Description
This 1936 photograph—featuring eight of the nine Scottsboro Boys with NAACP representatives Juanita Jackson Mitchell, Laura Kellum, and Dr. Ernest W. Taggart—was taken inside the prison where the Scottsboro Boys were being held. Falsely accused of raping two white women aboard a freight train in 1931, the nine African American teenagers were tried in Scottsboro, Alabama, in what became a sensational case attracting national attention. Eight of the defendants were found guilty and sentenced to death; the trial of the ninth ended in a mistrial. These verdicts were widely condemned at the time. Before the young men eventually won their freedom, they would endure many years in prison and face numerous retrials and hearings. The ninth member of the group, Roy Wright, refused to pose for this portrait on account of his frustration with the slow pace of their legal battle.
Image
Gelatin Silver Print
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; acquired through the generosity of Elizabeth Ann Hylton
Record Contributed By
National Portrait GalleryRecord Harvested From
Smithsonian InstitutionKeywords
- Activist
- Activists
- Andrew Wright
- Britton & Patterson
- Charles Weems
- Civic Leader
- Civil Rights
- Civil Rights Activist
- Clarence Norris
- Costume
- Design
- Dress Accessories
- Dress Accessory
- Ernest W. Taggart
- Eugene Williams
- Eyeglasses
- Female
- Hat
- Hats
- Haywood Patterson
- Headgear
- Interior
- Interior Decoration
- Juanita Jackson Mitchell
- Kellum, Laura
- Laura Kellum
- Law And Law Enforcement
- Lawyer
- Lawyers
- Male
- Men
- Mitchell, Juanita Jackson
- Montgomery, Olen
- Norris, Clarence
- Olen Montgomery
- Ozie Powell
- Patterson, Haywood
- Portrait
- Portraits
- Powell, Ozie
- Prison
- Reformer
- Reformers
- Roberson, William
- Society And Social Change
- Taggart, Ernest W
- Weems, Charles
- William Roberson
- Williams, Eugene
- Women
- Wright, Andrew