The Scottsboro Tragedy

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The Beginnings of Equality

"All men are created equal." This phrase has been in our country's history since before we were successful in becoming a country of our own. Yet, despite this, we have become hypocrites to the same belief that we were founded upon. Nearly instantaneously that phrase became, "All men are created equal, except blacks, Native Americans, immigrants, and women." So, basically, all white men are created equal was the motto we lived by. Over time we have slowly come to accept others into this equality, but the battles have been long and difficult. One example of this that majorly affected our nation's history was the Scottsboro tragedy that forever changed the way our nation views the equality of blacks in the …show more content…
In the first trial, the boys were convicted guilty completely based upon two white girls' testimonies and the jury's own prejudices. As well as this, the lawyer who was assigned to the boys tried to convince the boys to plead guilty to a crime they did not commit to escape with their lives. This lawyer was unsupportive and did not try very hard to help the boys do well at the trial. During the second trial, they were once again convicted guilty, even though sufficient evidence was found suggesting they could not have raped Victoria and Ruby. As no semen was found in the girls less than an hour after they got off the train, their claim could not be true. Finally, the boys faced an all-white jury, which in the South means an extremely biased and often very racist jury and therefore a predictable but opinion, not fact, based …show more content…
The biggest change that it set in place was the integration of colored and white jury candidates, making verdicts fairer and more likely to reflect the logical conclusion from the evidence presented on convicts who are black or otherwise. This was a massive change for Alabama, as they had never even considered adding blacks to the jury list, and when they were forced to present the jury candidates, their hastily scrawled additions were not convincing to the Supreme Court of the United States. Though they did not desire to mix the jury list, this change was a major advance in the pursuit of equal
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