Content
The movie was based on the historic story of the Scottsboro Boys. On March 25, 1931, a train from Chattanooga, Tennessee going through northeastern Alabama was carrying homeless hobos and people looking for work. After the train entered Alabama, a fight started between the white hobos and a group of African-American teenagers. Subsequently, the train was stopped by an armed posse in the town of Paint Rock, Alabama, and two white women got out making an accusation that they had been raped by nine black teenagers, the Scottsboro Boys, on the train. Despite the fact that no evidence was presented, the case was allowed to go to trial, and the Scottsboro Boys were later quickly convicted and sentenced to death. The issue was noted by the International Labor Defense, and the courtroom case received wide attention. The verdict by Alabama courts was later overturned twice by Supreme Court. After the third time the case went to trial, the charges against four of the defendants were ended, while long prison sentences remained for the other five. In 1943, on the condition that the imprisoned Scottsboro boys promised to behave well, the state of Alabama began to allow the five men to leave prison one by one. Their wounded lives after prison are also summarized in the documentary.
Read more about this topic: Scottsboro: An American Tragedy
Famous quotes containing the word content:
“Perchance the time will come when we shall not be content to go back and forth upon a raft to some huge Homeric or Shakespearean Indiaman that lies upon the reef, but build a bark out of that wreck and others that are buried in the sands of this desolate island, and such new timber as may be required, in which to sail away to whole new worlds of light and life, where our friends are.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“Now they express
All thats content to wear a worn-out coat,
All actions done in patient hopelessness,
All that ignores the silences of death,
Thinking no further than the hand can hold,
All that grows old,
Yet works on uselessly with shortened breath.”
—Philip Larkin (19221986)
“To be content with lifeor to live merrily, ratherall that is required is that we bestow on all things only a fleeting, superficial glance; the more thoughtful we become the more earnest we grow.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)