Because industry needed workers to produce material for the fighting effort, World War I brought about mass movement of blacks out of the South to northern industrial cities. This was called The Great Migration, and lasted until the late 1970s. By that time more than five million black people moved to the northern cities. (Jennings and Brewater, p. 351.) The migrating blacks hoped to find better treatment than they faced in the South. While the circumstances were somewhat better, the blacks faced economic discrimination and racial violence in the northern cities too. Race riots occurred in Chicago, East St. Louis, Houston, Tulsa, Omaha, Washington and other places in the early 1920s and in later decades. (Lawson, pp. 111-113.)
It was almost impossible for blacks to get justice in the Jim Crow South. “…[C]olored people have to watch their backs [because] a white woman’s lie in the Jim Crow South will kill ‘a thousand colored men.’” (Routledge, Turner, p. 49.) A 1930s event that reflected the truth of that comment involved the actual 1931 trial of nine black teenagers, “The Scottsboro Boys,” who were falsely accused of sexual assault by two white women in Scottsboro, Alabama. The nine youths were riding a freight train along with some white males and two young white females. A stone-throwing fight between the groups resulted in the whites being forced off the train. The whites reported the alleged event and the blacks were arrested. The white females accused the blacks of raping them. The Alabama governor had to send in the state National Guard to protect the black boys from a lynching. (Bruce M. Conforth, African American Folksong and American Cultural Politics- the Lawrence Gellert Story, p. 67.)
Two weeks after the alleged assaults, the Scottsboro Boys were tried and convicted by an all-white male jury and eight of the nine were sentenced to death. The “Scottsboro Boys” case became a “cause célèbre” across the country. Clarence Darrow became involved in the appeal of the convictions. The successful appeal led to several more trials, with the same results, despite the fact that the two women who brought the charges retracted the allegations. There were more appeals and eventually all nine boys were paroled, freed or pardoned. (Carter, D.T., Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South; Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center website,
http://www.scottsboro-boys.org/history.html.)
Lead Belly wrote a song about the incident in 1938, “The Scottsboro Boys.” (http://youtu.be/wW1yV3_ZM1M)
Go to Alabama and ya better watch out
The landlord’ll get ya, gonna jump and shout
Scottsboro Scottsboro Scottsboro boys
Tell ya what it all aboutGo to Alabama and ya better watch out
The landlord’ll get ya, gonna jump and shout
Scottsboro Scottsboro Scottsboro boys
Tell ya what it all aboutI’m gonna talk to Joe Louis
And it all angered me
Don’t even try to think about it
Alabama reeGo to Alabama and ya better watch out
The landlord’ll get ya, gonna jump and shout
Scottsboro Scottsboro Scottsboro boys
Tell ya all aboutGo to Alabama and ya better watch out
The landlord’ll get ya, gonna jump and shout
Scottsboro Scottsboro Scottsboro boys
Tell ya all aboutI’m gonna tell all the colored people
Even the old nigger here
Don’t ya ever go to Alabama
And try to liveGo to Alabama and ya better watch out
The landlord’ll get ya, gonna jump and shout
Scottsboro Scottsboro Scottsboro boys
Gon’ tell ya all aboutGo to Alabama and ya better watch out
The landlord’ll get ya, gonna jump and shout
Scottsboro Scottsboro Scottsboro boys
Tell ya all aboutGo to Alabama and ya better watch out
The landlord’ll get ya, gonna jump and shout
Scottsboro Scottsboro Scottsboro boys
Tell ya all aboutI’m gonna tell all the colored people
Livin’ in Harlem swing
Don’t ya ever go to Alabama
Just try to singGo to Alabama and ya better watch out
The landlord’ll get ya, gonna jump and shout
Scottsboro Scottsboro Scottsboro boys
Gon’ tell ya all aboutGo to Alabama and ya better watch out
The landlord’ll get ya, gonna jump and shout
Scottsboro Scottsboro Scottsboro boys
Tell it all aboutI’m gonna tell all the colored people
Livin’ in Harlem swing
Don’t ya ever go to Alabama
Just try to singGo to Alabama and ya better watch out
The landlord’ll get ya, gonna jump and shout
Scottsboro Scottsboro Scottsboro boys
Tell what it’s all aboutGo to Alabama and ya better watch out
The landlord’ll get ya, gonna jump and shout
Scottsboro Scottsboro Scottsboro boys
Tell what it’s all about
(The song ends with Lead Belly’s spoken recitation about the Scottsboro Boys incident.)
In 2010, there was a Broadway musical based on the Scottsboro Boys incident called “The Scottsboro Boys: The Musical,” music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb, direction and choreography by Susan Stroman. A video of cast interviews and songs, “The Scottsboro Boys on Broadway Closing Night!” is on YouTube at http://youtu.be/0tYtSZlWyvY.