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how it started
It started off as nine black boys on a train looking for work...
Olen Montgomery (age 18)
Clarence Norris (age 19)
Haywood Patterson (age 18)
Ozie Powell (age 16)
Willie Roberson (age 16)
Charlie Weems (age 16)
Eugene Williams (age 13)
Brothers Andy (age 19) and Roy Wright (age 13)
When suddenly one of the young ones of the group was stepped on by a white man and then they started to fight. -
How it started: continued...
After the fight broke out and aouthorities get them as they get off of the train the are arrested for assult and attempt at murder. Then suddenly Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, two white women, appear and accuse all nine of the black boys for raping both of them. they then are arrested for rape of two white women and taken to jail. -
Period: to
Scottsboro Boys
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What happened next
News of the crime spreads throughout the country, meanwhile at the jailhouse a lynch mob gathers outside demamding the boys all be hung. -
The trial journey begins...
The first trial begins at the Johnson County Courthouse -
Testimonies
Victoria Price testifies that six of the black boys raped her, and six raped Ruby Bates. Clarence Norris, Charlie Weems, Haywood Patterson, Olen Montgomery, Ozie Powell, Willie Roberson, Eugene Williams and Andy Wright are tried, convicted and sentenced to death by electrocution. -
Waiting for thee next trial
The executions of the eight defendants are stayed, pending their appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court. -
The new trials begin
The Alabama Supreme Court upholds the convictions of seven of the boys. One of the youngest, Eugene Williams, is granted a new trial. -
Supreme Court decision is made
In Patterson v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court reverses the convictions. The Court rules that the defendants were denied the right to counsel, which violated their right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. The cases are remanded to the lower court. -
Another trial down
Haywood Patterson's second trial begins before another all-white jury. Ruby Bates testifies that neither she nor Victoria Price had been raped on the Southern Railway. -
Outside people protest to help free boys
In one of many protests across the country, thousands march in Washington D.C. to protest the Alabama trials. -
More Trials and decisions
The seven oldest boys are tried in front of a new judge and jury. Haywood Patterson and Clarence Norris are sentenced to death. -
The new lawyer
The boys' newest ILD attorney, Samuel Leibowitz, a Jewish lawyer from New York, files for new trials. Ruling unanimously, the Alabama Supreme Court denies his request. -
Dirty court secrets
Before the U.S. Supreme Court, Leibowitz argues that blacks had been excluded from the Scottsboro jury pool because of their race. Leibowitz claims that the black names currently on the jury rolls had been forged in after the fact. -
First black on the jury
Creed Conyer becomes the first post-Reconstruction black person to sit on an Alabama grand jury in the remanded case. -
The secret meeting
Alabama Attorney General Thomas Knight meets secretly with Samuel Leibowitz. Knight offers to drop the charges against three of the boys and offers the other three a sentence of no more than ten years. Leibowitz reluctantly agrees, but the deal goes sour when Knight dies unexpectedly. -
Haywood's case in the air
The Alabama Supreme Court upholds the conviction of Haywood Patterson. -
The final trial
The Alabama Pardon Board declines to pardon any of the boys. The four remaining defendants refuse to admit their guilt to Governor Graves. Angered by their hostility toward him, Governor Graves denies all of the boys' pardon applications.
