The Scottsboro Boys in Their Own Words: Selected Letters, 1931-1950 - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786472049 ISBN 13: 9780786472048

Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2014

Synopsis

This is a collection of letters written by the nine African American defendants in the infamous March 1931 Scottsboro, Alabama, rape case. Though most of the defendants were barely literate and all were teenagers when incarcerated, over the course of almost two decades in prison they learned the rudiments of effective letter writing and in doing so forcefully expressed a wide range of perspectives on the falsity of the charges against them as their incarceration became a cause celebre both in the United States and internationally.

Central to this book is the chronologically structured presentation of letters (1931-1950), including some correspondence from attorneys and members of Scottsboro support committees. The original grammar, syntax and vernacular of the defendants are maintained in a desire to preserve the authenticity of these letters.

About this title

About the Author

Kwando M. Kinshasa is a professor of African American Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.

Reviews

During the Depression, nine black youths were among hundreds riding the rails as vagrants in search of work when they were arrested near Scottsboro, Alabama, in March 1931. Charged with raping two young white women, who were also vagrants, the Scottsboro Nine were found guilty and scheduled for execution. It took 45 years for the eventual release, pardon, or parole of all but one (Haywood Patterson escaped from prison) as the NAACP and the International Labor Defense of the Communist Party fought through the courts and the national and international press. They also fought each other over defense strategy. Though many of the Scottsboro Nine were illiterate at the time of their arrest, the letters collected here show their intellectual development as they grew from youth caught up in the usual mistreatment of blacks in the rural South to men part of an international cause célèbre. The Scottsboro Boys corresponded with family, attorneys, and supporters as they struggled to maintain faith in the midst of a horrendous human saga of racism, prison brutality, and injustice. --Vanessa Bush

Edition details

• Publisher: McFarland & Company
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786472049
• ISBN 13: 9780786472048
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336
• Editor: Kinshasa Kwando M.