The Scottsboro Boys In The 1930's

Race, gender, and class play a large part in whom juries believed and whom they did not believe in the Southern courtrooms on the 1930s. The Scottsboro affair was a trail of nine African Americans and two white woman, who falsely accused 9 boys of rape. After years of being freed Norris, one of the Scottsboro boys, said that “Only racism had to do with us going to jail”. Being black was already seen as an issue, hence when the Scottsboro boys were convicted of rape, people jumped on this opportunity to get them locked up and did everything they could to prevent them from getting freed. Equality was the biggest issue that went into the trial. Because of their race, people had no problem with locking them up. In the South, there were racist rankings. If you were black, you were on the bottom. If you were a white (preferably male), you were at the top. Therefore, white people got more respect and authority than black people. Overall class was taken into consideration as …show more content…
Woman were seen less than as white men so biases and stereotypes would impact them in the courtroom. If the white woman were going against white men who had a higher social class, the woman would have probably lost. But if the woman happened to have a higher social class the the white men their gender wouldn’t become an issue because her social class would make up for her “weaker” gender and make her more 'credible'. If the jury was between two white men, the jury would vote based upon who was of the higher class. People who were rich could do no wrong and people who were poor were guilty of most. Regardless of evidence. In the movie, the Scottsboro boys were illiterate, one was blind and one was addicted to alcohol. Ruby Bates and Victoria Price were better off than the boys so this also gave them an advantage. All together race, gender, and class could decide from having a death penalty to walking on