Scottsboro Boys — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:01okay welcome to one of these video
2. 0:04lectures so
3. 0:06here we are um i want to do a video
4. 0:08lecture today on an event that happened
5. 0:10in 1931 called the scottsboro boys by
6. 0:12the way i don't even notice but from
7. 0:13these lectures i moved my camera back a
8. 0:16bit because i was so worried about this
9. 0:17growing
10. 0:19thing underneath my chin so i just
11. 0:20didn't want to frighten anyone also
12. 0:22today my shoulder is hurt really really
13. 0:24bad and i know you don't care about this
14. 0:26but this just means that like i'm a
15. 0:28little bit of mobile here so like i so
16. 0:31so so so bear bear with me all right
17. 0:35the scottsboro boys this is actually a
18. 0:36really important case it happened in
19. 0:371931 and and and the ramifications are
20. 0:40kind of slow but it's also a really
21. 0:42interesting case to show basically the
22. 0:44racism of the south in the 1930s in the
23. 0:46middle of the great depression so here's
24. 0:48what happened also forgive me as i
25. 0:50fidget so much and look at my paper here
26. 0:52to my left
27. 0:53uh looking at my watch too because i
28. 0:55don't want to go too long
29. 0:56morning of march 25th 1931
30. 1:00the southern rail left chattanooga going
31. 1:02to the west it is a train going to the
32. 1:05west
33. 1:06about 24
34. 1:07people riding this train now this
35. 1:09happens in the great depression in 1931
36. 1:11and maybe you've kind of gotten the idea
37. 1:13or seen from from class how poor things
38. 1:15were in the 1930s it was very very
39. 1:17difficult for so many people and in fact
40. 1:20many people actually rode trains looking
41. 1:22for work or they just wanted to get out
42. 1:24of one place looking to go to another
43. 1:26place and a lot of people back there had
44. 1:28cars maybe you remember talking about
45. 1:29the 1920s in the prosperity 1920s but
46. 1:32they couldn't keep the uptake of the
47. 1:34cars they couldn't pay for the gasoline
48. 1:36for the cars and so a lot of people rode
49. 1:38trains it was actually very common
50. 1:41this happens in alabama as the train
51. 1:43from chattanooga chattanooga going into
52. 1:45alabama and in on this train evidently
53. 1:49one of the white riders accidentally
54. 1:51steps on one of the hands of one of the
55. 1:53black
56. 1:54riders and a fight breaks out on the
57. 1:57train with african-american riders
58. 1:59fighting white riders
59. 2:03and
60. 2:04the white riders are pushed off the
61. 2:06train no one is hurt in fact the
62. 2:08african-american riders actually saved
63. 2:10one
64. 2:11of the white men in the fight because
65. 2:14the train had sped up and they didn't
66. 2:15want him to get hurt and so so this is
67. 2:17just this is just just a normal kind of
68. 2:20fight
69. 2:21the train pulls into the station and
70. 2:23word had somehow very quickly gotten out
71. 2:25that there had been this big fight on
72. 2:27this train
73. 2:28and a vigilante group had already come
74. 2:30together to arrest these
75. 2:32african-american individuals
76. 2:34and so they start to go looking for
77. 2:36these for these individuals and as they
78. 2:38go looking for these individuals two
79. 2:40people come out of the train and it
80. 2:42turns out that the two people that come
81. 2:43out of the train are not the
82. 2:44african-americans they're actually two
83. 2:46girls
84. 2:48uh victoria price and ruby bates
85. 2:51and then one of the girls says something
86. 2:53that will create an incredible firestorm
87. 2:56and will basically ruin the lives of
88. 2:58these nine young men
89. 2:59one of the girls says that they had been
90. 3:02raped that they had been gang-raped on
91. 3:04this train
92. 3:05and this is the deep south
93. 3:07in the middle of jim crow
94. 3:08in the middle of the great depression
95. 3:10and immediately there is tremendous
96. 3:16furor at these african-americans they
97. 3:18are taken off this train
98. 3:20they are tied up and taken to scottsboro
99. 3:22so this is called the scottsboro boys
100. 3:24they're named after the town they were
101. 3:26taken to
102. 3:27uh and vigilantes show up a sheriff
103. 3:30there actually has to show up and
104. 3:33basically make sure that they don't come
105. 3:35into this in into the jail and take
106. 3:38these boys and lynch them he actually
107. 3:40has to protect the boys and
108. 3:42a friend of mine named paul holder
109. 3:45from my understanding it was one of his
110. 3:47relatives
111. 3:48paul holder was a governor
112. 3:50a government professor here at mcc for a
113. 3:52long time good friend of mine brilliant
114. 3:54man a wonderful wonderful person
115. 3:57and he told me that it had been his
116. 3:59uncle that had been the sheriff
117. 4:02great uncle that had been the sheriff
118. 4:04that had actually protected these young
119. 4:06men from being killed and by the way if
120. 4:08you were accused of rape as an
121. 4:09african-american in the 1930s you would
122. 4:11be
123. 4:12killed in a horrific way
124. 4:14the national guard comes in and secures
125. 4:17the jail
126. 4:18of the nine so there's nine
127. 4:20african-american boys
128. 4:22uh
129. 4:23the oldest was 19 the youngest was 13.
130. 4:27one of the boys one of the young men
131. 4:30was uh
132. 4:31they're called this gospel boys and so
133. 4:32that's so one of the young men
134. 4:35willie roberson suffered from syphilis
135. 4:37so bad that he could barely walk so he
136. 4:40could not have committed rape at all
137. 4:42physically and then owen montgomery was
138. 4:44nearly blind and was desperately trying
139. 4:47to get work to buy a pair of glasses
140. 4:49again the youngest person was 13 years
141. 4:51old
142. 4:52and remember this is the great
143. 4:53depression when the entire country
144. 4:55including alabama is coming apart
145. 4:57massive unemployment it's already a poor
146. 4:59state not a massive industrial base
147. 5:02increasing class and racial conflict
148. 5:05calamitous conditions
149. 5:07the two girls are also interesting ruby
150. 5:09bass and victoria price were both from
151. 5:10huntsville alabama which was about 40
152. 5:12miles away from this
153. 5:14they worked together in the poorest of
154. 5:16the textile mills price had already been
155. 5:18married two times had served time in the
156. 5:20workhorse in the workhouse
157. 5:23for vagrancy
158. 5:24and for adultery
159. 5:26she was tough and feisty she'd had a
160. 5:29hard life
161. 5:30uh the other girl 17 year old ruby bates
162. 5:33is very quiet and soft spoken and priced
163. 5:35the older girl
164. 5:37victoria price dominates the younger
165. 5:39girl
166. 5:40bates
167. 5:41they worked in terrible conditions for
168. 5:4314 hours in deafening noise terrible air
169. 5:46little light
170. 5:47and wages were so low that both girls
171. 5:49probably worked as prostitutes in 1931
172. 5:52and they worked as prostitutes and lived
173. 5:54in the african-american part of town and
174. 5:57they were prostitutes both to black men
175. 6:00and to white men
176. 6:01and so their lives the lives they lived
177. 6:04out on a daily basis
178. 6:06were the opposite of the segregated
179. 6:09lives of the middle class
180. 6:12uh and of so many people in
181. 6:15in alabama
182. 6:16but once they accuse these nine men of
183. 6:19gang rape
184. 6:21all the cut all of a sudden they
185. 6:24become symbolic
186. 6:25uh of what the south has feared for so
187. 6:28long
188. 6:28and so basically crowds gather at this
189. 6:31courthouse and they they're able to
190. 6:33protect the boys for trial and at the
191. 6:35first trial the crowd was huge the
192. 6:36largest crowd in the history of
193. 6:38scottsboro now scottsboro is a pretty
194. 6:39small town
195. 6:40uh the band playing dixie uh which is
196. 6:44a a civil war era song of the
197. 6:47confederacy
198. 6:48many people are armed with short with
199. 6:50shotguns the courthouse is
200. 6:52ringed by 200 national guardsmen
201. 6:55um and papers come out strongly against
202. 6:57these nine young men they don't have any
203. 7:00anyone to really represent them money is
204. 7:03raised in desperation by their parents
205. 7:05they had one 20-minute meeting with a
206. 7:07lawyer uh who basically told these boys
207. 7:10who were innocent these young men who
208. 7:11were innocent that they should probably
209. 7:13plead guilty according to one source one
210. 7:15lawyer representing the boys had a 0.20
211. 7:18alcohol level which is incredibly high
212. 7:200.20 alcohol level uh and the other
213. 7:23appointed was very old and was losing
214. 7:25his memory so they did not have
215. 7:27counsel
216. 7:29that was equipped to defend them they
217. 7:31had lawyers that weren't equipped to
218. 7:33defend them
219. 7:34one by one the boys were found guilty
220. 7:37with these terrible lawyers and every
221. 7:39time a guilty verdict was found and by
222. 7:41the way they are charged with with this
223. 7:44with this rape
224. 7:45and it is a capital crime at the time so
225. 7:47they are going to go and basically die
226. 7:50uh by uh the death they will they will
227. 7:53get the death penalty
228. 7:55the only question in the first trial the
229. 7:58only question in the first trial was
230. 8:00whether or not the 13 year old should
231. 8:02get the death penalty
232. 8:04or life that was the only question and
233. 8:06he ended up getting life in prison and
234. 8:08not the death penalty that was that was
235. 8:10the extent of it all these these nine
236. 8:12young men
237. 8:13suddenly find their lives turned upside
238. 8:15down because of these these accusations
239. 8:17by victoria price
240. 8:19help comes for these nine these nine
241. 8:21young men through the communist party
242. 8:24which is really interesting no one
243. 8:26really talks about the power of the
244. 8:27communist party in america in the 1930s
245. 8:29but if you think about it when you have
246. 8:30incredibly dire economic situations all
247. 8:33of a sudden
248. 8:35you are much more willing to think about
249. 8:38having the government provide equal
250. 8:40access to capital for everyone and
251. 8:43people are desperate and the communist
252. 8:44party had already come into the south
253. 8:46especially to try to bring attention to
254. 8:49the plight of african-american
255. 8:50sharecroppers
256. 8:52sharecropping is a
257. 8:54it's it's it's it's a it's a
258. 8:57forced work
259. 8:58style
260. 8:59where
261. 9:00as a farmer you basically have to go
262. 9:02deeper and deeper in debt every year to
263. 9:05be able to continue to form the land you
264. 9:06don't own the land but you basically go
265. 9:09in debt to farm the land and eventually
266. 9:11because you can't make any money you go
267. 9:13so deep in debt that you're forever tied
268. 9:15to the land and it's actually incredibly
269. 9:16economically crippling
270. 9:18if you think about wealth and how wealth
271. 9:20is generated a lot of wealth is
272. 9:23generated by property that is passed
273. 9:24down from generation to generation and
274. 9:26sharecropping makes it absolutely
275. 9:28impossible for any of these
276. 9:29african-american farmers to ever
277. 9:31generate family wealth to pass down to
278. 9:34their to their children and so the
279. 9:36communist party had come into the south
280. 9:38and tried to basically create this
281. 9:40this this movement
282. 9:42among sharecroppers that would
283. 9:43strengthen the communist party because
284. 9:45it was such a brutal
285. 9:47um
286. 9:48unjust situation for so many of these
287. 9:50african-american farmers
288. 9:52and so there they will actually be the
289. 9:54ones who represent
290. 9:56the scottsboro boys
291. 9:58um they they get a lawyer from new york
292. 10:01and as they get a lawyer from new york
293. 10:03from new york
294. 10:05they basically are able to get the
295. 10:06supreme court to look at this case
296. 10:09and so they they get the case reviewed
297. 10:11by the supreme court seeing my shoulders
298. 10:12killing me
299. 10:14the case goes up to the supreme court
300. 10:16november uh i've already gone 10 minutes
301. 10:19man i'm having so much fun
302. 10:21november 1932 the supreme court was
303. 10:23looking at the case they were
304. 10:24considering whether the trial had been
305. 10:26unfair and here's why this is really
306. 10:28important in a court case called powell
307. 10:30versus alabama this is super important
308. 10:32powell versus alabama the supreme court
309. 10:36is going to say it's going to decide
310. 10:39and this is a massive deal this is a
311. 10:41massive
312. 10:42decision by the supreme court
313. 10:44that the rights of these nine young men
314. 10:48had been violated
315. 10:49because they applied the due process
316. 10:52clause now stay with me i'm about to
317. 10:53throw something at you completely
318. 10:54complicated super complicated
319. 10:57hang on
320. 10:58i'm just gonna go through this
321. 11:00they they basically said that they
322. 11:03they they apply the due process clause
323. 11:05of the 14th amendment saying that
324. 11:07everyone should basically have due
325. 11:08process before the law
326. 11:10and they said that the young men had not
327. 11:12had access
328. 11:14to
329. 11:15um
330. 11:16[Music]
331. 11:17to good counsel
332. 11:19in this capital case and it applied the
333. 11:22sixth amendment okay this is really
334. 11:23confusing and would be better so you
335. 11:25would be better served with a better
336. 11:26explanation in a constitutional law
337. 11:29class but here's what i'm going to try
338. 11:30to say here's the point i'm going to try
339. 11:31to make
340. 11:32for the first time really maybe really
341. 11:34really for the first time strongly
342. 11:36the supreme court is going to apply part
343. 11:38of the sixth amendment
344. 11:40to the states before this the bill of
345. 11:43rights the firsts and amendments had not
346. 11:46really been applied to the states it had
347. 11:48only been applied to the federal
348. 11:49government from the bill of rights had
349. 11:51been written for the federal government
350. 11:53james madison when he had written so
351. 11:54many of these amendments had basically
352. 11:56tried to shield the country from the
353. 11:57power of the federal government in
354. 12:00response to
355. 12:01the american revolution
356. 12:03and all of a sudden here you have the
357. 12:05application of the sixth amendment
358. 12:08to the states
359. 12:10in this
360. 12:11case only dealing with dealing with
361. 12:13council
362. 12:15to have the to have the uh assistance of
363. 12:18capable council before a a a capital
364. 12:22trial in other words you have to have
365. 12:23good counsel in a trial that involves
366. 12:26the death penalty and this is called
367. 12:27this is very important it's going to be
368. 12:28on the quiz this is called incorporation
369. 12:31the application of the bill of rights to
370. 12:34the state and it happens one clause
371. 12:36literally at a time there's parts of the
372. 12:38bill of rights that have still not been
373. 12:39incorporated to the states it happens
374. 12:41one at a time but this is a big deal
375. 12:43because all of a sudden it is putting
376. 12:44the states under
377. 12:46under
378. 12:47the constitution and under the first ten
379. 12:50amendments of the bill of rights and
380. 12:51here it is the sixth amendment and
381. 12:53access to capable counsel in a capital
382. 12:55trial
383. 12:56so
384. 12:57the supreme court says the trial is bad
385. 13:00alabama incorporates the sixth amendment
386. 13:02the trial was bad and they must have a
387. 13:04new trial and so the communist party
388. 13:07hires a lawyer named samuel leibowitz
389. 13:10who had won 77 out of 78 cases defending
390. 13:14all types of all types of people this
391. 13:16guy is a brilliant lawyer he's very very
392. 13:18good he's a showman he's a bit of an
393. 13:21actor
394. 13:23but he was an outsider coming into the
395. 13:26deep south that is very skeptical of
396. 13:28outsiders the second trial was in
397. 13:30decatur alabama they will try a young
398. 13:32man named haywood patterson first
399. 13:34all 12 jurors were white
400. 13:37no one has seen by the way ruby bates at
401. 13:40all she's basically disappeared
402. 13:43as the trial starts
403. 13:45liebowitz begins to poke holes in the
404. 13:48prosecution he has a
405. 13:51uh
406. 13:52basically um
407. 13:53[Music]
408. 13:55begins to question victoria price
409. 13:57and it very quickly anyone watching this
410. 14:01could see that victoria price was lying
411. 14:03but the problem with with questioning
412. 14:05victoria price is that she actually was
413. 14:08as aggressive back to leibowitz as he
414. 14:11was to her and the fact that this was
415. 14:13happening in the south
416. 14:15from a man from new york in 1931 who was
417. 14:17being incredibly rude to a female on the
418. 14:20witness stand
419. 14:22turned the jury against him now no
420. 14:23matter what the jury was going to
421. 14:25find patterson guilty but
422. 14:28he didn't understand the south leedwoods
423. 14:29does not understand himself
424. 14:32uh victoria uh
425. 14:34price kept saying over and over about
426. 14:36every question that she says every
427. 14:38question she's answered that she can't
428. 14:40remember uh and she lied openly in her
429. 14:44testimony
430. 14:46and then they began to bring other
431. 14:47things out the girls were actually
432. 14:48examined by a doctor after these
433. 14:50allegations and there were no physical
434. 14:52signs uh
435. 14:54of rape
436. 14:56and then uh after this
437. 14:59there is
438. 15:00a massive surprise
439. 15:03in comes to the trial
440. 15:05ruby bates the 17 year old girl who had
441. 15:08been the friend of victoria price now
442. 15:10remember victoria price was the push
443. 15:11your girl and ruby bates comes in
444. 15:14as a surprise
445. 15:16and says that she had never been raped
446. 15:18that she that her testimony had come
447. 15:20out because of the pressure of of her
448. 15:22friend
449. 15:23she had actually spent months in hiding
450. 15:25and had been tracked down
451. 15:28everyone is shocked until the
452. 15:29cross-examination began and then they
453. 15:32began to attack the testimony of ruby
454. 15:34base how did you come how do you have
455. 15:36money oh i understand this now the
456. 15:38communist party is paying you for your
457. 15:41testimony to recant and she fell apart
458. 15:45on the witness stand poor ruby ruby
459. 15:48bates did the jury and here's the direct
460. 15:50quote i have smelled the north on her
461. 15:53and she is ridiculed
462. 15:55for her clothes
463. 15:56and it falls apart and once again the 12
464. 15:59men on the jury find floyd patterson
465. 16:02guilty to be electrocuted like by the
466. 16:05electric chair and leibowitz
467. 16:07can't believe it he had
468. 16:10proved
469. 16:11that victoria price was was lying he had
470. 16:13proven it i mean he had proven in the
471. 16:14trial
472. 16:15he had a witness who had recanted and
473. 16:17said that none of this had ever happened
474. 16:20he basically had proven the innocence of
475. 16:22these nine young men and still they're
476. 16:24all found guilty he cannot believe it
477. 16:26and so he appeals to the judge a man
478. 16:28named james horton for a new trial and
479. 16:31james horton is in a dilemma so james
480. 16:33horton is one of these
481. 16:34old southern traditional gentlemen
482. 16:38and he's under incredible pressure
483. 16:42to let this young man these young men
484. 16:44basically go
485. 16:46go to their death in prison no one had
486. 16:49corroborated price
487. 16:50price had shown no signs of rape to the
488. 16:53doctor
489. 16:54um
490. 16:55horton saw how she had lied on the stand
491. 16:58and in an incredibly courageous move
492. 17:01that will cost him his career as a judge
493. 17:03in many ways his standing in the
494. 17:04community
495. 17:05june 22 1933 horton sets aside the
496. 17:08guilty verdict
497. 17:09and orders a third trial
498. 17:13um
499. 17:14so now there will be a third trial of
500. 17:17these young men
501. 17:19and as this happens they of course the
502. 17:21prosecution brings in a friendly judge
503. 17:24and man seven-year-old william callahan
504. 17:27and uh once again the
505. 17:30jury deliberates after the trial
506. 17:32and once again the boys are saying these
507. 17:35young men are sent back to death row
508. 17:38getting closer and closer every time to
509. 17:40edu execution
510. 17:42and once again
511. 17:44lebowitz will push this court case up to
512. 17:46the supreme court because he's
513. 17:47frustrated that on the jury there are
514. 17:49only white
515. 17:51white men on this jury they all been all
516. 17:53white jew i mean it would all be all
517. 17:55white jury and liberal it's believed
518. 17:57that this did not offer equal protection
519. 17:59before the law in fact
520. 18:01they are able to prove before the
521. 18:02supreme court in a second second very
522. 18:05important court case called norris
523. 18:08versus alabama norris versus alabama
524. 18:11that basically they had purpo that
525. 18:13alabama and scottsboro that this trial
526. 18:16they had purposely prohibited african
527. 18:19americans from serving on the juries by
528. 18:21producing jury roles that only had white
529. 18:23members and even more
530. 18:26ridiculous was the fact that
531. 18:29african-american names had been scrawled
532. 18:31and literally in incredibly
533. 18:34primitive handwriting at the bottom
534. 18:36crude crude in fact i watched the
535. 18:38documentary and they mocked this
536. 18:39handwriting where they literally tried
537. 18:41to add these these these
538. 18:44african-american names who might be
539. 18:45called in a jury this is norris versus
540. 18:47alabama
541. 18:48so once again the supreme court says
542. 18:50they excluded african-americans from the
543. 18:52jury
544. 18:53did not allow due process
545. 18:55once again for a third time
546. 18:57overturned the guilty verdicts by the
547. 19:00way this has a this this norris versus
548. 19:02alabama has has has a pretty major
549. 19:04impact because after this this begins to
550. 19:07slow very slow very slow but begins to
551. 19:10desegregation
552. 19:11of southern juries uh where african
553. 19:14americans begin to begin to appear on
554. 19:16southern juries it's a slow process but
555. 19:18norris versus alabama is important
556. 19:21the fourth trial
557. 19:23leibowitz gives up stands aside for a
558. 19:25southern attorney
559. 19:27five of the defendants are convicted
560. 19:30this time but four are abruptly released
561. 19:32they're just released out of the blue
562. 19:34they released a young man who had bad
563. 19:36eyesight
564. 19:37they released a young man who had
565. 19:39syphilis
566. 19:40they had released a young young man who
567. 19:41was 13 year old when this was occurred
568. 19:43and basically after six years in jail
569. 19:46for a crime that it was pretty obvious
570. 19:48that they had never committed
571. 19:50they are out of jail taken to new york
572. 19:53are heroes for 15 minutes of fame
573. 19:56and then drift off into obscurity and
574. 19:59are basically forgotten
575. 20:00the five who are left only had their
576. 20:02despair heightened
577. 20:03by 1941 the parole board refused three
578. 20:06times to free the prisoners
579. 20:08um and finally 1943
580. 20:11it begins to give in and slowly
581. 20:13individuals are given parole for this
582. 20:16case by this time by this time after
583. 20:19three trials
584. 20:20alabama just wants this to go away they
585. 20:22don't want any more notoriety they just
586. 20:23wanted to go away
587. 20:25the last person who escaped was a young
588. 20:27man named floyd patterson
589. 20:29who slipped away after working with
590. 20:31other prisoners he was working outside
591. 20:33on and is able to slip away and makes
592. 20:36his way to detroit
593. 20:38he escapes
594. 20:40and
595. 20:41is never returned to alabama
596. 20:44so this is the scottsboro boys it was a
597. 20:48terribly
598. 20:49unfair
599. 20:51racially unjust trial
600. 20:53in which many people in the state of
601. 20:55alabama
602. 20:56actually applauded themselves that the
603. 20:59boys were not lynched and that they were
604. 21:02given deeply unfair trials
605. 21:05and would be executed by the state
606. 21:07scottsboro really has never lived down
607. 21:09the tragedy judge
608. 21:11james horton was defeated for reelection
609. 21:14would never serve again as a judge
610. 21:16lebowitz never won a victory in the
611. 21:18alabama courts but leave awaits if you
612. 21:20think about it despite losing he did
613. 21:22save their lives norris versus alabama
614. 21:25again began the slow integration of
615. 21:27southern juries helping future legal
616. 21:29victories in the south
617. 21:31victoria price disappears as does ruby
618. 21:34bates
619. 21:36but she reappears and then and
620. 21:39i believe in the 1970s
621. 21:41when nbc basically shows a movie
622. 21:44portraying the scottsboro boys
623. 21:46and the actor portraying victoria price
624. 21:48is portrayed as a prostitute and a liar
625. 21:51and she actually sued nbc
626. 21:53and they settled out of court which in
627. 21:56my understanding i don't know how much
628. 21:57money she got but if they settle out of
629. 21:59court that means she probably won some
630. 22:00kind of financial
631. 22:02decision behind the scenes because they
632. 22:04settled
633. 22:05most of the scottsboro boys led troubled
634. 22:07lives after release
635. 22:08only clarence norris would be able to
636. 22:11emotionally survive and live
637. 22:14a a life that would always be difficult
638. 22:17he would fight to have his name cleared
639. 22:19and in 1976 clarence norris would be
640. 22:22pardoned by the alabama governor george
641. 22:24wallace and he would finally die in 1989
642. 22:27of old age
643. 22:28it's it's in many ways the scots four
644. 22:30boys is a heartbreaking
645. 22:33trial
646. 22:34but i have two comments on it and then
647. 22:35i'm done
648. 22:37oh my gosh 22 minutes
649. 22:39poor people
650. 22:41two comments about the scottish boy
651. 22:42straw comment number one
652. 22:44um
653. 22:46it shows the deeply
654. 22:48the deep racism of the south under jim
655. 22:50crow that these young men who had
656. 22:53obviously pretty obviously never
657. 22:54committed the crime of rape and never
658. 22:58committed it at all
659. 23:00would basically languish in prison
660. 23:02for three trials
661. 23:04and one young man for 17 years but the
662. 23:07second thing that comes out of this is
663. 23:08you see the slow changing of the supreme
664. 23:10court
665. 23:11you have two really really important
666. 23:12decisions out of the supreme court
667. 23:14powell versus alabama which brings about
668. 23:16incorporation where the sixth amendment
669. 23:18is applied to the state where you have
670. 23:20to have capable defense a good defense
671. 23:22for a capital trial
672. 23:24and norris versus alabama where all of a
673. 23:26sudden you have the beginning of the
674. 23:27desegregation of southern jury rules and
675. 23:30so
676. 23:31it's actually a really important case
677. 23:33that will plant the seeds plant to plant
678. 23:35the seeds of future changes in the
679. 23:37future thanks for surviving this
680. 23:40uh i hope you're doing well thank you
681. 23:42very much