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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAlabama pardons Scottsboro Boys after 82 years
Alabama granted posthumous pardons on Thursday to three of the Scottsboro Boys, a group of black teenagers whose fight against false charges that they raped two white women in 1931 helped spur the modern civil rights movement.
The three men exonerated by the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles - Charles Weems, Andy Wright and Haywood Patterson - were among nine youths accused of gang-raping the two women aboard a freight train in Alabama, and convicted by all-white juries in the town of Scottsboro.
The group's legal journey to fight the convictions and win new trials sparked protests over racial injustice and two landmark rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Today, we were able to undo a black eye that has been held over Alabama for many years," said Eddie Cook, the board's assistant executive director.
http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/21/21563495-alabama-pardons-scottsboro-boys-after-82-years?lite
About freaking time...
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)We are almost up to 1960 here.
countryjake
(8,554 posts)Just looking at some of that crap people have posted illustrates how important it is that these pardons were finally handed down.
TroglodyteScholar
(5,477 posts)(my home state)