The Alabama parole board on Thursday granted posthumous pardons in the "Scottsboro Boys" rape case, seeking to correct one of the more infamous racist cases that scarred the Deep South in the 1930s and that has reverberated through the nation’s consciousness ever since.
The board unanimously approved a petition granting a posthumous pardon to three of the group who still had convictions on their records. The pardons had been expected since the Alabama Legislature passed a law in the spring to allow the board to grant pardons for crimes older than 75 years — a move specifically directed at closing the last part of the case.
The case had all the elements that marked the South’s heritage of racism from its days of slavery. It included a frame-up on the charges, a recanting by a key witness, conviction by an all-white jury, angry mobs and an attempted lynching. The case helped mobilize popular outrage against race-based justice, redefined how juries were chosen and was even immortalized in popular culture including a recent theater production based on the incident.
On March 25, 1931, about a dozen people were traveling illegally on a freight train from Chattanooga, Tenn., to Memphis. Several whites jumped off the train and reported to the sheriff they had been attacked by a group of blacks. The sheriff and his posse stopped the train in Alabama and arrested nine blacks. Authorities also said they found two white girls who had accused the blacks of rape.
