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The Train Ride
On March 25, 1931 nine boys boarded an Alabama train on the way to look for some rumored government jobs. One of the boys named, Haywood Patterson had his hand stepped on by a caucasian passenger. All nine boys who were african americans engaged in a fight with the caucasian mail and his gang. All except one of the caucasian boys were driven off of the train. -
The Train Ride (cont)
Upon the caucasians departure from the train they gathered the attention of a train administrator who assembled his own gang to "teach the blacks a lesson". After the train stopped the boys were brought from the train and tooken to jail. To everyones surprise two white females by the name of Victoria Price and Ruby Bates emerged from train and accused all nine boys of rape. -
Unfair Verdict
The lawyer that represented them had pleaded with them to confess to the crime. The boys obviously didnt. Sadly if they had they would still be facing death row. But not all of them got death row. Twelve year old Roy Wright got tgot a mistrail because most of the jury didnt want him to get the death penalty because of his age. -
Trial #1
The boys attended a trail represented by a seventy year old lawyer who hasn't tried a case in years. So not only was he "out of practice"... He also came to the courthouse on the day of the trail completely wasted. The boys were tried in front of an all white jury so their chances of winning was getting thinner with every passing second. The defense lawyers only allowed the defendants themselves as witnesses which didnt h work well because the boys were what most may call illiterate. -
Trial #1 (cont.)
The boys were called back to the courthouse to find out if anything they said was believe by the judgemental caucasian jury that was before them a few days before. Their chances were unlikely because when Victoria Price got into the "graphic" details of what happened the jury looked as thiough they belived her automatically. So to their dismay the verdict was guilty. -
`Denial
Ruby Bates sent a letter to Earl Streetman denying that she was ever raped.
