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Remembering Scottsboro

The Legacy of an Infamous Trial
  • James A. Miller and James A. Miller
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2021

About this book

How one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in the United States continues to haunt the nation’s racial psyche

In 1931, nine black youths were charged with raping two white women in Scottsboro, Alabama. Despite meager and contradictory evidence, all nine were found guilty and eight of the defendants were sentenced to death—making Scottsboro one of the worst travesties of justice to take place in the post-Reconstruction South. Remembering Scottsboro explores how this case has embedded itself into the fabric of American memory and become a lens for perceptions of race, class, sexual politics, and justice. James Miller draws upon the archives of the Communist International and NAACP, contemporary journalistic accounts, as well as poetry, drama, fiction, and film, to document the impact of Scottsboro on American culture.

The book reveals how the Communist Party, NAACP, and media shaped early images of Scottsboro; looks at how the case influenced authors including Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and Harper Lee; shows how politicians and Hollywood filmmakers invoked the case in the ensuing decades; and examines the defiant, sensitive, and savvy correspondence of Haywood Patterson—one of the accused, who fled the Alabama justice system. Miller considers how Scottsboro persists as a point of reference in contemporary American life and suggests that the Civil Rights movement begins much earlier than the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955.

Remembering Scottsboro demonstrates how one compelling, provocative, and tragic case still haunts the American racial imagination.

Author / Editor information

James A. Miller was professor of English and American studies and chair of the American Studies Department at George Washington University.

Reviews

"In the remarkable proliferation of books coming out of the 'memory mill' in American studies and history for the past two decades, this is one of the best because it is not only about memory and 'mis-remembering'. . . it is about indirect parallels as well as patterns of influence, explicit and implicit."---Michael Kammen, European Legacy --- "[A]bly documented and engagingly written. . . . The strengths of Remembering Scottsboro are many. Miller writes a translucent, jargon-free prose, and his generous textual quotations enable nonspecialist readers to follow the thread of his argument. . . . Remembering Scottsboro is a valuable contribution to the growing body of scholarship that documents repression, resistance, and representation in and of the Jim Crow South. This important book should be widely read and taught."---Barbara Foley, African American Review --- "Remembering Scottsboro offers details not found in earlier publications, and greatly contributes to an understanding of the Scottsboro case and historical memory. Miller's study is a captivating, informative, and fitting analysis for a court case that attracted the nation's attention for decades."---Janira Teague, Journal of African American History --- "Miller's book uses an exceptional range of primary source materials . . . both to burn away the accreted mythification of Scottsboro and to produce a Rashomon-like rendering of the event as a enduring template of American racism, radical politics and cultural production."---Bill V. Mullen, Against the Current --- "[M]emory's battles continue, and Miller ably traces their paths. . . . The Scottsboro Boys live on."---Jerald Podair, American Communist History --- "A well-written, carefully constructed narrative that makes effective use of photos and cartoons."---P.J. Galie, Choice

Topics

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    Frontmatter

    i
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    Contents

    vii
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    Acknowledgments

    xi
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    INTRODUCTION

    1
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    CHAPTER ONE FRAMING THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS

    7
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    CHAPTER TWO “SCOTTSBORO, TOO”

    52
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    CHAPTER THREE STAGING SCOTTSBORO

    85
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    CHAPTER FOUR FICTIONAL SCOTTSBOROS

    118
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    CHAPTER FIVE RICHARD WRIGHT’S SCOTTSBORO OF THE IMAGINATION

    143
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    CHAPTER SIX THE SCOTTSBORO DEFENDANT AS PROTO-REVOLUTIONARY

    169
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    CHAPTER SEVEN COLD WAR SCOTTSBOROS

    197
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    CHAPTER EIGHT HARPER LEE’S TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

    220
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    EPILOGUE

    235
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    Notes

    243
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    Bibliography

    263
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    Index

    275
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
July 5, 2021
eBook ISBN:
9781400833221
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
View content
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400833221
eBook ISBN: 9781400833221
Keywords for this book
Scottsboro Boys; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; International Labor Defense; African Americans; Haywood Patterson; Lynching; Racism; Narrative; Mr.; Langston Hughes; Slavery; Prosecutor; Native Son; Samuel Leibowitz; Prejudice; Black people; Norris v. Alabama; Their Lives; Defendant; Indictment; Publication; Poetry; Smithsonian Institution; To Kill a Mockingbird; False accusation of rape; His Family; Novelist; Politics; Jim Crow laws; Newspaper; The Other Hand; The New York Times; Communism; Sacco and Vanzetti; Whittaker Chambers; Aunt; Writing; I Wish (manhwa); District attorney; Mrs.; Oppression; Wild Boys of the Road; Prostitution; Melodrama; Grace Lumpkin; League of Struggle for Negro Rights; American studies; Prison; Murder; Guy Endore; Arna Bontemps; Black Belt (U.S. region); Pity; Muriel Rukeyser; Career; Playwright; Supporter; Headline; Esther Shemitz; Pamphlet; Bankruptcy; Alger Hiss; Powell v. Alabama; Harlem Renaissance; Arnold Rampersad; Harper Lee; Central Park jogger case; Clarence Darrow; Nancy Cunard; Chauvinism
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
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