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49 - The Scottsboro Boys and Colonel Davis
48 Plays1 month ago
Jeff tells the infamous story of the Scottsboro Boys and how their case led to two landmark Supreme Court rulings. Sam shares the inspiring story of American hero Colonel Paris Davis.
Visit us on Linktree for the collection of links, Instagram, or email us at downtherabbitholepod@gmail.com.
Jeff's sources:
- http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/scottsboro/SB_acct.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottsboro_Boys
- http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/scottsboro/SB_powus.html
- https://www.aclu.org/documents/aclu-history-tragedy-scottsboro-boys
- https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/287/45/
- https://www.aclu.org/news/racial-justice/the-saga-of-the-scottsboro-boys
- https://youtu.be/ethsl1NwP-M?si=Hp1qYkOOV23G9NRz
- Crimes of the Centuries podcast
Sam's sources:
Recommended
Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, Sam. ah Jeffrey. Hello.
Introduction & Podcast Promotion
00:00:25
Speaker
hello Hi. Welcome to Down the Rabbit Hole with Jeff and Sam. I'm Jeff. And I'm Sam. Yeah, you are. What's going on? Oh, business. Business first. Okay, business first. You can find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, and Amazon.
00:00:38
Speaker
And you can reach out to us on Instagram at downtherabbitholepod or at downtherabbitholepod at gmail.com. We need to set a goal, Sam. I'm swinging my wand at you like nobody's business. You are I feel like something's to there. We need to set a goal.
00:00:55
Speaker
The goal is five times, and this doesn't count, we need to remind people when they're listening to this show to hit the star button or to rate the show. okay Because when they hit the stars, that does something to our algorithm. It puts us like in front of people's faces.
00:01:11
Speaker
We'd love to be in of people's faces. number one, right now, as you're listening to this Beautiful, completely like amateur vortex of fuckery. Hit the star button.
00:01:23
Speaker
We prefer five stars. If you give us one, we'll take it. We will. At least it's better than none. Uh-huh. So that was one time. Do I have to say it again? You would do it now. You do it now. Okay. Okay.
00:01:35
Speaker
Hey, guys, if you're listening, I don't care if you like us or not, give us some sort of stars. Click the button or the rate, whatever the option is. Review us. Yes. that was two.
00:01:46
Speaker
We've got three more times in this show that we're going to say this to you in random, random spots. just going to add subliminal messaging to this. You just made that up. ah How are you? I'm good. How are you? Good.
00:01:58
Speaker
I'm in my prime right now. The weather is... It's my happy place. 72. I got some new shorts on from Humankind. and i love them Did you see
Social Media Awareness & Celebrity Encounters
00:02:08
Speaker
them?
00:02:08
Speaker
Yeah, they're cute. They're cute. Yeah. They're the Humankind LGBTQIA, like swim trunk, but also not swim trunks. and just saw your thing you sent me on Instagram. The woman was talking about the LGBTQIA+. She didn't know what the plus meant. She thought maybe it means straight people.
00:02:25
Speaker
Someone else sent me one that was like, maybe that's just like a bonus subscription, you know, like Apple Plus or like. Plus, we want everybody two You get the bonus tracks. Go the love. um Also, I'm kind of stuck on Instagram. I get these, the same things all the time.
00:02:41
Speaker
There is this one woman who drives a taxi and she has Tourette's. And so she gets into the car. Now, these people hitch a ride with her because she's an Uber driver or whatever.
00:02:54
Speaker
Do you know what i'm talking about? No, I don't. But I don't think that I can... No, it is the absolute best. And she she says that she makes fun with it. So, like, she will have a Tourette's kind of moment and it scares the shit out of the passenger.
00:03:11
Speaker
And then she said... I have Tourette's and it is okay if you get scared and laugh, but I just want to share with you what it is. And so now she's become a TikTok person and she's sharing what Tourette's is and they laugh so hard. They even cry in the car with her.
00:03:26
Speaker
it's It's really kind of awesome to make that. and She's doing her part in making people aware. Aware. Yeah. yeah That's the thing. I saw your face and I was like, am I saying and something wrong? I didn't know if it was going to be like, would laugh at the wrong moment. She invites it. she She'll scream in their face and it scares the shit out of them. And that's when she's like, by the way, I have Tourette's.
00:03:47
Speaker
Do you know what that is? And they're like, oh yeah, okay. So she makes it, yeah, she makes it cool. yeah That's good. I like that. um Crime junkies.
00:03:58
Speaker
Crime junkie. are crime junkies. and Britt. Ash and Britt. They did it. ah They were so good. They were so good. so Such a cool experience. The whole thing.
00:04:10
Speaker
i got, Jeffrey, I got you into a sporting arena. I just want you to know that. goes, do they play any games or something here? like indeed they do. Literally said that exact quote.
00:04:26
Speaker
Looking around at all the seats like, why? Why are there so many seats Do they play games in this room? Is this a game full of rooms? Oh, no. I said that backwards. And it was. I was in an arena.
00:04:37
Speaker
went to see Crime Junkie, which they're so good. So good. So good. They've got that shit down. They do. I mean, almost 10 years. Yeah.
00:04:49
Speaker
Good for them. Oh, such a good, good show. Such a good night. Oh, so good. I um finished working out today, and then I go down to the smoothie place, which is right by Orange Theory that I work out at.
00:05:04
Speaker
And this guy goes with me because we work out right beside each other. And so we'll go get a smoothie with whey protein, FYI, to somebody out there.
00:05:17
Speaker
And ah so we're standing in there and we're like drenched in sweat. So we're waiting on our smoothie to come out. And I say to the guy that I'm standing there with who works out beside me, I'm like, who is this guy that is in front of us? Like he looks so familiar.
00:05:33
Speaker
And he didn't know it it didn't come to him quickly first. But then he said, I mean, it's somebody like Sean Spicer or something like that. Lo and behold, right there in front of us, it was Sean Spicer. I Googled Sean Spicer and it was him.
00:05:46
Speaker
That's a short guy. kind of love Gotta love living where we do. Yeah. And I just think I only knew him because he was on, like, I knew he worked for the, he was the spokesperson for the White House or something like that.
00:06:00
Speaker
But he was also on Saturday Night Live. He did all the rounds after he was done with that job. That's the reason why I know him. But I couldn't put a name. i was looking at somebody that I've seen on TV a lot of times.
00:06:13
Speaker
Sean Spicer. DMV, baby. That's where we live. DMV. Just sharing a smoothie place with... But then I said to Josh, I was like, so Josh, who would you like...
00:06:25
Speaker
I mean, obviously, we're not going to freak out about seeing and Sean Spicer in this movie place because we live here and it's kind of whatever. But I said, who would you freak out about if you saw right now?
00:06:37
Speaker
Like, who would you have a moment like – because he's, like, calm and collected. but i was like who would he fangirl over? Jennifer Garner. Yeah. I thought about you when he said that. I thought about you when he said that because – I'd probably just pass out. I'd be like, huh.
00:06:51
Speaker
Yeah. Mine would be –
00:06:55
Speaker
ah Julia Roberts. ah If I saw Julia Roberts, I would freak the fuck out. That would get me too. That would get me too. I don't know. I mean, i Henry Cavill, I'd faint.
00:07:06
Speaker
Boom. Faint. I'd be like, hey, I think I know you from something to him. And then you would look at me laying on the ground. Oh, it must be Henry Cavill. Jeff's unconscious. Is he the new Superman? No, they made it with another wannabe.
00:07:21
Speaker
He looks similar enough, but it's not him. yeah I was watching that trailer and I was like, that looks like it wants to be Henry Gabel, but it's not.
00:07:33
Speaker
I don't care. like Anytime there's another Superman movie coming out... God damn, what did you drop this time? Sam, you're a mess. This is what we signed up for. Oh, she dropped her phone.
00:07:48
Speaker
Now she's going down to pick up the phone. Let's make this dramatic. Now she's picking up the phone. She's picking it up. She's holding on to the table. She's coming
The Story of the Scottsboro Boys
00:07:56
Speaker
out from the abyss. And she's here again.
00:08:00
Speaker
Anyway, I don't care about, like, it's one of those things for me, like a horror movie that comes out. ah so A Superman movie. It's something my dad and I used to do in the 80s. With Christopher Reeves as Superman. I will go see it every single time.
00:08:14
Speaker
Let's see. The new one is played by... Cast.
00:08:23
Speaker
I can't believe it's not Henry Cavill. He wasn't in the last one. He was in the one before that in like, 2008. yeah this is
00:08:33
Speaker
i knew something about a movie or something like that you just were like no yeah i didn't i didn't this is a david corn sweat yeah well he was kind of hot yeah i'll go see him i mean he's just i mean he's just i don't know he's like too much wannabe henry cavill look-alike it's too much It's not too much.
00:08:56
Speaker
He's very handsome. I'm going to go see... think Cavill's handsome. Damn right. But Julia Roberts for me, and I knew when he said Jennifer Garner for you, um was like, yeah, Sam would pass Absolutely.
00:09:08
Speaker
Absolutely. I mean, I've seen... i mean, you know me. Sports fan, right? Obviously. Big Cavs fan, obviously. They're playing tonight. BT Dubs. I'm so excited. Actually, not tonight. Technically, today. But when this comes out, it's...
00:09:24
Speaker
not oh so the eighth when this comes out so they're playing on the sixth is it somebody's birthday today it ah it is is aj my tiny sweet not so tiny she's as tall as i am yeah she's not tiny she's not tiny she got legs for days well she's 11 years old today yeah awesome uh yeah My cousin Casey had a birthday on the 5th of May.
00:09:50
Speaker
it was just her birthday, Casey Leanne. Happy birthday. Casey Leanne Stunningham. ah We'll see you and June. We'll see you in June.
00:10:02
Speaker
So what are you drinking, Jeff? I am drinking a poppy um watermelon and lime. That's my drink of choice today.
00:10:14
Speaker
Is this a poppy? This is a poppy. It is. It is a ooh ginger, lemon, and turmeric. Fizzy and gutsy. There you go
00:10:27
Speaker
go.
00:10:31
Speaker
Yeah. Ooh. Bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble. I just inhaled some of the bubbles. Yeah. Can you do that again, please? can't.
00:10:47
Speaker
Have you ever done that before? Mm-mm.
00:10:52
Speaker
Cheers, Chris. Cheers, Chris. You should try inhaling the bubbles. and I'm good. It's so good. Delicious.
00:11:10
Speaker
So good. Okay. Flip a coin. Flip a coin. All right. Tell me when to stop. Okay. Everybody, while you're out there listening, if you right now could hit five stars and like this show, give us five stars. At least you can do three stars. Sam's trying to pick out the coin that we're going to flip and pick it out now.
00:11:33
Speaker
That was three times. We're done. No, we have more. Two more. Okay, this is ah one pound. Oh, British. It's 2016, Elizabeth two and then a whole bunch of letters. So, as we all know, you, sir, are going to be the queen.
00:11:53
Speaker
Okay. And I will be the fruit, the plants. don't know what it I like the fruit.
00:12:03
Speaker
You're going to be the fruit. Okay. Wish me luck. Okay. I'm really tied up against this table, so if I lose the coin, that's it. Oh, no. Don't lose the coin. I'm not going to lose the coin. Well, last time i went into the bathroom, across the living room.
00:12:15
Speaker
I mean, I'm sorry. Across the kitchen, into the bathroom. it really did. I made a clonk, too. Okay. Wish me luck. Stop it. That guy was so close. And she dropped the coin. And here we go again.
00:12:29
Speaker
You can't do that. You're not going to be able to reach it.
00:12:33
Speaker
Did you get it? I go first? It's you. Okay. workout Okay. First of all, the story that I chose today,
00:12:47
Speaker
Okay, so I got the idea from my story from Crime Junkies. In a way, from Crime Junkies. But not... I mean... So they focus on unsolved murders. But they also focus on the Innocence Project. And how many people are wrongfully convicted and spend time in prison.
00:13:05
Speaker
Oh, that one hurts. Yeah. So I googled, like, the most famous wrongful convictions. Those are hard. and when I googled it...
00:13:17
Speaker
Right in front of my face was somewhere where I grew up and I knew the story, but I only knew like the first three sentences of the story. So as you were saying, i'm part of the fun about this show is the fun thing for us about this show is that we get to learn yeah about shit we want to learn about, right? Yeah.
00:13:36
Speaker
With that said, you helped me write this, okay? It's a disappointing and tragic part of history that afflicted many towns, cities, and states in the South, if not most of the country, throughout the history of the United States.
00:13:50
Speaker
It's not a reflection on those people whom I know and I love and who live there now or have lived there or still live there. It's a story worth telling, but it's a hard story and a hard story to hear.
00:14:03
Speaker
um It hopefully emphasizes the historical importance and gives it the honor it deserves with no minimizing without offending those who came after or had no part in it.
00:14:15
Speaker
So, because I grew up there and my family is there, I want to stress that before I tell the story, okay? and Yep.
00:14:25
Speaker
okay let's see god this is wild so no crime in american history let alone a crime that never occurred produces many trials convictions reversals and retrials as did the alleged sexual assault of two white girls by nine black teenagers on a southern railroad freight on march 25th 1931.
00:14:49
Speaker
Over the course of the eight decades that followed, the struggle for justice of the Scottsboro Boys, as the Black teens were then called, made celebrities out of anonymities, launched and ended careers, wasted lives, produced heroes, opened Southern juries to Blacks, exacerbated sectional strife, and divided America's political left.
00:15:10
Speaker
This is the story of the Scottsboro Boys, an American tragedy. Do you know the story? and Yeah. That's wild. I didn't... never even realized that that is where you're from yeah well from a town about an hour from there but when i was 12 we moved to scottsboro and you're gonna meet my family from there because because we moved there i got a bunch i got an aunt from there and then cousins and so yeah okay
00:15:42
Speaker
So I went back and forth in my head about what to call the Scottsboro Boys because their ages range between 12 and 19. So I know they're not all boys, but they're not all men. And historically, they've been referred to as the Scottsboro Boys. So I'm going to refer to them as the boys with respect.
00:15:59
Speaker
Okay. In 1931, in Scottsboro, Alabama, America is in the throes of a Great Depression. Alabama and Tennessee are among the state's hardest hit.
00:16:09
Speaker
People couldn't find work, and many had been forced out of the work they had. Jobs were disappearing, and in 1929, unemployment was 5%. That jumped 16% by 1931. That's crazy, right? that jumped to sixteen percent by nineteen thirty one that's crazy right To find work, many would hop on freight trains to travel to the next city.
00:16:30
Speaker
More than two million men and thousands of women did this during the Great Depression. Times were tough, and you had to do what you had to do. March 25, 1931, African-American teenage boys get into a fight with six teenage boys on a freight train from Chattanooga to Memphis.
00:16:52
Speaker
They all illegally hitched a ride on this train. They were called hobos. And Chattanooga is in eastern Tennessee. Memphis is in western Tennessee. To get there on this track, it goes down through the northern part of Alabama.
00:17:06
Speaker
That includes Section, Scottsboro, Paint Rock, Huntsville, Decatur, Florence, and then goes up into Memphis. So you go through the very northern part of Alabama.
00:17:21
Speaker
After the fight, six white guys were kicked off the train because they started the fight. Literally, the white guys started it so they were kicked off the train. One of them stepped on the hand of one of the black men.
00:17:34
Speaker
This pissed the white guys off so much that they went to the sheriff in Paint Rock, Alabama, and said they were assaulted. The sheriff got together an angry mob of white people and ordered the train to be stopped.
00:17:47
Speaker
The sheriff then ordered every Black person off the train, and then they arrested them. um The Black people were gathered, and they were narrowed down to nine who were involved in the scuffle.
00:17:58
Speaker
They became the Scottsboro Boys. The nine boys are Clarence Norris, 19, Charlie Weems, 19, Andy Wright, 19, Haywood Peter Patterson, 19, Olin Montgomery, 17, Ozzie Powell, 16, William Roberson, 16, Eugene Williams, 13, and Roy Wright, 12.
00:18:20
Speaker
Of these nine boys, only four of them knew each other. So while the boys were in custody, two white women were also on that train, and the white women were Victoria Price and Ruby bra Bates.
00:18:34
Speaker
They approached authorities and claimed they had been sexually assaulted by the boys after the white boys had gotten kicked off the train. For context, not only was this post-Civil War world of Jim Crow laws, but it was also stupidly misogynistic and paternalizing world.
00:18:53
Speaker
Historians have speculated that Price had sexual relations with the man on the train who was not her husband. And because of that, she actually risked being charged with federal crimes because she had violated the 1910 Man Act, a law that had prohibited women from crossing state lines, quote, for the purpose of prostitution, debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.
00:19:15
Speaker
Those moral cops, you know. Listen, the 1910 Man Act. And as per Sam, quote, that's a big problem. You said that the other night. That's a big, big problem.
00:19:26
Speaker
So basically what she did, along with Ruby, is said that the black boys sexually assaulted her so they wouldn't look into her own background. Oh, convenient. Convenient. Regardless, word got out. Now there's an angry white mob outside, per usual.
00:19:39
Speaker
Like angry white mobs back in the 30s were everywhere. So stupid. It was the automatic assumption of every white person that the boys were guilty. The women were white and the boys were black.
00:19:52
Speaker
The angry mob was demanding the boys be released so they could be lynched. This did not happen because the sheriff at the time stood in the doorway to prevent it from happening. He also called in the National Guard to come and protect the boys.
00:20:05
Speaker
Oh. Okay, so these boys were guilty until proven innocent. Simple as. Full stop. So the nine teenage boys were indicted by a grand jury on March 30th.
00:20:17
Speaker
This is five days after the arrest. The arrest was on the 26th. They're indicted on the 30th. Like this is had it not, yeah, ah just got I've got thoughts here.
00:20:31
Speaker
Before the trial, the boys were not allowed to seek legal counsel or contact their families. Since they were they were nine teenage boys, the judge decided they weren't they were gonna be tried in four trials, like three, two, two, two, right?
00:20:44
Speaker
Back to back as fast as they could be tried. And the first trial started on the 6th. Representing the boys in their uphill legal battle were Stephen, Roddy, and Milo Moody.
00:20:56
Speaker
They were no dream team. Roddy was an unpaid and unprepared Chattanooga real estate attorney who, on the first day of the trial, was so drunk that he could hardly walk straight.
00:21:07
Speaker
And my Aunt Tara, who this was the first case she read in law school, said there have been many a drunk attorney. But that was their case. Was so drunk he could hardly walk straight.
00:21:18
Speaker
Moody was a forgetful 70-year-old local attorney who hadn't tried a case in decades. So these are the attorneys appointed to the case. The attorneys had about 25 minutes to discuss the case with the nine boys, and they weren't even appointed to the defendants until the day of the trial.
00:21:36
Speaker
So give that some thought. You have nine teenage boys who are about to be tried for sexual assault. You have two court-appointed attorneys. One is the town drunk and he's lit. when he walks into the courtroom. The other one is the beginning of senality, like he's becoming senile in everybody.
00:21:54
Speaker
And just like that, the trials were over in four days, one right after the other. with large mobs of people shouting every time someone would get convicted. So a conviction would happen.
00:22:06
Speaker
Somebody would run out to the steps of the courtroom in Scottsboro in the town center and scream, guilty, the mob would cheer. That would let the jurors inside know, oh, the first one was guilty, right?
00:22:20
Speaker
The lawyers didn't even give closing arguments, and only evident the only evidence that was considered was the testimony of the two women, ah who were later found to be in a completely different train cart, not even in the same train cart.
00:22:34
Speaker
All nine were found guilty. Because sexual assault was punishable by death in Alabama at the time, the eight oldest boys were sentenced to the electric chair. The youngest at age 12 was spared the electric chair because how would that look to people? But the 13-year-old, the youngest was 12, but the 13-year-old was given the electric chair.
00:22:54
Speaker
Cruel and unusual, some would say. ah The eight oldest ones were scheduled to die July 10, 1931. The youngest was granted a mistrial. and word of the trial got out people across the country started protesting in harlem people were protesting the protest drew the attention of the naacp and the communist party the naacp was hesitant to take the case because it involved involved sexual assault and they were kind of a new organization it involved sexual assault so like optics maybe were not good but they
00:23:28
Speaker
They did come around and agreed to take the case, but the boys had already said they wanted the Communist Party to take their case. So those were the lawyers that they chose. Lawyer George Shamley would lead the team to open up an investigation to prove the boys' innocence and hold off the executions.
00:23:46
Speaker
He also got an appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court, who heard arguments on October 10, 1932. He argued that the boys did not get a fair trial. What would make him say that?
00:23:58
Speaker
On March 24, 1932, the Alabama Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling on seven of the eight remaining Scottsboro boys. It granted a new trial for the 13-year-old. The Scottsboro boys appealed again, and this time to the United States Supreme Court, who heard the arguments on October 10, 1932.
00:24:19
Speaker
Because the federal government was now involved with the court or in the case, the court had to figure out whether due process of the 14th Amendment made it so that they could step in and determine whether or not the boys got a fair trial.
00:24:32
Speaker
And the Supreme Court did step in. On November 7, 1932, in Powell v. Alabama, the court announced a 7-2 ruling. The court reversed the convictions of the boys, saying the boys were denied due process and not given a fair trial.
00:24:47
Speaker
Not only were they not given enough time to reasonably defend themselves as protected by the Fifth Amendment, they also were likely not given a full opportunity for a right to a lawyer as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment.
00:25:01
Speaker
For the record, they weren't saying that the boys were innocent. They said that the trials weren't legit and they needed a new trial. Justice Sutherland of the United States Supreme Court stated in his opinion, quote,
00:25:12
Speaker
in the light of the facts outlined in the fore part of this opinion the ignorance and illiteracy of the the defendants their youth the circumstances of public hostility the imprisonment and the close surveillance of the defendants by military forces the fact that their friends and families were all in other states and the communication with them was necessarily difficult and above all that they stood in deadly peril of their lives, we think the failure of the trial court to give them reasonable time and opportunities to just secure counsel was a clear denial of due process.
00:25:46
Speaker
I didn't even want to read the two opposing opinions. I mean, like, how do you oppose? I didn't even want to read it. ah didn't even.
00:25:57
Speaker
So the trial went back to the lower court, but this time in Decatur, Alabama, right in the heart of KKK country. Would a reasonable person assume that they would receive a fair trial?
00:26:10
Speaker
What do you think?
00:26:13
Speaker
Yeah, me too. The boys kept their lawyers, but the new judge was Judge Horton, and the jury was made up of all white people, as was the first trials in KKK country.
00:26:26
Speaker
During the retrials, the racist mob was outside every day, and the National Guard came to protect the boys again. In this trial, here however, there was a surprise witness. It was the stuff of movies.
00:26:38
Speaker
Right at the end of the trial, the defense called to the stand Ruby Bates. Her testimony was huge. She stated that she had not been sexually assaulted by the boys, and she was sort of forced to testify to that during the first trial.
00:26:52
Speaker
Despite this, the jury found them guilty. But george Judge Horton said that the boys needed a new trial as this one was not fair. Yeah. He did the right thing.
00:27:03
Speaker
He ordered the new trial for Haywood Peterson, and because he did this, Judge Horton lost his political career. He wouldn't be elected ever again. You got to stand on something or you'll fall for anything.
00:27:17
Speaker
now there's a new trial a new judge and one black juror still haywood patterson was found guilty despite the i'm sorry there was not one black jury there was one black juror in the pool of possible jurors obviously despite the woman saying he did not sexually assault her and he was found guilty and the jury also found norris guilty at the retrial so norris and haygood were headed back to the electric chair They both would have appeal their cases again while the others were still waiting to appeal their cases.
00:27:50
Speaker
Fortunately for peter Peterson and Norris, the Supreme Court heard their appeals again. Four years after the Scottsboro Boys rode that train and were arrested, at the the United States Supreme Court announced their decision in Norris v. Alabama.
00:28:05
Speaker
The vote was unanimous. The Supreme Court sided with Norris and Patterson, saying that they again weren't given a fair trial because while the defendants were black, they had zero black people in the jury box.
00:28:18
Speaker
They once again did not have a fair shot to prove their innocence citing the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. This is an ex expert excerpt from the Supreme Court opinion. Quote, The question arose whether the names of Negroes were added, in fact, on the jury roll.
00:28:36
Speaker
The books containing the jury roll for Jackson County for the year nineteen thirty to thirty one were produced. They were produced from the custody of a member of the jury commission, which in 1931 had succeeded the commission, which had made up the jury role.
00:28:52
Speaker
there was that was completed, and then suddenly there were new names. on the pages of this role appeared the names of six negroes they were entered respectfully at the end of the precinct list which were alphabetically arranged there was a list that was completed and suddenly there were new names The geniusness of these entries was disputed.
00:29:17
Speaker
It appeared that after the jury jury roll in question had been made up, and after the new jury commission had taken office, one of the new commissioners directed the new clerk to draw lines after the names which had been placed on the roll by the preceding commission.
00:29:32
Speaker
These lines on the pages under consideration were red lines, and the clerk of the old commission testified that they were not put in there by him. The entries made by the new clerk for the new jury roll were below these lines.
00:29:46
Speaker
The court said that there needed to be retrials, but this time with African Americans on the jury pool or in the jury pool and on the stand or the jury box.
00:29:58
Speaker
And this is just not a happy ending story, so we're not even to the end of the story yet. Hayward Patterson got a fourth trial in January of 1936. This time, black people were in the pool of possible members, but none got picked for the actual trial.
00:30:12
Speaker
Yet again, Peterson was convicted of sexual assault, but he was given 75 years in prison rather than the electric chair. This was the very first time in Alabama history where a black man was charged with sexual assault and did not get the electric chair.
00:30:28
Speaker
He escaped from prison in 1948. He managed to write a book in 1950. He was found in Michigan in 1950, and like the governor of Alabama wanted him to come back to Michigan, but Michigan's governor was not going to extradite him back to Alabama.
00:30:45
Speaker
As for the other, Ozzie Powell attacked a guard and the guard shot him in the head. It didn't kill him, but he had severe neurological problems for the rest of his life. He was released from prison in 1946. In 1947, Alabama dropped all charges against four of the boys, Robertson, Montgomery, Williams, and Wright.
00:31:05
Speaker
There was evidence that they all suffered mental health issues for the rest of their lives. Wright served in the army and when he got out of service, he went home. He was convinced his wife was cheating on him.
00:31:17
Speaker
He shot her and then he shot himself. Roy's brother Andy was the last of the nine to be freed from prison in June of 1950. He moved to New York the next year. He was accused of sexual assault, but he was found not guilty and by a white jury.
00:31:34
Speaker
Charlie Weems suffered permanent eye injury after he was gassed in prison for reading communist books. He was released in 1943, lived a quiet life. Clarence Norris, who was the oldest Scottsboro boy and received the death sentence in the final trial, was paroled in 1946 and went into hiding.
00:31:53
Speaker
He later wrote a book about his experience, and then he died in 1989.
00:31:58
Speaker
Alabama decided to fully pardon the Alabama boys 80 years later in November of 2013, albeit the boys had long since passed away. There has been a musical about the Scottsboro Boys, and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird was partially inspired by this true story.
00:32:18
Speaker
The Scottsboro Boys is one of the o The Scottsboro Boys is one of the most shameful examples of injustice in our nation's history. It makes clear that the deep south of
Visiting the Scottsboro Boys Memorial
00:32:30
Speaker
the 1930s, jurors were not willing to accord a black charged with sexually assaulting a white woman, the usual presumption of innocence.
00:32:38
Speaker
In fact, one may argue that the presumption seemed reversed. A black person was presumed guilty unless he could establish his innocence beyond a reasonable doubt. The case showed that to jurors, black lives didn't count for much.
00:32:52
Speaker
The jurors in April of 1933 had just voted to sentence Haywood Patterson to death were seen laughing as they emerged from the jury pool or from the jury room. Evil rarely comes in the form of monsters, but rather in the form of relatively normal people who, for reasons of careers, ideology, or desire for so so society's approval, are indifferent to the human consequences of their inaction.
00:33:17
Speaker
Because of the indifferent jurors and career motivated prosecutors, cutors the self-serving and groundless accusations of two women were allowed to change forever the lives of nine black teenagers who found themselves in the wrong place at the exact wrong time.
00:33:32
Speaker
And this is what the ACLU said about this. um The case marked the first stirrings of the civil rights movement and led to two landmark rulings from the United States Supreme Court that established important rights for criminal defendants.
00:33:47
Speaker
The Scottsboro defendants were ultimately saved from execution but languished in prison for years. Even after being released, most never fully recovered from their ordeal.
00:33:59
Speaker
Their story has rightly been called an American tragedy. And that is the story of the Scottsboro Boys.
00:34:09
Speaker
There's so much more to this story, but I couldn't ah couldn't just keep going with it. But there was so much more to it. And i think the thing that's most interesting to me and heartbreaking, the thing I thought about at the end there, was like...
00:34:26
Speaker
the lie that created all this and the men's life, like those kids didn't have a chance. Didn't have a chance. It was all because she was trying to hide her infidelity.
00:34:39
Speaker
Yeah. That's the thing that gets me is their life was forever fucked up by that one moment, forever fucked up by that one moment. The things they did after the suicide, the shooting the wife. the Yeah. they They couldn't rebound from that.
00:34:56
Speaker
Uh, Damn.
00:35:00
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Damn.
00:35:05
Speaker
So you know what? I think maybe when we go, um want to go see the um memorial for the Scottsboro Boys. I've never seen it. Didn't even know one existed. I would love to see it. Yeah, let's do it.
00:35:16
Speaker
Oh, OK.
00:35:19
Speaker
I'm going to try and bounce back from that. Oh, please
Colonel Paris D. Davis: A Journey to Recognition
00:35:22
Speaker
take me out of that. That would almost have me in tears by the end. Well, this one you will know, um but I thought it was good to share.
00:35:34
Speaker
Sometimes in life we meet people who leave a mark on us. Sometimes we meet people who have already left their mark on the nation or the world. Recently, i personally had the honor of meeting an absolutely amazing man who shared his story with me and told me to share it with others.
00:35:50
Speaker
It is a story worth retelling, and I'm going to do my best to tell it in a way that honors him. On June 17th and 18th, 1965, the 883rd Regional Force Company of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam was located in Bong San.
00:36:06
Speaker
Captain Paris D. Davis of the U.S. Army 5th Special Forces Group, Airborne, 1st Special Forces, along with three of his teammates, were serving as advisors on the Vietnamese team's first operations.
00:36:22
Speaker
The mission was a nighttime raid on the Viet Cong regional headquarters. Through Captain Davis's command, their troops were able to surprise the enemy, gain tactical advantage, and kill approximately 100 enemy soldiers.
00:36:36
Speaker
On the evening of the 17th, Davis personally captured two Viet Cong soldiers and interrogated them for information. After their successful mission, the Regional Force Company was ambushed on their way back to their base.
00:36:50
Speaker
The enemy army Davis had learned of it of in his interrogation was significantly larger than their friendly force. They sustained heavy casualties. Davis was initially separated from the unit with four other soldiers.
00:37:05
Speaker
He engaged in hand-to-hand combat with multiple enemies. Then he destroyed gum gun emplacements and captured enemy soldiers. He fought to get back to the rest of his troops.
00:37:18
Speaker
He was struck by automatic weapons fire, and while engaged in hand-to-hand, he received wounds from close-range shots from a rifle. Under the lead of Captain Davis, the disorganized and inexperienced company rallied.
00:37:33
Speaker
Davis disregarded his own safety to continue commanding the force. He directed artillery and small arms fire, all while exposing himself to the enemy small arms fire. He was wounded in the leg, and in order to evacuate those under his command, he refused medevac himself.
00:37:50
Speaker
Air support arrived and he directed their fire to about 30 meters from his own position. He then threw caution to the wind and crossed the open field. He crawled approximately 150 yards under intense enemy fire to rescue his team sergeant, who was immobilized and seriously wounded.
00:38:07
Speaker
While carrying his sergeant up a hill, Davis sustained another wound. Again, he refused medical evac. His personal account of the incident is as follows.
00:38:20
Speaker
About the time I started moving the platoon back to the main body, I heard firing and saw a wounded friendly Vietnamese soldier running from the direction of firing. He told me that the remainder of the 883rd company was under attack.
00:38:34
Speaker
I moved the platoon back i had towards the main body. When I reached the company, the enemy had it pinned down in an open field with automatic weapons and mortar fire.
00:38:45
Speaker
I immediately ordered the platoon I had to return fire, but they did not. Only a few men started firing. I started firing at the enemy, moving up and down the line, encouraging the 883rd company to return fire.
00:38:59
Speaker
We started to receive fire from the right flank. I ran down to where the firing was and found five Viet Cong coming over the trench line. I killed all five, and then I heard firing from the left flank.
00:39:11
Speaker
I ran down there and saw about six Viet Cong moving toward our position. I threw a grenade and killed four of them. My M16 then jammed, so I shot one with my pistol and hit the other with my M16 again and again until he was dead.
00:39:26
Speaker
Master Sergeant Waugh started to yell that he had been shot in the foot. I ran to the middle of the open field and tried to get to him, but the Viet Cong automatic fire was too intense. I had to move back to safety.
00:39:37
Speaker
By this time, Staff Sergeant Morgan, who was at the edge of the open field, came to. He had been knocked out by a Viet Cong mortar round. He told me that he was receiving sniper fire.
00:39:48
Speaker
I spotted the sniper and I shot him in his ca of camouflaged manhole. I crawled over and dropped a canadian grenade in the hole, killing two additional Viet Cong.
00:40:00
Speaker
Friendly reinforcements arrived after many hours of holding the line. They encouraged Davis to leave for the medical evac, but he continued to refuse. He stayed to rescue one of his teammates, one of the other special forces advisors who had been wounded in the initial ambush and presumed dead.
00:40:16
Speaker
He found him severely wounded, but still alive. He ordered evac for him and stayed to finish the evacuation for the rest of the unit. Another personal account from him.
00:40:27
Speaker
I ran out and I pulled Staff Sergeant Morgan to safety. He was slightly wounded and I treated him for shock. The enemy again tried to overrun our position. I picked up a machine gun and started firing.
00:40:38
Speaker
I saw four or five of the enemy drop and the remaining ones break and run. I then set up a 60 millimeter mortar, dropped about five or six mortars down the tube, and ran out to get Master Sergeant Waugh.
00:40:52
Speaker
Morgan was partially recovered and placing machine gun fire into the enemy position. I ran out and tried to pick up Waugh, who had by now been wounded four times. I tried to pick him up but was unable to do so.
00:41:03
Speaker
I was shot slightly in the back of the leg as I ran for cover. I picked up the nearest weapon and started to fire. I was also throwing grenades. I killed about six or seven more.
00:41:14
Speaker
I was then ordered to take the troops I had and leave. I informed the colonel that i had one wounded American and one American I didn't know the status of.
00:41:25
Speaker
I informed the Colonel that I would not leave until I got all the Americans out. The entire fight lasted 19 hours. 19 hours of consistent, continuous fighting.
00:41:37
Speaker
He sustained multiple gunshot wounds, wounds from grenade fragments and mortar rounds. He saved all of the Americans and a large portion of the Vietnamese force. A bit of background about this legend.
00:41:50
Speaker
Davis was born near Cleveland, Ohio in 1939. He attended Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he studied poli-sci on an or ROTC scholarship. He commissioned as an Army Reserve Officer in 1959.
00:42:05
Speaker
In 1960, he graduated from Airborne and Ranger schools. In 1962, he earned his Special Forces qualification. He was selected for the 7th Special Forces Group Airborne Unit, 1st Special Forces.
00:42:19
Speaker
He served in Korea and then Vietnam. He deployed first to Vietnam in 1962. And then in between deployments, he was promoted to captain as a detachment commander. This made him the first African-American special forces officer.
00:42:33
Speaker
His second tour in 1965 resulted in the fight near Bong San, where he saved the Vietnamese unit and three Americans, Robert Brown, John Reinberg, and Billy Wall.
00:42:45
Speaker
For his heroism in the battle, he received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star with V, a Purple Heart with one Bronze Oak leaf cluster, and the Air Medal with V. He also received the Soldiers Medal for Heroism.
00:43:01
Speaker
In 1971, he attended the Command and General Staff College, then the Naval War College in 1980. He served with Army Staff, the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Headquarters U.S. Army European Command.
00:43:15
Speaker
He holds a master's degree in public affairs and a Ph.D. in public admin. In 1981, he was promoted to colonel and assumed command of the 10th Special Forces Group.
00:43:27
Speaker
He retired in 1985. For 30 years after retirement, he published the Metro Herald newspaper in Alexandria, Virginia. In 2019, he was inducted into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame.
00:43:41
Speaker
Davis was nominated a total of three times for the Medal of Honor for his actions that day in Vietnam. The first two nominations mysteriously disappeared. The first was filed in 1965.
00:43:54
Speaker
In 1969, an inquiry was made and found no record of the original nomination. The nomination was resubmitted at this point and then lost again. Not until January 2021, the then Secretary of Defense ordered an expedited review of the lost nomination.
00:44:11
Speaker
When it was stalled again, he urged President Biden to award the medal. Finally, on March 3, 2023, he was given the Medal of Honor he had so long deserved.
00:44:23
Speaker
Colonel Davis received the Knowlton Award because he, quote, epitomizes the individual professionalism, bravery, patriotism, distinguished service, and exemplary dedication to duty and country.
00:44:37
Speaker
Colonel Paris D. Davis is one of only four service members in U.S. military history to receive both the Medal of Honor and the Soldiers Medal. And he is the sweetest, kindest, most amazing person i have ever had the honor of meeting.
00:44:54
Speaker
Absolutely. Agree with that 100%. Colonel Davis. What a man. Damn. what um Legends among us. Really. Yeah. It really was good to yeah research him.
00:45:10
Speaker
And just very humble and very respectful. You had me tearing up again.
Empathy & Perspective in Storytelling
00:45:15
Speaker
ah Oh my God, that was, what a good story.
00:45:21
Speaker
Hopefully it lightened yours a little bit. I mean, it still had the undertones of, you know, I mean, there were plenty of people who said that those medal or those nominations didn't just mysteriously disappear. When they found out that he was an African-American man, regardless of what he had done, what he had accomplished, the fact that he was in command, nobody wanted to award him a medal of honor because the color of his skin twice it was just lost and then it took him until just a few years ago to finally get what he deserved i mean he just wild yeah just wild damn mine i could tell that when i was telling the story that i was telling rage was filling up inside of me could you tell yeah like oh
00:46:11
Speaker
oh anger-inducing. So thank you for that one and bringing me back from the brink. that was like That's a great story to be told. And you know, the honor of knowing him, I think that that's one of those ones that and sticks with you.
00:46:27
Speaker
so ah Having such a good attitude and being so kind and appreciative after everything that he's been through, it sheds a little light on you know the choices we make about how we respond to That humbles you a little bit, doesn't it? does. Humbles the hell out of you. Your life might be hard in your own eyes, but Colonel Davis. My Aunt Lois used to say, um so her son, my cousin, was involved in a car crash when he was 18.
00:46:59
Speaker
And so from at 18, he then... behaved like a two or three-year-old from that moment on in his life. And Lois took care of him from that moment on.
00:47:11
Speaker
And to the end of their lives, she was with him. And she but she was a tiny woman. He was a big man. and she took care of him for the rest of his life and she would always say if you look around someone has it harder than you she would always say that and i'd be like who are you looking at but that's a good i mean it does yeah and yeah i think that's that's one of the things that we have to take away no it's one of the things that we have to bring to our job is yeah whatever we are going through personally
00:47:49
Speaker
whatever we think the patients should or shouldn't feel, you know, we don't know their life story. We don't know their history. We don't know what they're currently going through. So yeah, that stubbed toe might be the worst thing in their life.
00:48:03
Speaker
So you have to humble yourself a little bit and take a step back and be like, Hey, they're here for a reason and I'm getting paid to do this. So what's the harm in just treating them like a human, you know?
00:48:18
Speaker
Damn, that was a good show. That was really, I loved everything about this show. A lot of A lot of emotions. I almost lost my shit. I'll do it again, I promise. Shit, don't care. I don't doubt it.
00:48:29
Speaker
You do tend to be emotionally unstable. You want to be the pot or the kettle?
00:48:36
Speaker
I'm definitely the kettle. So I think when we go down to Alabama, i think that should be on our list of things to see. Say no more. I really want to, I will probably cry right there. Okay, listen, I would probably cry even if you weren't crying, but now that you say that you're going to cry. Oh my God, can we just cry together? It's going to be an ugly cry. We're going to cry together. And then I'm going to grab someone and be like, hey, hit Weasel. so yeah
00:49:00
Speaker
I just want to hit something. Take a whack of Weasel. Oh my God. I know my aunt's listening to this probably and my cousins. I can't wait to see you guys. I hope this story did you well. This was the first story she studied in law school. That's wild.
00:49:13
Speaker
So I hope I did it justice. That's wild. Yes. um Remember, if you're listening to us right now, don't wait right now.
Conclusion & Call for Support
00:49:23
Speaker
Go and hit those stars.
00:49:25
Speaker
Sam's trying to mimic my hand gestures. Go and hit the stars. Like literally right now, that's all you got to do.
00:49:34
Speaker
You're looking for it? Do it. They found it. Hit the stars. We need one more. Okay, so I'm going to say it more gracefully than Jeff and with a lot less hand movements.
00:49:45
Speaker
We need your reviews. We need some help. We need to get out there. So rate us. Leave us a comment. Review. Do whatever. Jeff's doing some weird handsy dance over here.
00:49:58
Speaker
Oh, thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. And Alan, fucking a magician, overqualified. and Let me start that one over. Alan, fucking magician, overqualified, underpaid, master publisher, extraordinaire. It's also our content creator.
00:50:11
Speaker
Indeed. Ashley, the ultimate and epically unmatched hype queen editor. And Kelsey, our incomparable swag and merch creator. And Daniel, our friendly neighborhood all time supporter.
00:50:26
Speaker
Yes. ah Together they're our first and forever fans. Bye, everybody.
00:50:57
Speaker
you