What do my readers think of my treatment of the Scottsboro Boys false rape case?
I recently wrote an article about the infamous case of the Scottsboro Boys, nine black American men falsely accused in the 1930s of raping two white women. In writing this story, I faced several challenges. One was to make sense of a case that was extraordinarily complex and that dragged on through the courts for many years. It was extremely easy to get tangled by the sheer number of convictions, appeals, and re-trials. Another challenge was to be fair to all principals in a case rife with dueling prejudices, including stereotypes of black men, anti-Semitism, regional stereotypes, and sexist perceptions.
Conservative black American commentator has compared the injustice suffered by the Scottsboro Boys to the Duke Lacrosse players case. In the former instance, black men accused of raping white women were assumed guilty by much of the public despite scanty evidence of guilt and actual evidence to the contrary. In the second case, white men were assumed guilty by much of the public of raping a black despite a similar lack of evidence. Sowell sees both cases as reflecting racial perceptions of our different time periods.
As I researched the Scottsboro case, I became very emotionally wrenched by it, in part because of the sheer amount of suffering and waste of life that these false accusations – and the willingness of so many people to believe them – caused. The accused were mostly teenagers when the accusations were first hurled at them. These innocent men grew up in the purgatory of prison, their lives inevitably warped by the horrors they endured.
My story on this horror is up at http://www.crimemagazine.com/scottsboro_boys.htm
I would appreciate knowing what readers of this blog think of both the case itself and how I handled it.
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“we, unlike Italy, name the men but not the women”
Not in those days we didn’t, any woman making a rape accusation would know in 1931 that her name would be publicized and dragged through the mud,(making such allegations an unlikely strategy for a known prostitute). Even if she was believed it was hardly anything but a source of deep shame to be raped. And blacks tried for raping white women in the South were not always convicted. Jim Conley’s lawyer in the Leo Frank trial successfully defended a black man against an accusation of rape by a white woman.
Prominent Chattanooga attorney George W. Chamlee had affidavits from Chattanooga blacks stating that they had seen Victoria Price “embracing Negro men in dances in Negro houses,” that (17 year old) Ruby Bates had bragged that she could “take five Negroes in one night,” that a boarding-house operator had let Victoria use a room for prostitution, that she turned down a white man one night because it was “Negro night.” Pamphlets were circulated saying much the same but adding the contradictory detail that a Huntsville deputy had told an American Civil Liberties Union researcher that Price was a quiet prostitute so he didn’t bother her. This got around the awkward fact that Price had never even been arrested let alone charged with prostitution at any time in her life. Nor had Ruby Bates.
In 1977 NBC were free to bring forward any evidence to support the statement made made by a defence character in their program that Price and Bates had been proved to be prostitutes. That they settled is significant.
Liebowitz rounded things out by insisted Price was years older than she claimed.
Denise,
Great work – again. Of course things were more horrific for the blacks facing death sentences. Their case and the Duke case isn’t just about black or white it’s also about gender. Why are we so willing whether black or white males are accused, to so quickly assume that the women are telling the truth?
There is a lot of research showing far too many women lying about sexual harassment and rape, including recovered memories, to be so willing to assume the guys are lying. And why do we, unlike Italy, name the men but not the women. There should be no shame or disgrace in being raped but total shame and disgrace follows the rapis. Whe lies and is still protected sometimes later when falsely accusing another man. A falsely accused male suffers – women who lie rarely are punished equal to the crime.
I don’t have time to reply to all of the points that Ian has raised but he has raised some good ones and I want him to know that I’m grateful to him for taking the time to write his criticisms of the point of view expressed in my article.
More on the medical evidence about the lack of motile sperm in Price (and maybe Bates although I’ve found nothing authoritative that states that) in the light of modern knowledge.
Modern understanding is that ’sperm wars’ take place in the vagina when more than one male’s semen is present. If several males’ semen were in their vaginas it may not be so unlikely that much of it would be non-motile more than an hour later. This just goes to show that the medical opinion about the longevity of ONE man’s sperm in a vagina that play such a big part in the defence was not as applicable as is often thought.
In any event Bridges testified that both women’s vaginas were loaded with semen; he could have been lying or mistaken of course.
Price’s behavior when the train was stopped was not as if nothing had happened she seemed incapable of walking and was carried off the train. If she lied about the rape and was trying to avoid being arrested that was very quick and subtle thinking – to start behaving as if something had happened while laying the goundwork for the allegation but holding back from making it until “a deputy asked the women ‘if the Negroes had bothered them’”. It is difficult to see what was in it for Victoria Price to continue to stick to a false story for years after the incident. If there was ever any danger of of arrest it was long gone and there was a fortune to be made by recanting. She could easily have avoided being accused of perjury by claiming to be unsure of what happened.
It may be true that white men would not have been convicted on the evidence of white trash girls, then again many guilty white men have got away with rape.
End of previous comment was rushed. To be clear, Price’s story could be consistant with the amount of semen found because previously deposited semen is displaced from the vagina by intercourse imediately afterwards ( look up semen displacement). In other words the last man would be responsible for the majority remaining at the time of examination. 30’s examinations presumably missed internal injuries that would be found today. If the last man with Price had already had sex there could be very little semen from him. Also, Price had already been examined by Dr. Bridges presumably swabs were taken which could have further reduced the amount.
Leibowitz’s ability to get notorious defendants off by destroying false witnesses was unparalleled, for example the professional perjurer who testified against chid killer Vincent Mad Dog Coll. Price stood up to questioning well and she did not take what was to her a huge amount of money to change or weaken her story, despite her poverty.
Because you asked. Details that were not so favourable to the boys defence in the light of modern understanding could have been given.
A big part of the defence was playing to the widespread peception that rape victims will have injuries including genital injuries and be hysterical. Modern experts say experience shows that many victims of rape do not have any injuries at all; physiological responses that protect against genital injuries can be produced by things other than sexual arousal. The relatively inexperienced Dr.Lynch (wrongly)thought that rape victims are always hysterical and tearful. As Bates and Price were not he concluded they were lying, this was an understandible attitude in the 30’s but less so today.
*The first to examine the girls the experienced Dr. RR Bridges said there was “a great amount” semen in Ruby Bates. Dr. Lynch said there was “a good amount” in Bates. This is said to be the result of the night before with one man. Nobody said she had consensual sex on the train.
Sex tends to remove semen from an immediatly previous sex act so Price’s lack coud be cosistant with her story.
A bit more of a response:
” Nearly everyone in Alabama, throughout the South and maybe America could care less about them.”
There were rallies both nationally and internationally for them. The northern (not the southern) media was for them. Hollywood stars such as James Cagney campaigned for them.
By way of contrast, nobody cared about the lax players. The media uniformly had them convicted and portrayed them as hooligans. The politicians (all except for Obama) ducked. The DOJ was nowhere in sight–despite witness intimidation, threats, falsified warrants, etc. There were no national rallies for them and no big names spoke up for them.
” If you read it from beginning to end, it is clear Duke and Scottsboro are only related because of sex and race being components covered in the media .”
The public response was based on stereotypes, which convicted the accused in both cases despite the absence of any facts. A whole world view depended in each case on these stereotypes being true.
“The Duke players are leading no such effort to reform North Carolina jurisprudence. ”
Who else is advocating the reforms they are pressing for? Where are the NAACP, the ACLU, and other groups, trying to enact Speedy Trial laws, etc.?
If the Duke case garners so much support,
why don’t these groups join hands and
both support these reforms together?
“There were any number of cases with black men as the defendant they could have pursued but they didn’t pay as well and do not evoke the kind of emotionalism the Duke story could create.”
Again, if the Duke story creates an emotional response, then why is this not harnessed by local activist groups to help obtain the many needed reforms of the legal system (which will help all future defendants)?
” For black men of my generation, the story was told to remind you to watch your conduct around white women. It as also told to remind you that things hadn’t changed much.”
Actually, nothing has changed; human nature remains the same. People reacted in the same way to stereotypes which they had been raised to accept as true. Only the colors in Durham were different.
Nobody! I repeat NOBODY! was acting like anyone in Scottsboro case. The Scottsboro boys all ended up living tragic lives and their legal counsel really never won a major victory for them when it counted most. That wasn’t because they weren’t trying to help. Nearly everyone in Alabama, throughout the South and maybe America could care less about them.
The Communist Party, NAACP and local black ministers were the only ones fighting for justice for the Scottsboro Boys. I don’t think anyone who supported the players would be willing to say they are like the Communist and NAACP?
Just how many times were the Scottsboro Boys convicted and given the death penalty? Do you really believe anything analogous happened in the Duke Case?
Tell the full story. If you read it from beginning to end, it is clear Duke and Scottsboro are only related because of sex and race being components covered in the media. Nearly nothing else is the same.
The Duke players are leading no such effort to reform North Carolina jurisprudence. The lawyers in the civil case are trying to get paid and punish anyone they don’t like. There is also a strong undercurrent that is against gender studies, black studies and civil rights laws. All you have to do is read the blogs that write about the case day after day for almost four years. They never talk about the particulars of Scottsboro and how outright racism in the South was the man force driving that case.
If you could get behind the Duke case, I don’t see why they haven’t gotten behind James Johnson. If you don’t know who he is, look him up. He spent several years in jail for a murder he did not commit and the DA never suffered any repercussions.
I will grant that the original attorneys in the criminal case were indeed trying to get reforms through the North Carolina General Assembly. Mike Nifong was the sacrifice. There were any number of cases with black men as the defendant they could have pursued but they didn’t pay as well and do not evoke the kind of emotionalism the Duke story could create.
Jeffery Rosen and the people who started this Scottsboro comparison have done a lot to get people wrongly convicted exonerated. But it is to cynical that he uses the Duke case for comparison.
If Duke and Scottsboro are the same, then OJ’s criminal trial is a better comparison. At least there was a case that went to a jury with OJ. Plus, OJ faced legal troubles throughout the rest of his life just like the Scottsboro Boys.
Plenty of black people have known about Scottsboro. None of you running around talking about it now ever heard of it. For black men of my generation, the story was told to remind you to watch your conduct around white women. It as also told to remind you that things hadn’t changed much.
Just because you say something a lot of times, it does not make it true. Duke is not Scottsboro!
To respond a bit :
“The Lacrosse case was full of high priced lawyers, PR people and conservative television and radio commentator.”
Actually, the Scottsboro Nine ultimately had the best legal counsel (contributions made certain money was no object) and
demonstrations in their support all over the world.
It wasn’t the high-priced lawyers which ultimately saved these accused; but the truth. The problem with the legal system is that it shouldn’t have required high-priced lawyers to get justice. Justice ought to be available to everyone, regardless of cost.
The Duke players are now leading the fight for judicial reforms in North Carolina–reforms which will not benefit them one bit, but which will help all future NC defendants–such as the right to a Speedy Trial, Grand Jury transcripts, a Probable Cause hearing, etc., all of which are lacking in NC; but which will make it more difficult for a DA to obtain wrongful convictions.
The media, the press, and the community in Durham acted exactly like the media, the press, and the community in Scottsboro; which reactions only further show that all humans are alike under the skin.
People are all alike and respond in the same ways, regardless of their external color.
Society in Alabama in 1931 knew that nine black men couldn’t travel on a railroad car with two white women without their thoughts turning to rape. Society in 2006 knew that white athletes couldn’t watch black strippers without their thoughts turning to rape. And stereotypes are never wrong, are they?
The Duke case lacked a Judge Horton. That demonstrates how rare such judges are–those willing to go against public opinion. Horton lost his re-election bid for this. Nobody in Durham was willing to risk their job to save three innocent Duke students, when society had already convicted them.
Scottsboro and Durham are twins, separated by 75 years and with the colors reversed; but the human nature in both
cities remained the same.
(See: “The Duke Lacrosse Case: A Documentary History and Analysis of the Modern Scottsboro”)
Excellent thumbnail of the Scottsboro Boys case. Although I’ve not read Dan Carter’s book, it is on my “to read” list.
I’ve followed the Duke Lacrosse Frame from the start, starting on Free Republic.com and now on Liestoppers Meeting bulletin board. We too noticed the parallels with Scottsboro.
You might also compare the Ed Johnson Lynching in Chattanooga –
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/shipp/shipp.html
and the Salem Witchcraft Trials.
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/salem.htm
The Mob ruled in both those cases, too.
I am actually getting sick and tired of people trying to link the Scottsboro Case to Duke. The Lacrosse case was full of high priced lawyers, PR people and conservative television and radio commentator.
If you track when the comparisons between the two cases started it was very early on. The people pushing the idea that the cases were even remotely related have no history of supporting poor black defendants like the ones in Scottsboro. They still don’t care whether they thought they were wrongly accused or not.
The strange fact about the Duke case that very few people point out that it was occurring at the same time several black men were being exonerated after decades in prison in North Carolina. In all of those cases, it was clear there was misconduct by the prosecutors but no one was calling for those DA’s to face any punishment. The reasons why those prosecutors didn’t face sanctions is because some of them were in North Carolina government or part of the law establishment.
Conservative people who took up the cause of the Duke players have completely misread the entire thing. All the lawyers in the original case are the very trial lawyers the conservatives hate. They were also pushing for legal reforms that will ironically benefit poor and black defendants.
The Duke Players never went to trial. The Attorney General went to extraordinary and extra-legal lengths to dismiss the charges. On top of all of that, there was widespread support for the players. The defense had unfettered access to television shows on Fox and CBS. Nothing like that ever happened in the Scottsboro Case.
There has been a concerted effort to make the accuser look like a crazy drug addict. That was something she was not. Someone needs to have the guts to tell the truth about this. The Duke Case is not even remotely like Scottsboro. Anyone to suggest such is being disingenuous.
Stop! Stop! There is nothing remotely related to Scottsboro in Duke. Please someone start putting this hideous lie to rest.