything if they work hard enough to get it. Functionalism provides an explanation for inequality simply because people are discriminated against in society for their accent, background etc. This means that people with inequalities automatically go down the hierarchy, or worse, they are born into the bottom end of the social ladder. So in

　　According to Merriam Webster (2016) functionalism is defined as the functions of society that is beneficial or necessary for the survival of that society. For instance, the garbage collectors, the construction workers, the businessmen, the chef’s and the teachers all have a part to play in the survival of the society. They all have a specific task or skill that can contribute in helping the society in a productive way and this is what functionalism is all about. Individuals having different ways in which they can assist the society for its own