In this letter from Allan Knight Chalmers, Chairman of the Scottsboro Defense Committee, to Alabama Governor Bibb Graves, Mr. Chalmers describes and complains about the conditions the Scottsboro boys have endured during the 5 1/2 years since they were arrested. Despite two Supreme Court reversals for inadequate counsel and lack of African-Americans in the jury pool and an Alabama court’s motion for a new trial due to insufficient evidence, the nine accused defendants were being held “as if they were already sentenced.”
For more information about the Scottsboro case, read The Scottsboro Boys: Injustice in Alabama from the Spring 2014 issue of Prologue, the Quarterly Publication of the National Archives.
