Backstory and the Scottsboro Boys

This much is undisputed: On the afternoon of March 25, 1931, on a train traveling from Memphis to Chattanooga, a fight broke out between a group of white passengers and several African American boys and young men. 

News of the fight preceded the train’s stop in Paint Rock, Alabama, and the whites in town were ready to act on their deepest prejudices. Accompanied by a mob of armed protesters, Jackson County Deputy Charlie Latham arrested nine of the young African-American men on the spot.  

Events spiraled from there. Once in jail, the young men were accused of rape by two young women, Ruby Bates, 17, and her friend Victoria Price, 21. After the news of rape allegations broke, an angry white mob, intent on rushing the jail and lynching the accused, gathered outside the jailhouse. 

Alabama Governor Benjamin Meek Miller called in the National Guard. The accused were moved to nearby Gadsden. Prosecutors charged the nine — known today as the Scottsboro Boys — with rape, a capital offense. 

Accounts conflict as to who started the fight and why — and exactly what happened. 

The white boys insisted that the Scottsboro Boys were the aggressors. The group of African American men eventually fired guns at them, they said. 

Haywood Patterson was one of the Scottsboro Boys. He said that the fight began when a white boy stepped on Patterson’s hand. Fellow defendant Clarence Norris, stated that the white boys attempted to throw the group from the moving train. 

In the Jim Crow South, it is no surprise that the white boys’ version of events prevailed. Trials in both Scottsboro and Decatur, Alabama, as well as three Supreme Court appeals and landmark rulings, followed the arrests and convictions of the Scottsboro Boys. The SCOTUS cases went on for decades. It was not until 2013 that the Scottsboro Boys were finally exonerated — by the stroke of Alabama Governor Robert Bentley’s pen. 

Translating the multi-decade saga into an exhibit requires multiple methods. Historian Peggy Towns is the exhibit’s historian and author of its main source: Scottsboro Unmasked: Decatur’s Story. Backstory will record her narration for audio stories that appear throughout the exhibit. Because the press covered the trials extensively, newspaper clippings will be ubiquitous. Traditional text panels and imagery sourced from the Morgan County Archives unfold the highlights from Peggy’s book. 

There are also collaterals to put together, including a teacher’s guide. That means matching content to the curriculum (in this case, the Alabama Course of Study). It also means writing docent scripts and training docents in the delivery of those scripts.

Realizing the vision of the Scottsboro Boys Civil Rights Museum board has meant learning this story. The board is made up primarily of residents of Old Town Decatur, Alabama, the community most affected by the trials. The exhibit is no doubt deeply personal to them. Backstory is honored to have their trust.