...One night in Scottsboro during the tragic time of segrigation in 1930 the freight neared Stevenson, less than half the way to Huntsville, Victoria testified that the 12 Negroes climbed into the gondola in which the two girls were riding with the seven white youths, walking over the top of a box car in front and jumping into the gondola. Ruby said in a personal interview later that she did not know how many colored boys were in the crowd. She said she was too frightened to count them. The Negroes gave the number of their gang as 15. Victoria maintained emphatically that there were 12. According to Victoria's testimony, a Negro identified at the trial as Charlie Weems came first waving a pistol, followed by the others in the crowd. A mile or two past Stevenson, Victoria said that the Negroes began fighting with the white boys, shouting "unload, you white sons-of-bitches" and forcing the white boys to jump from the freight which was moving at a fast rate of speed. One of the white boys, Orvil Gilley, who said he was afraid to jump for fear he would be killed, was allowed by the Negroes to remain. One of the Negroes testified that he...
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...The trial of the Scottsboro boys has been one of the most infamous legal injustices in American History. Nine black teenage boys were convicted of a crime that they never committed. Two white women accused the boys of an alleged gang rape on a Southern Railroad freight run. It all began on March 25, 1931 when a fight between white youths and a larger group of black youths broke out on the train. Eighteen year old, Haywood Patterson was hanging on the side of the train when a young white boy stepped on his hand while walking across the top of a tank car. Haywood had a few friends of his on the train. A stone-throwing fight erupted between a group of white youths and a larger group of black youth. Eventually, the blacks were able to force all...
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...| Research Paper | What is the relationship between history and the literature that explores it? What are the similarities between that trial and the one of Tom Robinson in the novel? | | E3 | In a time in which racism and segregation were substantial two lawyers each very determined to help and stand by their clients and defend them in law to the best of their abilities in the face of danger. Both the Scottsboro boy Trials and the Tom Robinson trial in the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” were very similar and “To kill a Mockingbird” definitely seemed as if it were influenced by the Scottsboro boy’s trial. | Samuel Leibowits was the lawyer who defended Charles Weems, Andy Wright, Olen Montgomery, Roy Wright, Willie Robertson, Eugene Williams, Ozzie Powell, Clarence Norris and Haywood Patterson also known as the Scottsboro Boys. What happen to them was that they were on a train and they were accused of rape by Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. All nine men were convicted soon after for rape. Atticus Finch defended Tom Robinson, who was accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman. In the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" the story revolves around the trial and the life of Finch and his family before, during and after the trial of Tom Robinson. Atticus faced loads of criticism for defending a black man. The similarities that are shared between the trials of the Scottsboro Boys and that of Tom Robinson in "To Kill a Mockingbird" are many. First of all they both take...
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...Politics Research Paper Danica Misic The Death Penalty and Politics Introduction The death penalty seems like a dreadful phrase at first glance, especially for those who are facing it. People convicted and sentenced to the death penalty usually have a long wait ahead of them. Some of these people facing the death penalty are looking forward to their execution, and some are dreading it. What exactly is the death penalty? To some it may be freedom once carried out, and to others it is retribution, a political tool, a means for producing money, or a deterrent for future crimes. It is important that the United States come to some conclusion so we can end the death penalty debate; we want the truth, not assumptions that can be argued to no end. This paper will discuss the ins and outs of the death penalty, why it has created much debate, why it is not a deterrent of murder, and that it is mostly used as a political tool. There have been many studies done to both effects; the death penalty deters crime, or it does not deter crime because the previous studies were flawed. First presented is a brief history to better understand where the death penalty comes from. The next section will discuss the modern approaches to the death penalty including landmark cases that changed the way the death penalty is executed in the United States. Following this section is an explanation of deterrence and its effects, and other controversies that exist. Finally the paper will discuss...
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...The Hunger Games: Action-film feminism is catching fire Lisa Schwarzbaum Burning up Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen is both strong and vulnerable – a new kind of action heroine who has powered The Hunger Games: Catching fire to a $158m US debut. (Lionsgate) Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen is a new type of female action film icon, and moviegoers should be very excited about that, writes Lisa Schwarzbaum. As Catching Fire ignites on movie screens around the world, this is what we know about the 21st Century heroine called Katniss Everdeen: she is strong but also soft. She is brave but she has doubts. She is a phenomenal fictional creation, yet is real enough that moviegoers can draw inspiration from her values, her resourcefulness, and her very human inner conflicts. And she is played by Jennifer Lawrence, who appears not only to be handling her current duties as Hollywood’s finest model of well-adjusted millennial female stardom but doing so with charm. Everdeen and Lawrence: golden girls both. Personified in Lawrence’s lithe movements and cool, focused gaze, Katniss is a brave, resourceful and independent-minded fighter; but she is also a troubled and vulnerably guilt-ridden human being. Nina Jacobson, the producer of the Hunger Games film franchise, puts it this way: “She is a singular heroine in that the burden of survival weighs on her. She has a ton of survivor’s guilt. And she keeps surviving.” Girl on fire It is strange that behaving like a well-adjusted...
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