Browse Items (63 total)

An African American county jail chaplain from Missouri, Rev. Capt. G. Thomas, proclaims the innocence of the Scottsboro Boys and asks the Governor to show mercy.

Quoting Ruby Bates' confession that the Scottsboro Boys never accosted her, Leopold Stokowski asks the Governor to release the Scottsboro Boys and give them a safe conduct home. He hopes the Governor will use his best judgment, as he admits he finds…

In this telegram, "Mme St Clair" of New York pleads with Governor Miller for pardons for the Scottsboro Boys and offers to take their place in the electric chair.

Though he had never traveled South, a 24-year-old African American in Illinois explains to Governor Miller that he understands how to reason with the "Southern point of view." He offers to travel to Alabama to argue for the Scottsboro Boys' sentence…

In this telegram, Just Songeon, a Communist teacher and poet living in Annemasse, France, demands the liberation of the Scottsboro Boys.

Lell Smith believes the Scottsboro conviction is based on race prejudice, and argues that a person who is both working class and African American is treated more harshly by the court system. He requests that Governor Miller correct this mistake.

A young white girl, Carol R. Sloman is concerned about the Scottsboro Boys after reading of the case in the newspaper. She writes that she has had a happy life and has been given many opportunities, and that she has always tried to help others. She…

S. O. Rusby writes that it may have been better if "we had left them in Africa and have gone there to elevate them." He adds that it is everyone's responsibility "to make good citizens of these people." He also writes that the North is not guiltless…

A "worker" demands the release of the Scottsboro Boys, whom the "dirty, degenerate, capitalist class" has framed. The letter warns of a workers' mass movement that will overtake the ruling class, as 97% of the people in the world are workers. The…

Rose Garland Rivers, a university acquaintance of Governor Miller, encloses and explains a clipping that reports of African Americans being lynched or burned "down there." She asks Governor Miller to take this up and correct this false impression of…