Modern Era · North America · Politics
1931
Scottsboro boys trial
May 1, 1931
Nine young Black men accused of raping two white women on a freight train in Alabama were tried, convicted, and sentenced to death within weeks. The case, based on fabricated testimony, dragged through American courts for decades and exposed the Jim Crow legal system to national view. It became an early civil rights cause celebre.
In context
Also in 1931 (5 other events on record)
- Japan invades Manchuria · East Asia · War
- Spanish Second Republic proclaimed · Europe · Politics
- Empire State Building opens · North America · Technology
- India's salt tax civil disobedience · South Asia · Politics
- Al Capone convicted of tax evasion · North America · Politics
Before and after in North America
Before and after in Politics
Era
Modern Era (1901–2000), one of 590 events from that era on Saeculum.
Sources