The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-07-04
The Soboro Case and Natl Assn Advaneneo Co,ed People

ruling class Justice that Is found wherever
parasite class rules over an oppressed people or
class. It Is part Of the peonage, slavery per-
secutior and violence which Is a regular prac-
tiee Of the white ruling class against the Negro
masses This cold FLOODED legal murder Of the
innocent sons Of the Negro people, like all Of
the other 1ynchings, jim Grow persecution and
terrortzation. disfranchisement against Negroes
in this country intended to keep the masses Of
Negro share choppers and tenants, and the
masses Of Negro wage-workers in a condition OF
helpless fear, 50 as to enable tbs wealthy land
lords and capitalists to exploit them as cheap
labor.
The crime against the innocent Negro boys
cannot be separated from the system Of slavery
Of which it Is a part
The fight to save these boys cannot be won
except as an open fight against their convictions
as frame-up, as part Of this system Of ot-
preston.
The Scottsboro boys cannot be saved without
modifying a movement of millions, without
stirring up the masses Of black men and women
and Of those advanced white workers who are
ready to fight together with the Negro masses
against this beastly legal crime.
Because of the nature of this case the lives
Of these innocent boys cannot be saved by law
yers alone. They cannot be saved by depending
upon the Justice" OF an Alabama court The
court has already spoken, and has condemned
them to death although they we're known by the
Judge and all concerned to be not guilty OF
any crime but the crime" Of being Negro boys.
Those who reduce this to mere legal case
and try to make the masses trust to so-caIled
fair trial" in an Alabama court, are surren-
dering the lives OF these boys and are betray-
ing the whole cause OF the Negro people to the
system of slavery and lynching under which We
are living.
Only the organized mass movement OF millions
can save them
The fight to save these nine innocent boys re-
quires united front Of all of those who can be
brought into the fight on the one issue Of saw
ing their lives and liberties.
The officers of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People claim that
the N A A. G. P. Is zone OF the organiza-
tons" that Is defending the nine Scottsboro
boys.
But the facts show otherwise.
The officers of the N. A. A. c. P. havs from
the first been most Of all interested In what
they call good race relations between them
selves and the white ruling class Of the South
and the North They have openly declared
against any mass movement stirring UP what
they call the "densely ignorant portion of the
colored population" against the frame-up of
the innocent boys at Scottsboro. For this rea-
son they have necessarily betrayed these boys
from the beginning. According to their own
statements they arranged for the Ku Klux Khan
lawyer, Roddy, to defend" the boys by handling
1t purely as rape" case, illegal" case, to
avoid offending" the court and the "influen-
tial' white citizens, who framed up the boys,
but to depend on 'fair trial" and to "let the
law take its course"-the Ku Klux Khan lawyer
who even refused to address the jury to ask for
verdict of not guilty. After the verdict Of
death and before the mass movement was
started by others for their defense, the officers
OF the N A. A. G. p did not make single ef-
fort to appeal from the murderous verdict.
From the arrest of the boys on March rs until
April "a, three weeks after the boys were con-
demned to DEATH the N. A. A. G. p was silent.
The officers of the N. A. A. c. P. had no in
tention to say one word or do one single thing
IN defense OF the boys; and they did not say
one word about the case until after the League
OF Struggle for Negro Rights, the International
Labor Defense, the Communist Party and the
revolutionary trade unions which organize Ne
groes and whites together mot in the A. f. of
L. but IN the TUUL) had stirred up wide mass