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Scott Watson
Mrs. Koch
English Honors 2
February 15, 2012
Innocence Lost
Under two and a half centuries ago, The Declaration of Independence was written so that it could be used as the philosophies of a new prototype country, one based completely on democracy and personal freedoms. The first of it’s kind, America was meant to be a place free of all oppression. However, although America is thought as having humble beginnings, in reality, the opposite is true. Although the Declaration of Independence values freedom, the original founders of America completely ignored what it truly wished to convey, the belief that all people deserved life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They did this through slavery, the practice of which completely undermined anything the Declaration of independence wished to complete. But through the efforts of abolitionists and those who wished to truly uphold the philosophies that America was founded on, in 1865 slavery was officially abolished. Although a major step towards total citizenship for African Americans, many people wished to heed the progress that was being made. These racists did anything in their power to scare, terrorize, and manipulate African Americans into doing what they wanted. The level of how deep racism’s roots are in America’s history is conveyed when one observes major cases in the Civil Rights movement’s past. Biased juries, racist judges, and lack of justice ran rampant in America’s courts. This often resulted in that guilty whites would consistently be found not guilty if the actions were performed on an African American, or the opposite, Blacks would be found guilty for crimes they didn’t commit. The Emmett Till case was a major example of the former, while both the Scottsboro and the Tom Robinson trials were major examples of the latter.
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On the 28th of August, the mutilated body of a fourteen-year-old black boy was found on the shore of the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi. The grotesquely disfigured body was that of Emmett Louis Till, a boy from Chicago visiting his grandpa for the summer. One day while with his friends, Emmett walked into the market store of Carolyn Bryant to buy some bubble gum. While he was leaving, Emmett allegedly whistled at her. The belief that a black man was forbidden any contact with a white woman was an integral belief within racism in the south, a belief that was also held with Bob Bryant, Carolyn’s husband. Once informed of Emmett’s actions, he and his brother Jesse kidnapped Emmett five days later and murdered him, dumping his body into the river. Bob Bryant’s motivation lied solely in the fact that he felt that Emmett had disrespected his wife; Bob’s racist beliefs fueled him to commit the horrible murder of Emmett, dragging his brother along the way to take part in the deed.

Much like the trial of Tom Robinson, in 1931, nine black teenagers were put on trial and found guilty. Accused of raping Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, Victoria testified against the nine boys with little evidence to back up her claims. Both these cases were based on purely circumstantial evidence. Despite having little evidence to back up Victoria’s story, all nine boys were found guilty of rape. Both the Scottsboro and Tom Robinson trials, as well as the Emmett Till case show how deep racist hatred ran in the South. Southerners believed that blacks were animals that if given the slightest chance, would brutalize and rape a white woman. Victoria Price, who spoke without hesitance, fueled them. She herself was possibly a prostitute; the thought of sexual intercourse was one paid little attention to. Price was also observed to be attention hungry. The thought of being put in the spotlight, the action of which fueled by America’s racism, was something to convenient to pass up.

The fictional case of Tom Robinson was conceived by Harper Lee in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, in an attempt to bring light and concern towards the injustice and racism that was being put against the black community. The case takes place during the 1930’s, during the Great Depression. After being asked to perform a task for Mayelle (ADSFJDSFJ), Robinson reportedly followed Mayelle into her house and proceeded to beat and rape her. Despite a very critical trial, and evidence pointing towards his innocence, Tom was found guilty. When one looks farther into the case, evidence provided shows that Mayelle was lonely and lusted after Tom. When he entered his home, she made advances towards him, an act witnessed by her father. Much like the other cases, Tom was accused and although with evidence in his favor, was found guilty. This fictional case recognized how poorly African Americans were being treated, as well as pointing the wrongs in white society. Because of Lee’s unbiased narrator, she showed how reckless racism could be.
After further investigation in the Scottsboro trials, the amount of neglect in them is resounding. The first case of neglect in this case are the two white girls, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, who accused the nine black boys of raping them. Both girls’ families lived in rundown homes in black neighborhoods. They both were mill workers, and evidence points that Victoria and possibly Ruby were prostitutes. The Great Depression left both the girls and their families with little money, and they boarded the train in which the rapes supposedly happened in hopes that they would find work. The second show of neglect was concerning the Scottsboro boys themselves. Most of the boys had never been taught to read or write, and some were unable to obtain or denied access to medicine. They were all on the train, much like the girls, in hopes of finding work. The final and most obvious form of neglect was in the trials themselves. One of the boys was nearly blind, another had a syphilis infection so bad, he was found lying down in the front of the train, far away from the scene of the rape. He was in so much pain; it would have been nearly impossible for him to jump onto the scene, as described by the girls. A farmer was allowed to give testimony against the boys, claiming he had seen them on the train from his farm nearly a mile away.

In the Tom Robinson case, the signs of neglect were unique in some ways. While Harper Lee attempted to show the futileness of racism, she also pointed out the fallacies in the rigid social system in the South. It can be inferred from To Kill a Mockingbird that Mayelle Euell asked Tom Robinson to come inside the house. Although never explicitly stated, it’s implied that Mayelle kissed Tom out of lust. She and her family lived behind the town dump and because of this, most of the town and the town’s children looked down on their family for being lower class. Her loneliness is what leads to her acting out. Much like all three cases, in the courtroom tremendous amount of neglect is shown. Tom was physically handicapped and would have been unable to keep Mayelle down. Another piece of evidence in his favor was that it would have been impossible to specifically cause the bruises that were on Mayelle’s face because of his handicap. Despite this, Tom was found guilty.

After Emmett Till’s body was found and sent home, the media shared his story around much of the country. For the first time in America’s history, some of it’s public wished for justice for the acts against an African American. Despite the revolting nature of Emmett Till’s murder, his killers were never found guilty. Even after Bob Bryant and his brother had been charged with abduction, a charged supported from Emmett’s grandfather who was present during his abduction, they served no time for their crimes. Emmett’s mother was present at the trial and witnessed this injustice.

In these cases, the amount of racism and neglect to give African Americans fair trials are universal. In an attempt to ensure African Americans justice within the courtroom, as well as outside it, NAACP as well as other organizations have made progress in the form of pushing for new laws to be passed and performing historical events. In 1948 president Truman signed an act in which the people of America would not be discriminated against, regardless of their race. In 1954, schools in the South were desegregated. In 1957, Martin Luther King JR. made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. As more time passed, efforts all across America were made to completely end any form of racism. While the battle has never ended, equality for African Americans has been improving over the past century. In 2008, Barack Obama became the first African American president.
Works Cited



American Civil Liberties Union. Report on the Scottsboro, ALA. Case. Hollace Ransdell.
New York: American Civil Liberties Union, 1931. To Kill a Mockingbird and the
Scottsboro Boys Trial: Profiles in Courage. EDSITEment. National Endowment
for the Humanities. Web. 15 Feb 2012.
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Warner Books, 1982. Print.
The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till. Keith A. Beauchchamp. DVD. Velocity
(Ventura), Feb 28, 2006.
Keith A. Beauchchamp. “The Murder Of Emmet Louis Till.” Black-collegian. Web. 10 May 2004.
Scottsboro: An American Tradgedy. Daniel Anker, Barak Goodman. DVD. American Experience, 2000.