Browse Items (63 total)

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…

S. Ralph Harlow writes to Governor Miller that he had hoped Chief Justice Anderson's report on the Scottsboro case might have changed the course of things, but is disappointed that their trial will still take place in Decatur, instead of Birmingham,…

T. Gaines Elkins, who had served on the jury, insists with the Governor that his decision was influenced in no way by outside forces, but was made based only on state laws and the evidence provided in the courtroom. He believes that the Scottsboro…

Viola Montgomery—the mother of one of the Scottsboro Boys, Olen Montgomery—writes to Governor Miller to plead with him for a retrial for her son. She has prayed to God, raised money, and does not know what else to do in order to prevent her son's…

W. E. Mohammed asks Governor Miller for the Scottsboro Boys' trial to be moved from Decatur to Birmingham. The letter speaks on behalf of ten thousand Muslims who want the Scottsboro Boys' release.

This letter describes that the two women involved in the Scottsboro case—Victoria Price and Ruby Bates—were dressed in men's clothing and "ho boting," or hoboing, on the train as the Scottsboro Boys were. W. P. believes that the boys did nothing more…

Warren P. Norton—the superintendent of public schools in Meadville, Pennsylvania—writes that although the communists of the International Labor Defense have control of the defense for the Scottsboro Boys, people should not keep from protesting…

This unsigned letter to Governor Miller asks how much blood African Americans have to pay in the name of white supremacy. After all the unappreciated labor—of cooking, tilling soil, building roads—this anonymous writer begs that the Governor show,…

This anonymous letter suggests that African Americans should have never come to the United States, but that the people of Alabama could "wipem all out in a few days." The sender insists that the Scottsboro Boys be given a new trial so that they could…

Signed and sent by Elena Paskel, this form postcard is from the Church, School, Fraternal and Social Services Groups of Philadelphia, who cooperate with the Scottsboro Case Committee of Philadelphia. The postcard enumerates the group's appeals in…