Scottsboro: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Ellen Feldman (Author)
Key Phrases: New York, Sam Leibowitz, Judge Horton (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Set in 1931's Jim Crow South, Feldman's dramatization of the infamous Scottsboro case makes for bleak, if familiar, reading. Alice Whittier, an ambitious, crusading journalist at the left-wing New York City publication The New Order, covers the arrest of nine young African-American men in Scottsboro, Ala., for the alleged rapes of two white prostitutes. Four days later, the Alabama courts have tried and sentenced eight to die. With a keen sense of drama, Feldman follows the story as worldwide indignation grows, and the case bogs down in appeals and retrials before an eventual hearing by the U.S. Supreme Court. Through it all, Alice, the only woman journalist on the story, reports the events in gruesome detail, conducts her trust-funded life and quiets some rattling family skeletons. She emerges as a satisfyingly fleshed-out character, as does syphilitic, guilt-ridden accuser Ruby Bates. But the best thing about the novel is the detailed, matter-of-fact way in which it recreates Alice and Ruby's milieus—both of which are removed, in very different ways, from the world of the accused. What emerges is a raw sense of alienation and collision, with the novel's true protagonists mostly offscreen. (Apr.)
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From School Library Journal
Adult/High School—This fictional account of the Scottsboro case, in which nine black teenagers were accused of the rape of two white women, is told primarily from the point of view of journalist Alice Whittier, realistically imagined by the author. The facts of the case are true: eight of the young men were accused, tried, and sentenced to death in an Alabama court in 1931. There were many appeals, trials, mistrials, and recantations by one of the women while the accused languished for years on death row before their final acquittal by the Supreme Court. Alice Whittier reports on the events throughout the long legal ordeal. She interviews many of the participants, befriends one of the women, and learns from Ruby that she lied about the incident for fear of being charged with hoboing and prostitution. First-person accounts by Ruby, whose insecurity and low self-esteem are palpable, are interspersed with Alice's own story as an outwardly aggressive reporter plagued by her own lack of self-confidence and by middle-class guilt. The horrifying and irrational prejudices of the times—racism, anti-Semitism, and sexism—are clearly portrayed in a gripping narrative that will interest and appall students of social history, and lovers of courtroom drama will be fascinated by the legal machinations. Helpful appendixes sort out fact from fiction and list sources of interest, including autobiographies of three of the young men involved.—Jackie Gropman, Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.; First Edition edition (April 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393064905
• ISBN-13: 978-0393064902
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #69,678 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lies + White Women + Alabama = Tragedy & Injustice, July 15, 2008

By	Dera R Williams (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had heard of the Scottsboro Boys and the tragedy that surrounded them when they were accused of assaulting two white women in 1920s Alabama. I was excited when Scottsboro: A Novel by Ellen Feldman was chosen as my local book club selection for June. It became apparent however, that this story had a different slant, that of the lives of the two women who accused the men of rape; what drove them and what motivated their lives. Feldman took literary license by adding a fictional character, Alice, a journalist, while all other characters in the book were real life figures.

Ruby Bates and Victoria Price were two women riding the trains dressed as men. When a brawl between young black and white men broke out, afraid of the possibility of going to jail, the two women committed an act of deceit and lies that would forever alter the lives of, not only the nine young black men, but their own, forever. Ruby and Victoria were what was known as "poor white trash." Poor, ignorant, uneducated and mired down by hard living, this was an opportunity for them to get some respect. They were revered as the pure and desirable white women that needed to be protected from the dangers of the feared black man.

The nation was thrown into a tailspin by a crime that never occurred and the ILD, a Communist organization took up the cause, besting out the NAACP whose members' middle and upper middle class backgrounds caused class differences and therefore a distance from the poverty-stricken, country, unlearned Scottsboro defendants and their families. This case, that went before the Supreme Court, became a battle between the backwoods, uncultured, racist Southerners against the charismatic, Jewish attorney, Samuel Leibowitz and arrogant, pseudo liberal "Yankee" Northerners who defied and defiled Southern customs and traditions-- traditions that could hang a black man for the smallest infraction.

Feldman, the author of at least two other fictionalized accounts of real events, Lucy and The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank depicted the "Scottsboro Women" as victims of societal ills, such as poverty and lack of opportunities, not unlike the Scottsboro Boys. Although Victoria held unto her lie of being wronged until her death, Ruby, under Alice's tutelage, recanted and reaffirmed her story over and over which brought about appeals to save the men's lives. Although this was a hard read for most of my book club members; we wanted to know why was it important for Feldman to write the story from the point of view of the accusers, we however, came away appreciative of the intricacies and complexities of this tragedy that has gone down in American history. This infamous case charted new legal statutes, one being, defendants are entitled to proper legal counsel. I recommend this book to those who enjoy reading fiction against a backdrop of historical events and figures.

Dera R. Williams
Marcus Book Club(Oakland)
APOOO BookClub

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "A fine southern legal lynching.", April 16, 2008

By	E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The case of the Scottsboro boys is well documented. On March 25, 1931, nine black youths were riding the Alabama Great Southern freight train when they got into an altercation with a group of white men. After the nine "Negroes" (some of whom were in their early teens) got off the train, they were summarily arrested for raping two white women. In her semi-fictionalized account of this incident and its aftermath, Ellen Feldman provides the shocking details of a shameful episode in our nation's history, putting the events into their political, cultural, and economic context. She demonstrates the noxious effects of anti-Semitism, misogyny, and racial prejudice in the Deep South, and incorporates the stories of some of the individuals who played key roles in what would ultimately become a cause célèbre.

There are two first person narrators. One, Alice Whittier, is a product of Feldman's imagination. Whittier is a tough and ambitious journalist, as well as a feminist with leftist leanings. Her reporter's unerring instincts lead her to believe that her work on the Scottsboro story might boost her career. As Clarence Norris, one of the defendants, said, "For lots of folks, us boys was nothing more than rungs on a ladder." He made a good point, since lawyers, judges, "do-gooders," Communist party members, and other hangers-on shamelessly exploited the defendants and their accusers for their own ends. Meanwhile, for years to come, the nine men would suffer both emotional and physical torment.

The other narrator is Ruby Bates, a pitifully poor seventeen-year-old mill worker who is functionally illiterate. Ruby's close friend, Victoria Price, persuades her to give false testimony. In the Jim Crow south, all-white male juries ignored the glaring inconsistencies in Ruby's and Veronica's statements. The first trial and subsequent retrials occurred against the backdrop of the Great Depression, a time of crushing poverty when sixteen million Americans were unemployed and two hundred thousand young people under twenty-one wandered from place to place like hoboes. For the downtrodden Ruby and Victoria, sudden fame transformed them into overnight celebrities. Strangers bought them new clothes and showered them with attention. For the first time in their lives, they felt important. Victoria was the more hardened of the two (she "had a mean streak a mile wide") and never did recant her statements. Ruby, on the other hand, came to regret her lies; she worried that because of her sins, her eternal soul would "go to torment" in the hereafter.

"Scottsboro" is a beautifully realized portrait of an era when lower class white people were so browbeaten that they vented their frustrations on those who could not fight back. It is a tragic account of a terrible miscarriage of justice as well as an engrossing tale about a principled journalist who dares to expose the truth, no matter how unpopular it makes her. There are a few lighter moments when Alice takes time out from her hectic schedule to pursue her romantic interests. In addition, Feldman adds color to the narrative by vividly describing FDR's ascension to the presidency at a time when Hoovervilles dotted the landscape. The country gained two leaders when FDR took office; his wife, Eleanor, became a driving force for equality in her own right.

Ellen Feldman consistently enlightens and entertains us. She also forces us to take a hard look at ourselves. If during a period of intense racial hatred, we had been on a jury judging the Scottsboro boys, would we have had the courage to acquit them? Or would we have yielded to the pressure from our local community and taken the path of least resistance? Feldman's evocative dialogue (written partly in southern dialect), absorbing plot, and touching depiction of the plight of the most vulnerable members of our society make this an impressive work of historical fiction.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The fella made burning bridges more scary than burning crosses, and I was plenty scared of them.", April 13, 2008

By	Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

March 25, 1931. This infamous day in Alabama begins an American tragedy that will play out on a national stage for the next five decades. When nine black youths are removed from a freight train and arrested by an irate white mob, accused by two white girls of rape, the imagination of a nation is engaged in an epic battle that revisits ancient enmity between north and south, old prejudices ignited and further inflamed by a country in the desperate throes of the Great Depression, thousands wandering in search of odd jobs, any diversion from a life grown mean and humble. Poverty and race simmer uncomfortably in hobo camps that spring up around the railroad tracks, easy women plying their trade, no better off than the men they approach.

This is Jim Crow land. In an attempt to deflect interest in their presence on the train, the two young women claim they have been harmed by the boys; the affects reverberate across old wounds, giving vent to racial hatred and anti-Semitism, awakening the cause of white Southern womanhood, capturing the attention of a burgeoning Communist Party and dramatizing the subtle inequities of justice. Careers will be made and broken, New York lawyers finding national acclaim, local prosecutors playing to a snickering audience, all before inscrutable judges and the silent, intimidated defendants. From the perspective of an independent female reporter, Alice Whittier, the drama unfolds, trial after trial, hearings by the highest court of the land, public interest captured by the recanting of one of the women, Ruby Bates.

Victoria Price remains adamant, while Ruby suffers pangs of conscience, which Alice Whittier mines in search of truth. Contrasting the incarceration of the falsely-accused Scottsboro boys with the carnival-like atmosphere of packed courtrooms, Alice's voice is sometimes overridden by Ruby's complaints. As much a victim in her own way as those she has named, Ruby is a product of her culture and limited resources, fearing only the damnation of her soul. Hinging on the testimony of such women, nine lives remain in limbo, most dying in jail before the case is adjudicated, only one, Clarence Norris, pardoned by Governor George Wallace after the Voting Rights Act of 1976. In Feldman's decisive prose, the years march by, outrage a by-product of a deplorable injustice, a fierce legal tug-of-war between the passions of north and south.

Dissecting the case from every angle, Feldman ignores no aspect, the New York lawyers, the fledgling NAACP, a prison system that submits prisoners to the daily humiliations of a meager existence, a hungry press tacking back and forth between Alabama and New York in search of new stories, Hoover replaced by Roosevelt with an opportunity to turn the economy around, and a world war, the country finally freed from the grip of the Depression. Years pass, the Scottsboro "boys" grow old on death row or in local jails, their fate in the hands of an unreliable witness and a jury system that enables legal lynching. Even when this sad chapter in our nation's history comes to a quiet close, its victims reclaimed by death, troubling questions remain, a deep psychic scar that runs straight through America's heart. Luan Gaines/ 2008.