Description

Haywood Patterson was one of nine African American teenagers who were falsely accused in 1931 of raping two white women aboard a freight train. Despite an absence of due process and a fair trial, Patterson and seven others were found guilty in an Alabama courtroom and sentenced to death. The railroading of the "Scottsboro Boys" received national attention and worldwide condemnation. Despite numerous retrials, Patterson spent the next sixteen years in prison before escaping to Michigan, where the governor refused to extradite him. During this period, Patterson agreed to recount the horrific story of his imprisonment to a New York author. This photograph was made to publicize the 1950 release of the book that resulted from this exchange, a work that one reviewer observed "will leave you with a deep sense of personal shame if you are at all concerned with the basic American concepts of fair play and justice."

Record Contributed By

National Portrait Gallery

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution