The United States
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In 1931, Scottsboro, Alabama, made headlines as a shouting mob surrounded the county courthouse where nine African American youths were being tried on charges of having raped two European American women aboard a freight train on March 25 after the African Americans allegedly threw some European American hoboes off the train. A European American mob pulled the African Americans from the train when it arrived at Paint Rock, Alabama. The defendants, Harwood Patterson, Olen Montgomery, Clarence Norris, Ozie Powell, Willie Robertson, Charlie Weems, Eugene Williams, Andy Wright, and Roy Wright were transferred to Scottsboro to prevent their being represented by counsel. They were defended only by a reluctant lawyer who had been assigned to the case by the presiding judge and given no preparation, the jury discounted testimony by a physician, and the three day trial ended April 9 with eight of the defendants sentenced to death and the ninth to life imprisonment. The physician testified that he examined Victoria Price, 21, and Ruby Bates, 17, of Huntsville shortly after the alleged rape and that while he found dried semen he found no live spermatozoa and no blood.
In October of 1932, the Supreme Court would reverse the Scottsboro convictions in a landmark ruling that defendants in capital cases in state courts must have adequate legal representation.
The "Scottsboro Boys" would have a new trial in Alabama in 1933. The new trial would end in conviction, and the United States Supreme Court would again reverse the convictions with a landmark ruling that African Americans may not be systematically excluded from grand and trial juries. New York civil rights lawyers Shad Polier, 25, and Samuel S. Leibowitz, 38, would take up the cause, a third trial with one African American on the jury also ended in conviction, but some indictments were dropped, the sentences would be commuted to lie imprisonment, and the defendants would serve a total of 130 years behind bars (one not being paroled until 1951).
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Academic Achievements
*Laurence Foster received a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
*Valaurez B. Spratlin received a Ph.D. in Spanish from Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont.
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Civil Disturbances
*Three African-Americans died in an riot in Chicago (August 3). Police fought a crowd of 2,000 protesting an apartment landlord evicting an elderly African-American woman.
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*The Commission on Interracial Cooperation organized the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching.
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A rivalry emerged in 1931 between the NAACP and the Communist Party, when the Communists responded quickly and effectively to support the Scottsboro Boys, nine African-American youth arrested in 1931 in Alabama for rape. Du Bois and the NAACP felt that the case would not be beneficial to their cause, so they chose to let the Communist Party organize the defense efforts. Du Bois was impressed with the vast amount of publicity and funds the Communists devoted to the partially successful defense effort, and he came to suspect that the Communists were attempting to present their party to African Americans as a better solution than the NAACP. Responding to criticisms of the NAACP from the Communist Party, Du Bois wrote articles condemning the party, claiming that it unfairly attacked the NAACP, and that it failed to fully appreciate racism in the United States. The Communist leaders, in turn, accused Du Bois of being a "class enemy", and claimed that the NAACP leadership was an isolated elite, disconnected from the working-class blacks they ostensibly fought for.
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Economic Endeavors
*The Alexander and Company General Insurance Agency of Atlanta, Georgia, the first African American owned and African American controlled general insurance brokerage and risk management agency in the South, was established by Theodore Martin Alexander, Sr.
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Father Divine
On May 8, 1931, a Sayville deputy arrested and charged Father Divine with disturbing the peace. Remarkable during the Depression, Father Divine submitted his $1000 bail in cash. The trial, not as speedy as the neighbors wanted, was scheduled for late fall, allowing Father Divine's popularity to snowball for the entire Sayville vacation season.
Father Divine held banquets for as many as 3000 people that summer. Cars clogging the streets for these gatherings bolstered some neighbors' claims that Father Divine was a disturbance to the peace and furthermore was hurting their property values.
On Sunday, November 15, at 12:15 am, a police officer was called to Father Divine's raucously loud property. By the time state troopers, deputies and prison buses were called in, a mob of neighbors had surrounded the compound. Fearing a riot, the police informed Father Divine and his followers that they had fifteen minutes to disperse. Father Divine had them wait in silence for ten minutes, and then they filed into police custody. Processed by the county jail at 3:00 am, clerks were frustrated, because the followers often refused to give their usual names and stubbornly offered the "inspired" names they adopted in the movement. Seventy-eight people were arrested altogether, including fifteen whites. Forty-six pled guilty to disturbing the peace and incurred $5 fines, which Father Divine paid with a $500 bill, which the court was embarrassingly unable to make change from. Penninah, Father Divine, and thirty followers resisted the charges.
Father Divine's arrest and heterodox doctrines were sensationally reported. The New York frenzy made this event and its repercussions the single most famous moment of Father Divine's life. Although mostly inaccurate, articles on Father Divine propelled his popularity. By December, his followers began renting buildings in New York City for Father Divine to speak in. Soon, he often had several engagements on a single night. On December 20, he spoke to an estimated 10,000 in Harlem's Rockland Palace, a spacious former casino.
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The Labor Movement
*The Sharecroppers Union was organized in Tallapoosa, Alabama, to aid African American tenants and sharecroppers. Direction of the movement came from the Communist Party headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama. Attempts of law enforcement officials and European American vigilantes to stamp out the organization drove it underground. It continued to operate in Tallapoosa and Chambers Counties. By 1933, it claimed 3,000 members, including a few European American sharecroppers. In 1934, the union undertook its first strike in Tallapoosa County. In some areas, the striking cotton pickers involved in the strike were successful and received the 70 cents per hundredweight the union demanded. The union was dissolved in 1936, and its members were advised to join other organizations.
*The urban African American was much harder hit by unemployment than the European American worker. In January, 1931, in 19 major cities with substantial African American population, at least 25% of all male and female African American workers were unemployed. In Detroit, 60% of male African American workers and 75% of the female African American workers were unemployed.
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The Law
*Police in Scottsboro, Alabama, arrested nine African American youths for allegedly raping two European American women who, like them, were riding a freight train (March 25). The subsequent conviction of the "Scottsboro Boys," based on hearsay evidence caused national and international protest and resulted in several appeals and retrials. Only by 1951 would all nine men be free, as a result of appeal, parole, or escape.
On March 25, 1931, on a freight train traveling from Chattanooga to Memphis were several boys, European American and African American, and two European American girls, all hitching rides on the freight. Near Stevenson, Alabama, a fight broke out among the European Americans and the African Americans and five European American boys were thrown from the train. These boys aroused the townspeople of Stevenson telling them that African American boys were riding the trains with two European American girls. The station telegraphed ahead and, when the train pulled into Paint Rock, Alabama, an angry posse was waiting.
The African American boys fled, but nine were captured: Andy Wright, Roy White, Haywood Patterson, Eugene Williams, Clarence Norris, Charley Weems, Ozzie Powell, Willie Roberson and Olen Montgomery. These nine became the Scottsboro Boys. Although they were captured at random, all nine were charged with the rape of the two European American girls, Victoria Price and Nancy Bates. Eugene Williams was only 13 years old; Willie Roberson was practically crippled with a severe case of venereal disease; and Olen Montgomery was almost completely blind.
The testimony of the two European American girls who claimed they had been raped was sufficient evidence for the Southern jury. By April 9, 1931, eight of the nine were sentenced to death, and Roy White was given a life sentence.
At this point, the International Labor Defense, a Communist Party organ, entered the case. At the same time the NAACP, which had not been previously involved, wanted to take over the defense of the Scottsboro Boys. A vicious propaganda campaign against the NAACP by the ILD convinced the boys' parents to let the ILD handle the defense. With the entry of the ILD into the case, it became a cause celebre. The ILD sent "Mother" Wright to Europe. There she led demonstrations in 28 countries. A world-wide protest was coordinated by the ILD. American embassies and consulates were picketed and stoned all over Europe and Latin America. Mass demonstrations were held in major American cities. Telegrams and letters poured in on the United States President, the Governor of Alabama and the presiding judge. It has been estimated that some $1,000,000 was raised by the Communist Party, although it has been charged that not all the money went to the boys' defense.
The ILD hired one of the most prominent lawyers in the country, Samuel Liebowitz of New York. On November 7, 1932, the United States Supreme Court ordered a new trial. Thus began a long, complicated legal battle. The most dramatic event of 1933 was Nancy Bates' withdrawal of her testimony. It had become clear that both girls' reputations were questionable. When they had been examined by Paint Rock doctors after the train had been stopped, the examinations had revealed only dead spermatozoa, signifying, not the rape they claimed, but intercourse that had taken place previously. Lester Carter, a European American companion, claimed that the girls had had relations with hobos in Chattanooga, with whom they had stayed the night before the train ride. Furthermore, although Victoria Price testified that she had been cut and was bleeding from various wounds that occurred during the rape, the doctors who examined her found no such cuts and no blood. In spite of this and of the fact that Nancy Bates withdrew her testimony and, on April 17, 1933, the jury rendered a verdict of guilty.
The death sentence was mandatory. Judge Horton, the presiding judge, was so outraged that he wrote a brief condemning the verdict and granted the defense request for a new trial.
The third trial was held in November 1933. Again, the verdict was guilty. Liebowitz next carried the fight to the United States Supreme Court, and on April 1, 1935, the convictions were reversed. The court stated that a fair trial was denied the Scottsboro Boys because African Americans were excluded from the jury.
New warrants were sworn out by Victoria Price, and in November a grand jury returned new indictments for rape. It was now apparent that although the ILD had been able to save the boys, it could not free them. In December 1935, the Scottsboro Defense Committee was formed. It was a coalition of the ILD, the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union, the League for Industrial Democracy and the Episcopal Federation for Social Service. The National Urban League was an unofficial member. C. I. Watts, of Huntsville, Alabama, and Allan Chalmers were added to the defense team. Watts was an important addition, for he was a local man. Liebowitz, a New Yorker and a Jew, had met with much hostility from the jury. From this time on, the NAACP assumed most of the burden of legal costs. In addition, several prominent attorneys such as Clarence Darrow aided the defense committee.
By 1937, realizing the hopelessness of any attempt to execute the nine boys, the prosecution offered seven year sentences if the boys would plead guilty. The deal was rejected. The prosecution then offered to free four and to prosecute five for assault. The committee agreed, and Roberson, Montgomery, White and Williams were freed. The prosecution, however, had now discredited itself by saying it was all a mistake and the boys were innocent, after maintaining for six and a half years their guilt. The defense committee helped those freed with jobs and education. Meanwhile the prosecution went back on its word concerning the penalties of the five remaining boys. Norris was condemned to death. Andy Wright was sentenced to 95 years in prison, Weems and Patterson to 75, and Powell to 20.
The defense committee then negotiated with Governor Graves. He promised to pardon the boys in November, 1938, but he too went back on his word. In 1939, the Defense Committee directed its efforts to the parole board, in an attempt to free them. The work went very slowly. On November 18, 1943, Weems and Norris (whose death sentence had been commuted to life imprisonment) were freed. Not until 1948 was Powell released. In 1948, Patterson escaped from Kilby prison. Allan Chalmers, who for some years had been the principal lawyer, aided him by refusing to divulge his whereabouts. In 1950, Patterson was arrested by the FBI in Detroit. The NAACP pressured Michigan Governor G. Mennen Williams not to extradict Patterson and the Governor agreed. At last Patterson was freed.
Patterson's book, Scottsboro Boy, was published in 1950 by the Civil Rights Congress, a Communist organization. The book detailed the horrible prison conditions that prevailed in the South. Finally, on June 9, 1950, Andy Wright, the last of the Scottsboro Boys, was freed.
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Literature
*George Schuyler published two books: Slaves Today: A Story of Liberia, comparing conditions in present-day Liberia to those in the antebellum South, and Black No More, a satire on United States race relations.
*Jessie Fauset's novel The Chinaberry Tree was published.
*Arna Bontemps published his novel God Sends Sunday.
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Medicine
*Daniel Hale Williams, a heart surgeon and founder of Chicago's Provident Hospital died in Chicago, Illinois.
Williams was born in Philadelphia to an African American woman and a European American man. He received a medical education at the Chicago Medical College through the generosity of a former surgeon on General Ulysses S. Grant's staff. In 1913, Williams became the first African American member of the American College of Surgeons. After withdrawing from Provident Hospital because of internal bickerings, Williams became the only African American doctor on the staff of Chicago's St. Luke Hospital. His withdrawal from Provident Hospital and his marriage to a European American woman subjected him to bitter attacks from fellow African Americans in the latter years of his life. Prior to his death, Williams was seen as a bitter and frustrated man.
Music
*Cab Calloway and His Orchestra recorded the classic jazz song "Minnie the Moocher" (March 3).
Born in Woodville, Mississippi, William Grant Still (1895-1978) studied at Wilberforce University, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and the New England Conservatory of Music. Still worked in a great variety of musical settings, from playing in dance and theater orchestras, to supplying arrangements of popular music for African American show people, and was a prolific composer in the art-music tradition. In 1936, Still was the first African American to conduct a major symphony orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and became the first African American to have an opera performed by a major opera company in 1949, when New York City Opera put on Troubled Island.
*Buddy Bolden, considered to be the first man to play jazz, died in a segregated Louisiana mental institution (November 4).
Charles (Buddy) Bolden (1877-1931) was the first African American to form what may have been a real jazz band, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Bolden has been called the patriarch of jazz, and because of his fierce, driving tone, he became "King Bolden." His band incorporated blues and ragtime. A plasterer by trade, Bolden developed a coronet style that influenced musicians such as King Oliver and Dizzy Gillespie. Diagnosed as paranoid in 1907, he was committed to East Louisiana State Hospital, where he spent the rest of his life.
*Thomas Dorsey (1899-1993), the "Father of Gospel," founded the first gospel choir in the world with Theodore Frye at Chicago's Ebenezer Baptist Church.
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The NAACP
*Walter F. White was named executive secretary of the NAACP. Roy Wilkins was appointed assistant secretary.
*W. E. B. DuBois emphatically rejected Communism in an article entitled "The Negro and Communism" in the NAACP journal, Crisis. However, DuBois did become a Communist at the age of 93.
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The Nation of Islam
*The Black Muslims had their beginnings at Detroit where local Baptist teacher Elijah Poole, 34, became an assistant to Wali Farad who founded the Nation of Islam. Poole changed his name to Elijah Muhammad. He would establish Muhammad's Temple of Islam No. 2 at Chicago in 1934. Afterwards, Farad would mysteriously disappear. Elijah Muhammad would then assume command of the growing sect as the Messenger of Allah, and by 1962 there would be at least 49 Temples of Islam with an estimated 250,000 followers.
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