tCtje
o rtla n ù ffibeertfer
B la c k H is to r y
M
Lonth
I
so m e th in g p e tty : so m e b o d y
ste p p in g on s o m e b o d y ’s to e,
somebody invading som ebody’s
space, a dirty look, a racial taunt, a
boast.
At some point, some white
guys alit from the train, and there
would later be testimony that some
black guys did, too. What the black
guys went on to do, who knows. As
for the whites, one o f them got a
message to a station up ahead that
there were some blacks making
mischief on the train. At Paint Rock,
Alabama, the black guys got rousted
from dift'erent parts o f the train.
In o n e b o x c a r w ere
E ugeneW illiam s, age thirteen;
Haywood Patterson, sixteen; Andy
W right, eighteen; and his little
brother Roy, thirteen. The four, all
from Chattanooga, were hoping to
find riverboat work in Memphis.
B uddies C la re n c e N o rris and
Charlie Weems, ages eighteen and
nineteen, and both from Atlanta,
were together in a car at the end o f
th e tra in . W illie R o b e rso n ,
seventeen, was by his lonesome, as
were Ozie Powell, fourteen, and
Olen Montgomery, also fourteen,
and on his way to Memphis to a free
clinic, hoping for some relief from
whatever had rendered him almost
blind.
Eugene, Haywood, Andy,
Roy, Clarence, Charlie, W illie,
Ozie, and Olen were hauled away
and jailed in Scottsboro, Alabama.
There, word spread fast o f the
fiendish crime o f the nine, soon
known as the Scottsboro Boys.
A crowd quickly formed
outside the jail. It took the presence
o f more than a hundred National
Guard to keep the throng from
busting in and doing the Southern
W hiteman’s duty.
The nine were indicted
for rape. There were four separate
trials, each with an all-white jury.
Start date: April 6, 1931, and all
the trials were over four days later:
Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.
It didn ’t matter that there
were holes and contradictions in
testimony against the Scottsboro
Boys. The Scottsboro nine never
got justice, their case spotlighted
racism in postslavery America I ike
nothing before, as it spotlighted
how hard it was for black people
to come by justice in America.
Considering the case o f
the Scottsboro Boys, it is curious
that som e people regard the
criminal trial ofO.J. Simpson “the
trial o f the century .”
February 9, 2000
Focus
and regal dem eanor w ould do
wonders for the image o f the race
on-screen. R obeson pressured
MGM to treat her well from his post
inside the industry; White uused his
NAACP clout on the outside. And
walking straight up the steps of
MGM with her for contract talks
was her father. Teddy Home looked
breakthrough. Actor-singer Paul
Robeson and the N A A CP’s Walter
White befriended her on the same
night, after hearing her sing at the
trendy Café Society, the only
nonsegregated New York club south
of Harlem.
If there was an opportunity, she
should take it, they said; her style
MGM boss Louis B. Mayerstraight
in the eye and told him nobody
would make a maid or a buffoon of
his Lena; she didn’t need the job
that badly. She was signed to a
se v e n -y e a r c o n tra c t, and the
publicity m ills started rolling,
le v e ra g in g
her
n ig h tc lu b
appearances into box office capital.
for Screen Goddess
B y J ani s A dams
Lena Home possessed
rare beauty and talent. From the
start as a chorus dancer at the
Cotton Club at age sixteen - a job
she left school to take when her
mother was extremely ill - Lena
Hom e had hit the Hollywood
jackpot in ten short years. Added
to her own hard work, three strong
B lack e n c o u ra g e d her film
Black H isto ry Month On OPB
Leontyne Price
Local Color
John Brown
February 16 at 930pm
February V « 'Pm
February 28 at 9pm
Celebrating the African American contribution from "John Brown’s Holy
War” to "Duke Ellington s Washington," and from "Black Voices in
Opera” to OPB’s own "Local Color"
Though she made a number o f films, Lena Horne was frustrated by
Hollywood's racial stereotyping, and during the 1950s her progressive
political views and interracial marriage caused her to be blacklisted fo r
a time. In the end, she overcame all obstacles and established herself as
one o f the luminaries o f American show business.
OPB
It’s Where You Belong- wwwopborg
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