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9 black youths arrested
A fight broke out between a group of white youths and a larger group of black youths on top of a trains heading towards chatanooga TN. The police got involved, and the black youths were arrested. also found stowing away on the train were two whit women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. These women claimed they had been raped by the black youths. -
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The Scottsboro Boys
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The First Trials
8 out of the 9 scottsboro boys were given the death penalty despite being clearly innocent. The youngest, Roy Wright, was not given the death penalty because he was only 12 years old. instead he got a life sentence -
the Appeals to the Alabama Supreme Court
The Alabama Supreme Court, voting 6-1, upholds the convictions of seven of the defendants, granting Eugene Williams a new trial because he was a juvenile at the time of his conviction. The rest were denied retrial. -
the Appeals to the Supreme Court
In Powell v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the defendants were denied the right to counsel, which violated their right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. New trials for all the boys on death row were ordered. -
Second Trials
Haywood Patterson's second trial begins, this time in Decatur, Alabama, before Judge James Horton. Still an all white jury. Patterson was sentenced to death once again. same with the rest of them. -
Judge Horton
Judge Horton sets the sentence of death for Patterson, and then suspends it on a motion for a new trial. Then, the judge postpones the trials of the other defendants because tensions in town are running too high to expect a "just and impartial verdict." -
Norris vs Alabama
In Norris v. Alabama, the United States Supreme Court finds the exclusion of blacks on jury rolls deprived black defendants of their rights to equal protection under the law as guaranteed in the Fourteenth Amendment. The case is overturned and remanded to a lower court. Patterson's case is not argued before the court because of technicalities in filing dates; however, the court strongly suggests the lower courts review his case "in light of the situation which has now developed." -
Pattersons Third Trial
Patterson is found guilty and sentenced to 75 years in prison. The sentence is a compromise between the foreman, who thought the defendant innocent, and the rest of the jury. -
Ozie Powell is Shot
While being transported back to Birmingham Jail, Ozie Powell pulls a knife and slashes Deputy Edgar Blalock's throat. Sheriff Jay Sandlin stops the car and shoots Powell in the head. Both Blalock and Powell survive. -
Norris's Third Trial
The third trial of Clarence Norris ends in a death sentence. Pressure from his community, and his defeat in this case, causes Watts to fall ill, leaving Leibowitz to lead the defense. -
Andy Wright
The trial of Andy Wright ends in conviction and a sentence of 99 years -
Charges suprising dropped on 4 of the boys
Rape charges against the last four defendants, Olen Montgomery, Willie Roberson, Eugene Williams, and Roy Wright, are dropped. -
Parole
Andy Wright and Clarence Norris are released on parole.
Wright and Norris leave Alabama, in violation of their parole. Chalmers persuades them to return to the South and, despite promises to be lenient, both are returned to jail, Norris in October 1944, Wright in October 1946. -
Patterson escapes
Haywood Patterson escapes from prison. He gets asylum in Michigan -
The last Scottsboro Boy Dies
Clarence Norris, the last of the Scottsboro Boys, dies.
