The Scottsboro Boys' Case - Law Essay Sample

The Scottsboro boys' case simply defined one of the darkest moments of the African Americans and perhaps one that shed a lot of light into how crooked the American justice system was at that time. The social injustices carried out against the blacks just because of a race that they didn't choose is simply intolerable. It usually is one thing to blame people for their ignorance on matters, but it is a totally different thing to carry thoughts and feelings into the justice system of the American legal chambers. It is indeed a somber affair to even imagine of an instance where the people that are supposed to stand up and protect the minority are the very people that engineer the course of injustices and inequality.

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The Scottsboro boys were by all definitions innocent of the charges leveled against them. No single piece of evidence collected pointed towards them being involved in the gruesome rape incidence that they were accused of. In fact, according to the film, they seem to have been the actual victims of the fight that ensued between them and the white boys. But being of a different race from the natives appeared to work against them. This depicts how deep-rooted and profound racism has been and still is. Just because you do not have a skin pigmentation that resembles mine doesn't mean that you are a lesser being than I am. Why is it that even the system that we believed to be the most impartial and one that everyone can run to when feeling oppressed gangs up against the very people it has been mandated to protect?

If there were a time that the American jurisprudence failed the test of real justice and safeguarding the interests of its citizens irrespective of their racial orientation, then the Scottsboro Boy's case would have to top the list. The idea of the case being heard and the passing of judgment on the same day defy any imaginable odds. More so in a case that is as sensitive as the one that the Scottsboro boys were facing. The American criminal justice system was a total failure backed up with a constitution that was easily permeated with any individualistic and selfish idea that seemed to favor the majority at the expense of the rights and the freedom of the oppressed minority.

Denying someone of their freedom for as long as fifty years based on thoughts instead of facts beats the very essence of justice and shows how backward the society that we live in has become. Not even a key witness recanting from a case is enough to prove one's innocence? Everything about the Scottsboro boys' case wasn't right. Nothing and no one can justify the intensity of the oppression that the young boys went through just because they were of African descent. The civil rights battle has been a long one and which is not about to come to an end anytime soon because of the racist seeds that were planted decades ago and which are still in a fertile ground being watered day by day by our very actions. Making it right calls for equality and compassion in treating others just as we would wish to be treated and not because of our physical appearance. The Scottsboro boys deserved a better trial, just like any person would if they were in the same situation.