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Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South

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Does "Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South" need any more 5-star reviews to convince readers that it may just be the best historical account of an American tragedy ever written? More than seventy years have passed since nine blacks were wrongfully accused of raping two white women on board an Alabama freight train and the event still rings in the ears as if it happened yesterday. Professor Dan T. Carter has remained the preeminent expert on the Scottsboro case for more than thirty years and his extensive research is evident in this book. Never dry or dull, Professor Carter guides the reader through a harrowing story that must be read to be believed. If you're not familiar with the Scottsboro case and its important role in American and more essentially pre-Civil Rights history, this should be the first book on your list. I also recommend James Goodman's superbly written "Stories of Scottsboro" and Quentin Reynolds' "Courtroom," the biography of Scottsboro defense attorney Samuel S. Leibowitz.

I love reading history books, especially when they read like a novel. Carter has produced a detailed account of this nearly forgotten episode in American History and he has done it with so much energy that one can not help but be swept up in his telling of the story. He traces the episode from its hobo origins. A freight train that carried two women and several black young men was stopped. The women, when taken from the train accused all the black men of rape and from here the stories of these rail riders takes off. Working with facinating material, the segregation of the deep South, the idea of a woman's honor, the Communist and NAACP rivalry over the case, the Jewish NYer who comes to represent the boys, the racist judges and the status quo governor and the one judge who martyrs his carreer to stand up for what he believes is right,Carter shows that the tale of Scottsboro is stranger than fiction. Not only is the story itself excellent, but Carter also brings the story up to date. For anyone interested in this time period, this is a must read!

Dan Carter has done a superb job in this study of the miscarriage of justice that took place in the Alabama of the 1930's. His picture is so complete and enlightening and he has attacked all the issues from all sides. If you want to get a very different picture of the atrocities capable in the U.S. of the 20th Century, read this book. I could say so much more.....

It is hard to imagine that such an terrible injustice could have occured in a country that prides itself on "justice for all." Dan Carter does a meticulous job in presenting us with one of the most engaging and informative books on the Scottsboro case I have ever read. As a pre-law and African-American history student I was thoroughly impressed and I recommend it to anyone regardless of their interests.

Too often books come and go, getting barely a mention, then fading into obscurity. Others, such as University of South Carolina Professor Dan Carter's 'Scottsboro', make reading both a blessing and a curse. To elaborate, this is not the sort of book one can read and not bite your tongue at the profound tragedy that marked the Scottboro trials and their legacies. You will shake your head in disbelief, want to argue, and, ultimately feel your blood pressure rise on more than a few occasions.

Carter's prose is excellent, well reasoned, masterful. His sources are tremendous, though one needs to consult his dissertation (UNC-Chapel Hill) for the complete listing. In the revised edition an interesting conclusion to the final proceedings is included, lacking none of the dramatics and eccentricities of the original trials decades before.

'Scottsboro' cannot be recommended highly enough. This is history written the way it was should be.

Imagine being railroaded on trumped up charges of rape and sentenced to death in a trial that took no more than two hours with no proof of guilt-this is the lives of the eight teenagers and the one young boy as they rode the train to the point of their destiny in little Scottsboro, Alabama. Chronologically written by Mr. Carter, the Scottsboro Boys tells of a story of how wrong the U.S. Justice system can be if racial bias is allowed to roam free with no restraints in a land where one is to be deemed innocent until proven guilty. Outstanding writing and detail writtenn by Mr. Carter with assistance from the NAACP files pertaining to the case that changed race relations in America in the early 1930's. A must for those deciding on a career in criminal law.

Dan T. Carter's Scottsboro: A Tragedy of The American South (1969, revised 1979 and 2007) is a monumental work of history. Informed by trial transcripts and other court records, newspapers, private memos, and other primary sources, this book is very well researched. Scottsboro is neither built on a thesis, nor does it have series of arguments. It is also not grounded in historiography. Rather, it provides an excellent and detailed account of events surrounding the arrests, trials, public responses, and legal appeals as it concerns the nine African-American men who were accused of violently raping Ruby Bates and Victoria Price. Carter's work reads as if it is a fast-pace novel. But, at the same time, it is a deserves multiple readers over more than a few days. There is simply so many pieces of valuable information.

More important than knowing a summary per se, readers of Scottsboro need to understand some of the important yet tragic responses to this event. The subtitle appropriately labels this "a tragedy of the American south." Racism, discrimination, and intolerance infiltrated the Scottsboro case from the very beginning. All that it took for much of the South to assume the guilt of these nine men was the accusation by Bates and Price. Hundreds and sometimes thousands of people from across the nation traveled to watch the Scottsboro trials or to demonstrate to the extent that the National Guard came at one point. Considering other events and reactions in these crowds, it is amazing that these men were not kidnapped and lynched by a mob. During the trials and never-ending appeals, lawyers, judges, and juries provided inadequate representation and biased interpretations throughout with few exceptions. The NAACP and the Communist Party battled as to who would provide some representation and support. Those who supported these men risked becoming victims of racism and violence. Throughout this multi-decade-long event riots and conflicts between African-Americans and whites, especially in governmental positions, were common. The Scottsboro case demonstrates what can happen when people trust their prejudices over evidence and equality.

Scottsboro is absolutely unique and important and is the first book-length account on the Scottsboro events. This monograph is a detailed, an extremely detailed case study about the Scottsboro tragedy, and it does a great job of outlining what happened, who said what, and when it happened. The book is somewhat limited, too. Although not a major criticism, the book primarily lacks context. For example, by reading this book alone, readers would have little idea if any that the nation was suffering from the worst depression ever or that these events fit into the trajectory of the long and complex legacies of African and African-American enslavement. Additionally, the nine Scottsboro men are not given any agency. In fact, they are rarely discussed. Carter focuses on the surrounding racism.

Nonetheless, Scottsboro remains a classic and rightfully so. This work is assessable to any mature audience and would complement a variety of undergraduate classes.

Historian Dan Carter recreates this horrid tale of legal injustice in gripping fashion. Back in 1931, nine young black men were charged with raping two young white women that had ridden the same freight train through northern Alabama near the town of Scottsboro. As readers see, the evidence against the nine Scottsboro Boys was extremely questionable, yet the trial outcome (guilty, death by hanging) was essentially a foregone conclusion given the Jim Crow justice then existing in the South. That is until the case became a cause célèbre, with demonstrations in the USA and Europe, outsiders (including actor James Cagney) sending contributions to the defense, and support from the NAACP and (perhaps detrimentally) the Communist Party. We see how famous attorney Samuel Liebowitz arrived from New York to handle the defense. Liebowitz and Company entered several appeals that reached as high as the U.S. Supreme Court, and new trials dragged on for years. Readers learn about bigoted Southern officials, appeals to both racism and anti-Semitism (Liebowitz was Jewish), a judge that acted courageously despite pressure, even the court-mandated inclusion of a black juror - then unheard of in the segregtated South. For those who never heard of the Scottsboro Boys or don't know the eventual outcome, look no further than this book. Those in-the-know should do likewise for a solid, moving account.

Professor Emeritus Dan Carter (University of South Carolina) is one of the few historians who writes nicely readable prose. He's done a solid job here, and perhaps he did likewise with his other books on the South, race and politics.