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Thumper
Veteran Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 737
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - 09:48 pm: | 
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Hello All,
Although it does not seem like, I have been reading. I finished one book about Carey's President Lincoln and his views on race and slavery. Deep. I just finished today a novel called Scottsboro by Elen Feldman. Oh man, this was an EXCELLENT novel. The book is about a white female reporter, Alice Whittier, who covered the trials of the Scottsboro Boys from 1931 to 1976. For those of you who don't know in 1931 Alabama, two white women dressed as men, was riding freight trains as hobos until the train was stopped. The two white women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, when confronted by a group of white men, claimed that the 9 young black men--who was also riding in the same freight train--had raped both of the women. The 9 men was then tried and found guilty of raping two white women, who were actually two low level hookers and sentenced to death. Ruby Bates later retracted the lie, but the die had already been cast. Alabama wanted those negroes DEAD. The Scottsboro case got world wide attention. The Communist Party paid for their defense. The US Supreme Court had to rule several times on cases because Alabama was low rent and triflin. Years later, four of the men were finally released while the rest served various sentences all because of those two white women lying because they did not want to be charged with vagrancy. And then in 1976 NBC aired a TV movie entitled, Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys, and those two triflin skanks had the nerve to sue NBC for libel and slander. The civil suit was later thrown out. While Ruby Bates recanted her story, Victoria Price never did. To her dying day, that skank kept that lie going.
The novel is one of those historical novels that has a few fictional characters integrated in a real life historical episode, in the same vein as Bebe Moore Campbell's Your Blues Ain't Like Mine with the retelling of the Emmet Till story. Scottsboro is also similar to Your Blues Ain't Like Mine because of the main characters perspective. Scottsboro follows a white reporter and Your Blues followed the white men who killed Till.
I loved the novel. |
Ferociouskitty
Veteran Poster
Username: Ferociouskitty
Post Number: 519
Registered: 02-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - 10:17 pm: |
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Thanks for the heads up on this book, Thumper. I first heard of this case from Louise Meriwether's Daddy was a Number Runner. That YA book was full of history (Scottsboro case, Father Divine, Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling)!
The first time I ever visited the Schomburg, I researched newspapers which covered the Scottsboro case. Sad stuff. |
Carey
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Carey
Post Number: 1520
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - 11:39 pm: |
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Dang Thump, you got into calling those women skanks, ho's and vagrants. Of course I've heard about The Scottsboro Boys and saw a low budget movie about the case. What I didn't know was that they were defended with funds from the Communist party. And no, I wasn't at the original trial.
Thump, I don't want to highjack this thread but man, when are you going to see Benjamen Button. I would love to discuss your take on it? I didn't know it was an adaptation of a 14 page short story (Kam's review). |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 13307
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2009 - 11:25 am: |
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The Scottsboro "marathon" remains a black chapter in America's history. This case was tailor made for the Communist party because, in exposing America's rabid racism, it provided a good recruiting tool for Black members. One of the failures of the Communist Party, however, was that it was never able to make deep in roads into the black community.
I recently saw a made-for-cable movie that worked this case into the plot but as usual, I can remember the name of it. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 13312
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2009 - 02:06 pm: |
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OK, the name of the film about the Scottsboro boys is "Heavens Fall". It came out in 2006 and continues to appear on Cable channels from time to time and it's a movie I would recommend. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 13318
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2009 - 02:57 pm: |
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I'ts also available on DVD through the Amazon connection. |
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