The trial of the Scottsboro boys

In 1931, while America was in the grips of the Great Depression, nine young black men fought with a group of white men while hoboing on a train near Scottsboro, Alabama. When police arrived to-arrest them at the train's next stop, the nine knew they were in trouble - but they had no idea just how much. Unbeknownst to them, two women who were also aboard the train told the police that the nine black men had assaulted and raped them. Evidence suggested that there was little truth to this accusation, but local police and citizenry, enraged at the idea of black men violating white women, immediately rounded up and arrested the nine black men, dubbing them the Scottsboro Boys. The Boys were quickly found guilty and sentenced to die in subsequent trials, but the lack of convincing evidence, and the blatant injustice of the rushed trials, outraged people nationwide. Soon the Scottsboro Boys were being fought for by the NAACP, socialists, and even President Franklin Roosevelt. They were all up against a powerful enemy - the deeply corrupt and racist justice system of Jim Crow-era Alabama. The trials and struggles for justice would carry on for years and change the face of justice and civil rights in America. Book jacket.