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Article: `The Scottsboro Boys' reveals great trial's drama.(VARIETY)
- Article from:
- Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
- Article date:
- July 28, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Star Tribune Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Leadbelly wrote a ballad about them. John Dos Passos put them in a poem. They made headlines and inspired demonstrations around the world.
They were the Scottsboro Boys, and if you're under 60, there's a good chance you have no idea what they did. Robbed banks? Organized mill workers? Sang great four-part harmony?
A few of the Scottsboro Boys really were boys. Most were young men. There were nine of them, poor young blacks ages 12 to 20. It was their horrible misfortune in March 1931 to hop a freight train out of Chattanooga, Tenn., heading down into Alabama in search of work. They got into a scuffle with some white hobos and forced them off the train. ...