Scottsboro: A Novel

Synopsis: Alabama, 1931. A posse stops a freight train and arrests nine black youths. Their crime: fighting with white boys. Then two white girls emerge from another freight car, and within seconds the cry of rape goes up. One of the girls sticks to her story. The other changes her tune, again and again. A young journalist, whose only connection to the incident is her overheated social conscience, fights to save the nine youths from the electric chair, redeem the girl who repents her lie, and make amends for her own past. Stirring racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism into an explosive brew, "Scottsboro" is a novel of a shocking injustice that reverberated around the world. 'A fine novel ...Anyone who wants to appreciate the scale of the miracle that a black man has been elected president of the United States should sit down with "Scottsboro"' - Lionel Shriver.

'Even after all these years, the injustice still stuns. Innocent boys sentenced to die, not for a crime they did not commit, but for a crime that never occurred.'

Review: Though this is a fictionalised account of the Scottsboro trials, it reads very much like a factual one. It's a gripping but uncomfortable read.
Our main narrator is Alice Whittier, a female journalist who becomes involved in the case. Her character was the only one that seemed too obviously fictional to me which was a shame. For one thing I couldn't believe, given the circumstances, that she would be able to gain so much access to the convicted boys. But it did enable the writer to make some valid points about women's rights, or the lack of them, in 1930 and she was a likeable enough character.

Our other narrator is Ruby Bates, one of the two white women on the freight train. Ruby and her friend Victoria are prostitutes on their way home from Chattanooga where they've been trying to earn a little money. A fight breaks out between the white and black youths on the train, a fight that started with a 'white foot on a black hand.' The white youths jump or fall off the train but by the time the train reaches the next station - Scottsboro - an angry posse of white men are waiting for it, some with shotguns. Ruby and Victoria know they are in trouble if they are found on this train with the men. They try to run and hide but when discovered Victoria whispers to Ruby 'you tell it like I tell it' and she proceeds to say that she was raped by the black youths on the train. Ruby, who is used to going along with everything Victoria says, and who is terrified besides, deliberates a bit but ultimately corroborates the story.

'That's when I reckoned me and Victoria were saved. Nothing brings white folks together, no matter if they're nose-in-the-air church ladies, fresh-with-their-hands mill bosses, or plain old linthead trash, faster than a coloured boy, a piece of rope, and a tree'.

The boys are convicted of rape and sentenced to death and we follow them through the trials and retrials. Ruby seems to regret the lies she told and sets about trying to help clear the boys names. In a way Ruby's life is as blighted as the Scottsboro boys. Although briefly feted, she soon has to return to a life of poverty and rejection. Nearly every decision she makes is motivated by money, it's hard to like her because it seems that she will sell her soul for a few dollars, but then few of us have to live as she did and cope with the daily grind of poverty.

The injustice of what happened to the 'Scottsboro boys' is overwhelming. It seems that all along the process they were let down, not only by the corrupt and rascist judicial system but also by the very people who set out to help free them. Lawyers became famous, plays were put on, books were written and money was made but those black youths, one of whom was only thirteen when convicted, lost their freedom, their dignity and their hope of a decent future. Some of the actions of the Communist Party of America and the other organisations, who were supporting the boys and campaigning for their release, seemed, at times, questionable and self motivated.

The case was said to have inspired Harper Lee to write To Kill a Mockingbird, although I think she refuted it and mentioned a lesser known case. There are strong similarities though between the cases of the Scottsboro boys and the fictional Tom Robinson, the same sense of futility and racial injustice.

The point made by Lionel Shriver in the synopsis is a relevant one. I can't imagine that any of the Scottsboro boys would have believed that one day, in the not too distant future, a black man would become president of the United States. Living, as they did daily, with the state sanctioned oppression towards black people and with still some years before the birth of the civil rights movement, that would've seemed an impossible dream to them.

The book made me feel quite angry, it wasn't a comfortable read. I couldn't quite get my head around how the boys were convicted when so much evidence seemed to contradict the allegations. But then, the objective was to send eight of the nine black youths to the electric chair so truth didn't come into it. I'm glad I read it, I wont easily forget it.