Browse Items (143 total)

Two Puerto Rican communists plead with the Governor to postpone the execution of the Scottsboro Boys. The letter makes the case for postponement by advocating against the death penalty in all contexts and asks the Governor to show mercy for his own…

Three women from Bailey Island, Maine, ask Governor Miller to exert his influence in the Scottsboro case and write that the American people would be like the Nazis of Germany or the despots of Russia if they did not ensure that everyone had a fair…

The Mme. C. J. Walker Club of San Francisco joins the NAACP in asking for the release of the Scottsboro Boys.

Mrs. L. Miller writes to Governer Miller that the problem with the courts is that they take too long to carry out a sentence. She believes that the Scottsboro Boys, or anyone accused of rape, should be punished, and that the Northern states should…

N. Henshaw writes to Governor Miller that the Scottsboro Boys should have been burned or skinned, makes veiled references to lynching in mentioning that in the past it "wasn't necessary to tax the state with the expense of a trial in a thing of this…

Signed by "Dr. George G. Mehlen" and representing 1,161 members, this letter from the Negro Businessmen's League (NBL) of Corona, New York, protests the 1933 verdicts from Judge Callahan's court and declares the Scottsboro defendants' innocence. It…

Inspired by a religious dream, Norma H. Hargrave begs Governor Miller in God's name not to persecute the Scottsboro Boys unless he is absolutely positive of their guilt. She describes her dream, and asks him to examine his conscience to make sure…

Paulina Antonuk, "Chairman of Meeting, Lithuanian Working Women's Alliance Branch No. 13," calls for a new trial for the Scottsboro Boys with a "half negro" jury and frames their fate in terms of race and class.

Pearl Aline Blancha, a distant relative of Robert E. Lee, is ashamed to have any relationship to the South at all, as she abhors "injustice and oppression of any kind." She writes that education and culture do great things for any race, and that the…

Percy W. Powles condemns the "framed-up evidence," convicting the Scottsboro Boys to death. He continues that he cannot believe such great athletes as the Crimson Tide, whom he saw play a game against the Cougars, represent an unjust state. He asks…