Is Justice Colorblind?

To Kill A Mockingbird, a masterful novel by Harper Lee was heavily influenced by the case of the Scottsboro Boys in 1931. The “Scottsboro Boys” were nine Black teenagers who were falsely accused of raping two White women and spent years seeking justice. The case of the Scottsboro Boys established several precedents for our justice system today. However, even 90 years later the issues of racial justice, depicted in To Kill A Mockingbird and illuminated by the pain of the Scottsboro Boys, continue to plague us.

A case that lasted for over four years and established many precedents in US law was complicated, to say the least, and a brief synopsis of the case will be presented below.

On a train from Memphis to Chattanooga, in 1931, a group of White men attempted to push a group of Black teenagers off the train. An altercation ensued that resulted in the teenagers warding off the White men. In the nearest town, Scottsboro, the humiliated men filed a complaint with the local police, and the Black teenagers were arrested. Subsequently, two White women who were on the train accused the teenagers of rape. And so began the case of the Scottsboro Boys, which would last for over four years.

While the accused teenagers were in jail, an angry lynch mob formed to attack them and the National Guard was called out to defuse the mob. In April 1931, Eight of the nine defendants were found guilty by an all-White jury, despite a lack of medical evidence, and were sentenced to death. Upon appeal, the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed the ruling for 7 of the 9 boys. In November 1932, the US Supreme Court overturned the ruling, citing a violation of the teenagers’ rights under the 14th Amendment. One of a few things the 14th Amendment stated, was that the people were owed by the states the same rights they were due per federal law. This entitled the Scottsboro Boys to an attorney, as was afforded to them under the 6th Amendment. Such a decision established a precedent that is observed to this day. Overturning the ruling didn’t acquit the Scottsboro Boys, it just sent them to the lower courts again.

In the second trial, the teenagers were defended by a renowned New York City trial lawyer. During the trial, one of the accusers recanted and medical evidence once again suggested neither women were raped. Despite that, another all-white jury sentenced the oldest of the teenagers to death.  However, the judge presiding over the case suspended the sentence and authorized a new trial, losing his re-election bid the following year as a result. Once again, an all-White jury found the defendant guilty, and the following appeal went to the Alabama Supreme Court, which denied a request for a new trial. In January 1935, The US Supreme Court again overturned the decision, citing that an all-White jury did not represent a “jury of one’s peers,” as laid out in the 6th Amendment. This established yet another precedent, that required more diverse juries.

In 1936, Haywood Patterson was convicted of rape and sentenced to 75 years in jail. Ozie Powell was acquitted of rape but got 20 years for assaulting an officer. Clarence Norris had his death sentence converted to a life sentence. Andrew Wright and Charlie Weems were convicted and were sentenced to 99 and 105 years respectively. Willie Roberson, Olen Montgomery, Eugene Williams, and Roy Wright, all had charges dropped. Those who had been convicted were later pardoned posthumously.

Harper Lee was clearly influenced by the case of the Scottsboro Boys, as seen in the common themes including a lack of racial equality, injustice, and inherent racism. In To Kill A Mockingbird, a Black man was falsely accused of raping a White woman, despite the absence of any medical evidence. He was tried and denied justice by an all-white jury. He was under threat of being lynched by an angry mob. He finally died within the prison system, as he didn’t believe justice would be served to a Black man in the South. 

The accusation of rape would give free rein to extralegal lynch mobs to try to exact justice on the defendant, much like the lynch mob outside of Tom Robinson’s jail in To Kill A Mockingbird. While the number of lynchings had declined significantly in the 1930s, as White southerners realized that they could falsely accuse a Black man of rape, knowing he would be indicted and put to death, a legal lynching.

Analyzing both the experiences of the Scottsboro Boys and Tom allows for a more profound understanding of the deeply rooted racism in this country. Even today, 90 years later, the justice system continues to disproportionately target Black Americans. Even the Civil Rights Act, which came too late to repair all the damage that had been done, didn’t really put a stop to racism. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, one in three Black boys born today can expect to go to jail at some point in their life. As per The Sentencing Project, an organization devoted to reform in the mentalities of Americans, Black men are disadvantaged in the legal system due to “Policies and Practices[,]...Implicit Bias[,]...[and] Structural Disadvantage[.]” The NAACP claims that Black people are incarcerated at a rate five times that of White people.

As we review the horrors endured by the Scottsboro Boys 90 years ago, it becomes easy for people to forget that incidents such as these are still commonplace. 30 years ago began the incident of the Central Park 5, finally resolved just a matter of years ago. Like the Scottsboro Boys, these teenagers, boys of color, ranging in age between 14-16, were accused of rape and assault of a White woman who was jogging in Central Park, New York City. Unlike with the Scottsboro Boys or Tom Robinson, the white woman was raped, assaulted, and placed into a coma for 12 days at the hands of a fully grown man from Puerto Rico. After intense interrogation by the police, these boys admitted to the crime, despite medical evidence suggesting otherwise. The teenagers were tried twice, found guilty, and all served anything between 6 to 13 years in prison. As the trials were unfolding there was a campaign from Donald Trump among others, to bring back the death penalty to put these teenagers to death, eerily similar to the horrors above of the mid-20th century, reflective of a modern-day lynch mob. In 2002, the truth came out, the charges against these boys were vacated, and they subsequently sued the city for malicious prosecution and racial discrimination. Only in 2014 however, was the lawsuit settled, the city paying $41 million in total, and the state paying $3.9 million in 2016, to the 5 people now in their 40s. However, the city admitted to no wrongdoing in the settlement.

It becomes clear after all this, that the racism to which Haywood, Ozie, Clarence, Andrew, Charlie, Willie, Olen, Eugene, and Roy were subject, is the same Tom experiences, all of this 90 years ago. But it is also the same racism that painted Korey, Yusef, Antron, Raymond, and Kevin as rapists and criminals 30 years ago. And yet, again and again, it is the basis upon which people are trapped in the system. Based on this, can we really say, that justice is colorblind?