Letter from an unknown author, to the Eminent Governor of the State of Alabama in Montgomery, Alabama.

Letter from an unknown author, to the Eminent Governor of the State of Alabama in Montgomery, Alabama.

Scottsboro Trial, Scottsboro, Ala., 1931; African Americans--Civil rights--Alabama; African Americans--Imprisonment--Alabama; Miller, Benjamin Meek, 1864-1944

"An Alabaman" writes that he or she has always loved Alabama, but loves justice more. He or she writes that the Scottsboro case has been an outrage, and that white men should realize there are greater ideals than protecting their superiority complex.

Author unknown

Alabama Governor, Scottsboro Case appeals to the Governor, SG004239, Folder 1, Alabama Dept. of Archives and History

1933-04-25

Letter

English

United States--Illinois--Chicago

19 Chicago Apr [undecipherable] 5pm 1933 Ill. Hon. Miller, Governor of the State of Alabama, at Montgomery, Ala. 4/25/1933 To the Eminent Governor of the State of Alabama,- Governor Miller, of Montgomery, Ala. My dear Sir: Alabama is my home, I Have never known what a communist or a radical is and I don't care to know, but I am in- terested in my state, the integrity of my people and my God. I have always boasted of the fair play and the religious sincerity of my Alabama and her people. However, I guess I have come to love justice, the brotherhood of mankind and the Fatherhood of God more than these. To read of the unjust decision handed down in the Scottsboro Case some days ago, is to my un- derstanding, one of the outrages of the age in which we live. I think every white man should feel as I do, that there are higher ideals to be protected in our American institutions than our Superiority complex. It seems that our dear America is not only going off of the gold standard, but we have gone off the highest standards of law and judgment. This decision is not only damaging to Alabama, but to the jurisprudence of all our American institutions of govern- ment. I believe that through my race's injustices, God had confounded the wheels of our pursuing chariots, and that out in of this sea of divided waters we shall drown, as Pharioh of old. What shall we hope for as a nation? When we take the homes and home lands from other people, rob and enslave them, set up a double standard of law in our courts and when a negro es- capes, we say he is fleeing justice. What kind of justice? The people of our various states as the white races of the world, seem to be misunderstood as to what is just, which misunderstanding is fastly undoing our power and stability as a nation and a people. There is just one more item I wish to mention which I feel has much significance and that is the fugitive ques- tion. If the South continues its practices of the Scottsboro dicisions, States that consider the constitution of the United States to be a serious document, in obe- dience to the proper interpretation of the law will ultimately refuse to return even desperadoes who should justly be returned and exterminated. I most prayerfully Submit this to your consider- ation with a sympathetic heart for the good work you are trying to do. Sincerely- An Alabaman.