The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-05-23
DESCRIPTION RArw.

wise is trying to deceive
The attitude Of the NAACP is: Let the
Alabama courts decide after a fair trial. Then,
If they are innocent they will be freed" The
NAACP wants us to consent to stake the lives
of the boys upon supposed exact justice"
which it asks the Negro people to believe can
be gotten from an Alabama court by Negro
boys accused of rape of white women. The
NAACP does not want any disrespect of courts
any disrespect of the capitalist system, which
all of its leaders support the first considera-
ton. That is why Mr. Walter White in re-
cent letter to Negro editors (marked mot for
publication described our criticism of the
courts which have framed up the Negro boys
as being "the most incorporate sort of mis-
statements vtuperaton and vilIfication," and
complained that Governor Miller of Alabama
has received "a kilograms demanding that the
boys be Immediately freed-a manifestly abb
surd and impossible demand"
But it is impossible for the LSNR to agree
with the NAACP that the first thing to do is
to respect the courts of Alabama that have
framed up the boys, and that the second con-
sideraton is to save the boys.
We must handle this case in the Alabama
courts where our boys have been dragged by
force to be tried on the frame-up; and we must
give them the benefit of the very best legal
skill that be found, taking advantage of
the fact that the capitalist courts succeed in de-
luding the masses only by going through certain
forms of pretenseS of fair trial." we must
fight every inch of the way, within the court
utilizing every rule of law and procedure that
can possibly be used to obstruct the legal murder
which the capitalist court seeks to perpetrate
upon these Negro boys.
But is any fool so naive as really to think
that the court will not condemn them again to
death riS0f1 he 0f 1aOr mt
aroused to see the foul trap of perjury and race
hate which is being passed off for fair trial"
of Negro in an Alabama court?
The NAACP wants, more than anything else,
to stop the mass movement which is the only
thing that has brought a hope for the
demned boys and the only thing that can save
them.
1t is clear that the boys we're taken into
court only as a legal cover for the 1y1ching.
But all of the lynchers, the lynching court, the
prosecutors the white capitalist newspapers
and the NAACP-are screaming against one
thing-against the exposure of the frame-up,
which exposure the secretary of the NAACP
calls "vituperation and villifcation."
What the LSNR and 1. L. D. have asked the
Negro masses and the working class, black and
white, to unite upon is the object of securing
the release OF the nine Scottsboro boys. The
NAACP, after being defeated in their first ef
forts to disrupt the united front, are now try
ing again to disrupt it BY trying to spread the
illusion that it is not necessary to arouse the
masses against this franle-up, but only to de-
pend upon an Alabama court for fair
trial regardless of race"
The LSNR and lid will proceed more Wig
orously than ever to call for a united front of
millions Of black and white men and women
and youths for the unconditional release of the
1T0,
White describes as IAN absurd and impossible
demand" and not to depend upon a fair trial"
by an Alabama Jim Grow court which the
NAACP says is its one object"
The statement Of the NAACP says:
The NAACP has already instructed its law
! yers and cooperated as far as possible il legal
defense with all other lawyers working il be-
half of the nine boys"
The LSNR and LID have been entrusted by
the nine Negro boys all their parents and by
the masses of Negro people and the working
class, to secure for these boys the best pos
sible legal defense that can be obtained. We
will therefore accept any and all effective legal
assistance that can be gotten TO add TO the
present forces to aid in the fight in the courts
along the lines already laid down by the LID
in common with the parents of the boys, and
provided this assistance Is genuine ana Goes
not disrupt the defense by trying to divert it
to channels which would mean the loss of the
/ lives or liberty of the boys The sole test for
| this must be one objective-to secure the re-
lease of the boys, to save them not only from
death but also from prison.
Although the NAACP says under date of
May 10th that it has already instructed its
lawyers to cooperate" we must say that up
until the present time not one single lawyer
| claiming to represent the NAACP has presented
himself to either the LID or the LSNR as will
ing to cooperate, and none appeared to cooper
ate with our lawyers in the hearing in court
The only lawyer whom the NAACP has ever
declared publicly to be employed by the NAACP
for this case is Stephen n. Roddy. This lawyer
on the day before the case came up in court
gave an interview to the Chattanooga Times,
not defending the boys but viciously and pub
rcly attacking General George w. Chamlee. the
LID attorney who. together with Joseph n.
Brodsky was to present the case for the boys in
| the court the next day Mr.. Roddy, for whose
actions the NAACP takes responsibility. added
-. and I intend to denounce General
row."
Mr.. Roddy Is the only attorney whose name
the NAACP has announced as being employed
| by them for the ScottcSoro case Mr. Eoddy
who appeared in the official records of the
trials as attorney for the d,ferco" conducted
the defense in the following manner
% Consented willingly to take the boys to
oil t,,oir 1it,ee