Scottsboro: An American Tragedy is a documentary film which premiered on US television (PBS) in 2001.
It is an episode of the long-running program American Experience.
Here is some basic information about it:
** Directors: Daniel Anker (1964-2014) and Barak Goodman
** Released on DVD in 2005
** Run time: 84 minutes
This film covers a dark but very important chapter in the history of the United States: the case of the Scottsboro Boys, aka the Scottsboro Nine.
On a list of wrongful convictions in the US, this case deserves a prominent place.
In this film, directors Daniel Anker and Barak Goodman present the case, as it unfolds, step by step.
The story begins on 25 March 1931 when a number of hobos - whites and blacks – are travelling on a freight train in the south of the US.
As the train is rolling though Alabama, a struggle breaks out between the whites and the blacks. The whites lose and they are pushed off the train. Angry and humiliated, they contact a local sheriff who organises a posse.
When the train stops in Paint Rock, the posse surrounds the train and nine black hobos are arrested.
They are not men, only teenagers, The oldest is 19, while the youngest is only 12 or 13.
At this moment, two young white women emerge from the train and claim they were raped by the black hobos. With this claim, the situation turns ugly, because this is Alabama in the 1930s. If a black man is found guilty of raping a white woman, he will get the death sentence.
The two accusers are Victoria Price (1911-1982) and Ruby Bates (1915-1976)
The nine accused are Clarence Norris, Charlie Weems, Haywood Patterson, Ozzie Powell, Willie Robertson, Eugene Williams, Olen Montgomery, Andy Wright, and Roy Wright.
The nine black boys are taken to Scottsboro, the nearest town, where they are placed in the local prison.
In April 1931, they are tried in several extremely fast court cases.
All nine are found guilty. Eight are sentenced to death, while one case ends in a mistrial, because the members of the jury cannot agree on life in prison or death.
This is the first stage in an almost endless legal drama which involves trials and retrials and no less than two landmark rulings by the US Supreme Court.
The first round of trials takes place in Scottsboro in 1931. The second round of trials begins in Decatur in 1933.
To cover this dark chapter of American history, directors Anker and Goodman use old pictures, newspaper clippings, and excerpts from the transcript of the court cases. In a few cases, there is even some archive footage.
The participants
Many persons are interviewed in this film. Some are scholars who have an academic interest in the case, while others are local residents or activists who remember what they saw and heard. A few of them are related to a key figure in the case. Here are the names listed in the order of appearance:
The first group
** Mills Thornton, historian (born 1943)
** James Goodman, historian (born 1965)
** Wayne Flynt, historian (born 1940)
** Dan T. Carter, historian (born 1940)
** Clyde Barclay, Paint Rock resident
** Billy O’Neal, Paint Rock resident
** Bryan Stevenson, attorney (born 1959)
** Frank Grigg, Scottsboro resident
The second group
** Robert Wann, son of local sheriff
** Kwando Kinshasa, historian
** Archie Stewart, Scottsboro resident
** Robin Kelly, historian (born 1962)
** Lloyd Brown, former communist
** Sybil Washington, writer
** Mary Licht, communist organiser
** Perry Bruskin, former activist
The third group
** Robert Leibowitz, son of Samuel Leibowitz
** Atheleyne Banks, Decatur resident
** Van Glasscock, former national guardsman
** George Royer, Decatur resident
** Rose Shapiro, member of the ILD team
** Ed Horton, son of James E. Horton
** Chris Doss, attorney
The American Communist Party took an early interest in this case. The legal wing of the party, International Labor Defense (ILD), volunteered to defend the Scottsboro Boys in court.
This is why the list of names includes a former communist, a communist organiser, a former activist, and a member of the ILD team.
The first ruling of the US Supreme Court says the boys had not been given a proper defense and therefore they had not been given a fair trial in 1931. New trials are ordered and a place of venue is recommended.
In 1933, when the second round of trials begins, the famous New York lawyer Samuel Leibowitz (1893-1978) is asked to defend the boys.
At first, he declines. He does not wish to be associated with the Communist Party, but once he has studied the case, he decides to accept the task.
This is why the list of names includes Robert Leibowitz, who is the son of Samuel Leibowitz.
Judge James E. Horton (1878-1973) presides over the first case of the second round that is held in 1933.
This is why the list of names includes Ed Horton, who is the son of James Horton.
The second ruling of the US Supreme Court says the authorities of Alabama have broken the law, because all jurors are white. No black jurors are used in this state. The state of Alabama is told to change the juror selection system and new trials are ordered.
The consequences of the case
When you look at the case from one angle, it is long and complicated, because there are many trials and because they took place in local courts and federal courts.
When you look at it from another angle, it is quite simple: the defendants were innocent and the convictions were wrong.
The Alabama authorities are prepared to believe the accusations made by the two young women and equally prepared to believe the nine black boys are guilty as charged.
The nine boys claim they are innocent. They refuse to admit that they have done something wrong. They insist the prosecution never had a case.
All nine Scottsboro Boys spent six years in prison, for a crime they did not commit, and some of them spent even more than that.
While four were paroled in 1937, five were kept in jail. While another four were released during or after World War II, one of them was never pardoned: Haywood Patterson, who died of cancer in 1952.
Few of the nine boys managed to lead a stable and happy life after their release from prison.
We can understand why.
Perhaps the exception to the general rule is Clarence Norris, who was pardoned in 1976 and who died in 1989, aged 76. He was the last of the Scottsboro Boys.
Even then, the case was not quite over.
In 2013, the state of Alabama decided to give a full pardon to all nine and Governor Robert Bentley issued an official statement in which he said:
“While we could not take back what happened to the Scottsboro Boys 80 years ago, we found a way to make it right moving forward. The pardons granted to the Scottsboro Boys today are long overdue… Today, the Scottsboro Boys have finally received justice.”
Heroes and victims
There are heroes and victims in this case. The Scottsboro Boys were the victims of a system which did not offer “freedom, equality, and justice for all.”
The heroes are those who believed the nine boys, when they claimed that they were innocent, and those who tried to help them prove it.
While they deserve to be praised for this, we should still remember what one person in this film points out.
Almost everyone who tried to help the boys had an ulterior motive:
** The Communist Party wanted to use the case to improve its standing in the US population.
** Samuel Leibowitz worked hard for his clients. While he could not secure an acquittal, he did save them from the electric chair. But even this lawyer had an angle: he used this case to improve his standing in the legal community.
There are also
some villains in this case, but perhaps it is not necessary to mention their names again.
Ratings and reviews
Scottsboro: An American Tragedy is an important film.
If you are interested in modern history - in particular the struggle for freedom and human rights - it is definitely something for you.
Since it is about a series of tragic cases, I cannot say you will enjoy it, but I think you will appreciate it.
The story of the Scottsboro Nine deserves to be told, and in this film, it is done well. In less than 90 minutes, directors Anker and Goodman cover the case in great detail.
They place the case in its historical context.
They have located and interviewed numerous persons who have something relevant to say.
What do reviewers say about this film?
Here are some results:
74 percent = Meta
75 percent = IMDb
67 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)
87 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)
On Amazon there are at the moment five ratings of this product, but there are no reviews.
The average rating is five stars, which corresponds to a rating of 100 percent.
I understand the numerous positive reviews and I agree with them.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
PS # 1. There is a movie about the Scottsboro Nine, a historical drama, which premiered in 2006.
It is written and directed by Terry Green. Timothy Hutton plays the role of the famous New York lawyer Samuel Leibowitz. The title is Heaven Falls.
PS # 2. Barak Goodman is co-director of the documentary film Slay the Dragon which premiered in 2019.
The topic of this film is the US electoral system with special focus on gerrymandering.
REFERENCES
Scottsboro
by Dan T. Carter
(1969) (1979) (2007)
Stories of Scottsboro
by James Goodman
(1994) (1995)
[Dan Carter and James Goodman appear in the film]
Scottsboro and its Legacy
by James R. Acker
(2007)
Remembering Scottsboro
by J. A. Miller
(2009)
Clarence Norris lived long enough to tell the story in his own words
The Last of the Scottsboro Boys
by Clarence Norris and Sybil Washington
(1979) (2001) (2008)
The Man from Scottsboro:
Clarence Norris and the Infamous 1931 Alabama Rape Trial, in His Own Words
by Clarence Norris and Kwando Kinshasa
(1997) (2003)
[Sybil Washington and Kwando Kinshasa appear in the film]
Courtroom:
The Story of Samuel S. Leibowitz
by Quentin Reynolds
(1950 = hardcover)
(1999 = paperback)
*****
The Scottsboro Boys
also known as
The Scottsboro Nine
*****
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