The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-04-18

terson, just framed to second death
sentence in the Decatur, Ala, court.
Haywood told his mother that just
before the Decatur trial he was
beaten about the head with brass
from the death cell, he said, the war
den of Kilby Prison, Montgomery,
Ala, hit him in the face with the
heavy iron prison keys.
Attorney BrodSky reported TO the
I. L. D. that the boys told him they
we're almost daily subjected to tor
ture, beatings and abuse. 1mmedi-
ately after the original trials in
Scottsboro they were taken out by
twos by the militia and tl1rashed hy
the mob that had collected around
the Jail at Glasden, to which they
had been removed.
One of the fnilitisfnen stuck his
bayonet through the bars and tore
hole in the cheek of Roy Wright,
youngest of the boys, Brodsky de-
clares. Others of the boys were
punched and struck in the face with
gun butts.
Throughout their stay in Kilby
prison, they were never allowed to
leave their cells for exercise. This
right was denied them under the
obviously false pretext that the other
Negro prisoners in Kilby would at
tack them If they were allowed in the
prison yard. After the U. S. Supreme
Court had granted the appeal of the
International Labor Defense for a
new trial, the boys were still held
Illegally in the tiny death cells,
within sight of the electrocution
chamber.
They were removed from the death
house only few days before the
Decatur trials. Il was at this time
that the Kilby warden, who always
referred to the boys as the ''rape
niggers," struck Patterson in the face
with the keys. Patterson was the
most militant of the nine framed
youths.
In Decatur the boys were kept in
Jail condemned for use by white
prisoners. 1t was openly stated that
the Jail was "only good enough for
niggerS." Despite the constant dan
ger of lynch mobs seising the boys,
they we're kept in this dungeon
which could be broken into with q
spoon" according to the New York
Times.
Several meetings were called by
'vigilante" committees Of wealthy
whites and Ku Klux Khan members
in towns about Decatur to organize
a march on the Jail and lynch the
houe 6r7n IF ithaca walks aof,,ot1.f
surrounded the courthouse during an
interview between Samuel Leibowitz,
defense attorney for the I. L. D., and
Haywood Patterson. The lives of
both we're in danger. The crowd was
finally persuaded to disperse by the
sheriff.
The sense of being constantly
threatened with lynching wore the
boys down, Brodsky states. Upon
seeing his mother for a few minutes
during the trial, Haywood broke
down and declared he was afraid of
what's going to happen to me" If the
lynch crowds continued to grow.
Mass Protest in Boston.
BOSTON. Mass, April 16.-A
Scottsboro protest demonstration, in
which thousands of Negro and white
workers will participate, will be held
Monday, at $50 p. M, in Madison
Park, to be followed by Scottsboro
parade through the South End. Ac-
cording to the International Labor
Defense, under whose auspices the
demonstration was called. many Or
ganiZations, including reformist I'M
ion locals and Negro and white clubs,
churches, and fraternsl orders. have
announced they will take part in the
! demonstration.