Scottsboro Boys - Final Decisions and Aftermath

Final Decisions and Aftermath

By January 23, Haywood Patterson was convicted of rape but sentenced to 75 years—the first time in Alabama that a black man had avoided the death penalty in the rape of a white woman. Patterson escaped from prison in 1948 and published The Scottsboro Boy in 1950, before being caught by the FBI. After the governor of Michigan refused to extradite Patterson to Alabama, he was arrested for stabbing a man in a bar fight. He was convicted of manslaughter. Patterson died of cancer in prison in 1952, after serving one year of his second sentence.

On July 15, 1937, Clarence Norris was convicted of rape and sexual assault and sentenced to death. Governor Graves later reduced his death sentence to life in prison. He jumped parole in 1946, went into hiding, married and had two children. When he was found in Brooklyn in 1976, the NAACP and Alabama's attorney urged Governor George Wallace to pardon Norris, which he did in the same year. Norris' autobiography The Last of the Scottsboro Boys was published in 1979. Norris died January 23, 1989.

On July 22, 1937, Andrew Wright was convicted of rape and sentenced to 99 years. He was paroled, but returned to prison after violating parole. Finally released in 1950, he was paroled in New York.

On July 24, 1937, Charlie Weems was convicted of rape and sentenced to 105 years in prison. He was paroled in 1943 after serving 12 years in some of the worst prisons in the nation.

Ozie Powell was sent to Kilby prison with Wright and Norris. While being transported to Birmingham Prison on January 24, 1936, two officers threatened the men. Powell pulled a pocket knife and cut one of the officers, while the other two allegedly pulled him away with their manacled hands. One of the officers shot Powell in the face, and he suffered permanent brain damage. Powell pled guilty to assaulting the Deputy and was sentenced to 20 years. The state dropped the rape charges as part of this plea bargain. Powell was released from prison in 1946.

On July 24, 1937, the state of Alabama dropped all charges against Willie Roberson, Olen Montgomery, Eugene Williams, and Roy Wright. The four had spent over 6 years in prison; the adults on death row.

After Alabama freed Roy Wright, the Scottsboro Defense Committee took him on a national lecture tour. He joined the United States Army. Later he married and joined the Merchant Marine. After Wright came back from a lengthy time at sea in 1959, he thought his wife had been unfaithful. He shot and killed her before turning the gun on himself.

On July 26, 1937, Haywood Patterson was sent to Atmore State Prison Farm, and all the remaining "Scottsboro Boys" were sent to Kilby Prison. Governor Graves had planned to pardon them in 1938, but was angered by their hostility and refusal to admit their guilt; he refused the pardons.

Ruby Bates toured for a short while as an ILD speaker. She said she was "sorry for all the trouble that I caused them", and claimed she did it because she was "frightened by the ruling class of Scottsboro." Later, she worked in a New York state spinning factory until 1938, then returned to Huntsville. Victoria Price worked in a Huntsville cotton mill until 1938, then moved to Flintville, Tennessee.

A book widely thought to be authoritative, Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South was published in 1969; it wrongly asserted that Price and Bates were dead. A National Broadcasting Company TV movie Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys was aired in 1976 and contained the assertion that the defense had proven that Price and Bates were prostitutes; both sued NBC over their portrayals. Bates died in 1976 in Washington State where she lived with her carpenter husband and her case was not heard. Price's case was initially dismissed but she appealed; when the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in 1977, Price disregarded the advice of her lawyer and accepted a settlement from NBC. She used the money to buy a house. Victoria Price died in 1983, in Lincoln County, Tennessee.

Today most residents of Scottsboro acknowledge the injustice that started in their community. In January 2004, the town dedicated a historical marker in commemoration of the case at the Jackson County Court House. According to a news story, "An 87-year-old black man who attended the ceremony recalled that the mob scene following the Boys' arrest was frightening and that death threats were leveled against the jailed suspects. Speaking of the decision to install the marker, he said, 'I think it will bring the races closer together, to understand each other better.'"