Browse Items (143 total)

The Phyllis Wheatley Club asks why rape is punishable by death in Alabama and why the state disregards constitutional law by refusing to allow African Americans to serve on juries. The club asks about other specifics of the case and urges Governor…

From the director of the Pioneer Youth of America, Inc., this letter includes a copy of a statement about the Scottsboro case, produced from a meeting of representatives of national agencies in New York. The director writes that the case of the…

Albert W. Kauffman, the minister of Plymouth Methodist Protestant Church, writes that, given the evidence, the Scottsboro case seems to be a miscarriage of justice and that cases like it undermine public confidence in the justice system. He hopes…

Rev. A. V. Pierce, a World War I veteran, wonders why African Americans in the United States may fight for justice but receive none at home. He asks Governor Miller to give justice to African Americans.

Rev. Allan W. Johnson, a Los Angeles minister, demands the release of the Scottsboro Boys and the enforcement of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, which, the writer states, have not been upheld by the "Southern Ruling Class," including Governor…

Rev. Burckhardt writes that he believes in "justice and fair play for all men" and hopes that Governor Miller will treat the Scottsboro Boys as innocent until proven guilty, or else there will be "a black mark" on his administration and the state of…

Tuskegee Institute president Robert R. Moton writes to the Governor of Alabama on the school's letterhead, applauding the orderly punishment of crime, but stating that he hopes the courts will be equally just with African Americans as with whites.

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…

Ruth Pointer, a woman born in Alabama, writes that she dislikes Alabama's motto, "Here We Rest," and that Alabama will not only "rest" but go backward if it allows the execution of the Scottsboro Boys. She offers that Alabama should change its motto…

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…