The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1932-02-11
SCOttsbOrO Court
Certain Not To
Grant New Trial

Peters, What does the South think
of the Seottsboro case?
The white people who have
thought about it at all are beginning
to admit, reluctantly, that the nine
boys got a raw DEAL Nevertheless
as one Alabaman asked me in the
hotel lobby:
"Do you really want those niggers
to win ?"
"If they're innocent, do you real
ly want to see nine kids killed." ]
replied.
"Well. they ought to make an ex
ample out of somebody"
The colored bellboy, talking to the
lawyers up in the hotel room, put i
this way:
If Times "Was" Better
"Well, sir, if times was better
around here, they might let thos'
boys go. But times are awful hare
down here, awful hard. You can gel
out here ter minutes from this hote
and find colDred folks actually starry
ing"
Yes, the Scottsboro case base mad
a deep impression on the South. The
South is snuirming and writhing, i
bellows Red and "Nigger'lover'
vet here it is, face to face with some
thing powerful and new, and some
thing that has it very much fright
ened.
Another Rape
At first the South looked upor
Scottsboro as Just another "Negrc
rape" case. This one was slightly
more thrilling than most, because
here we've nine victims instead o.
one, and all of them younger thar
usual They called the boys "black
fiends' and NEGRO brutes" and
clamored for "quick justice"-mean
ing who esale slaughter.
Then the "Reds" went to work
Bit by Lit, by public exposure, by
legal arg ument. by demonstrations
protests, publicity campaigns, the In
the eyes of the whole world upon
that one little self-satisfied town in
Alabama. People began to read the
court records, to gather information
to ask embarrassing questions. "This
isn't a trial." they cried. "This is
lynching. This is murderl These
boys are innocentW
The South did not like this. No
body before had dared tell them
chow to treat our niggers.' Nobody
before had dared to question the ver-
diets of their courts. 1t was a new
and terrible thing for the South to
be caught red-handed before the
whole world like this; to find itself
fought tooth and nail by a powerful
organized movement of colored as
well as white. Who ever before had
dared to stand up in the South for
moon. unknown, uneducated ,colored
boys?
Colored people were iim-crowed at
! the trial. A lone correspondent for
J, the Associated Negro Press was al
lowed to sit in the court room.
Yet hundreds of them had the
e courage to crowd about the doors
r and the windows and catch what they
I could of this event-a new one in
their experience. Black faces every
where pushed against the screens of
the old-fashioned Southern building.
When the attorneys went down the
streets, colored people everywhere
turned and watched them. Some
t shook the lawyers hands. Others, if
r we stopped moment on the corners,
would come up and offer direction
.. Still others came up to talk to us
in the hotel rooms. Brodsky was in
= vited to speak at several meetings.
The whites in town did not modest
us, though | got a pretty thorough
staring-at when | walked down the
main street talking to a colored news
paperman. In general, we were han
= died with silk gloves. After tho
| hearing. lawyers crowded abou
| Brodsky and Chamlee. The chief jus
| tice came off the bench and SHOOT
/ hands with them.
II 1.-THE law is with you," a CORE
/ spondent for a Birmingham p a p
l told US. Nobody who is homes
| thinks these boys had chance il
Il Scottsboro. But you mustn't forge
4 that three of those four justices COM
II up for reelection in May. Do yol
II know what it is to go out for cleo
II ton in the small towns of Alabam
and have somebody yell "niggerlovel
at you? That's political suicide"
II Then aaain, as the bellboy sale
Il times are hard in Alabama. TIL
II white people on top are beginning t
| hear the rumbling and growing o
II the whites, and especially, the blacl
II below. The "nigger has to be KEEP
in his place." And when times ar
II hard, rough measures NAV be neeC
II ed to help him there. "You got t
Il make an example out Of somebody.
Il On the other hand. the South
II afraid of being too openly exposes
II afraid of the roar of Indignation an
II fury that will arise-with all eyt
II focused on Scottsboro and Montgon
ii ery-if they dare send the boys
II their death.
IL Such things have to be done
u quiet. And the quiet in which CO
II ored boys in the South are callous
sentenced to die on the old wor
out rape frame-up, has once and f
II all been destroyed.