Scottsboro: An American Tragedy

On March 25, 1931, nine black youths riding in a boxcar were arrested in Scottsboro, Alabama and charged with raping two white girls, Ruby Bates (age 17) and Victoria Price (age 21). Although the evidence was extremely shaky, at best, the trial would only last three days and result in eight of the "Scottsboro boys" being sentenced to die in the electric chair (the ninth, a 13-year-old kid, was given life). Upon appeal, the prosecution's case fell apart very quickly, with Ruby Bates disappearing from sight, and the defendants being championed by one of the greatest trial lawyers of his day: Samuel L. Liebowitz (who had won 77 of 78 cases). But the sentence was not overturned, and the reasons behind that flabbergasting decision are what make this entry in the landmark The American Experience series so compelling. Narrated by Andre Braugher (with voice-over readings by Stanley Tucci and Frances McDormand, among others), Barak Goodman and Daniel Ankers' Scottsboro: An American Tragedy interweaves archival footage and stills with contemporary interviews to masterfully recount the strange and tragic series of court cases in which scandalous forensics (semen traces play a role here), out-of-nowhere backing by the outspoken Communist Party, local politics (a judge would commit political suicide in favor of justice), a wily witness who made the most of the sanctity of white womanhood, and the burning resentment of a Southern state against the holier-than-though-showmanship of a Northern Jewish lawyer, would all play a part in a human drama that would become a quintessentially American tragedy. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)