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:
“Crude men who feel themselves insulted tend to assess the degree of insult as high as possible, and talk about the offense in greatly exaggerated language, only so they can revel to their heart’s content in the aroused feelings of hatred and revenge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“To me style is just the outside of content, and content the inside of style, like the outside and the inside of the human body—both go together, they can’t be separated.”
—Jean-Luc Godard (b. 1930)
“The root of the discontent in American women is that they are too well educated.... There will be no real content among American women unless they are made and kept more ignorant or unless they are given equal opportunity with men to use what they have been taught. And American men will not be really happy until their women are.”
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973)