Scottsboro: An American Tragedy
2001VOTE NOW
| Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) | Release Date: January 19, 2001 |
Starring:
Frances McDormand, Stanley Tucci
Summary:
Covering several decades, this documentary examines the Scottsboro case, an often-overlooked chapter in our nation’s history. The case centered on nine black men, ages thirteen to nineteen, who were accused of raping two young white women while riding the rails in Alabama in 1931.
Film makers Barak Goodman and Daniel Anker dig deep into the story and its ramifications, exposing how the twin evils of racism and anti-Semitism combined to foment institutional injustice, and led — if a silver lining could be found — to the triumphs of the civil-rights movement two and three decades later.
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The first full-scale documentary about the history of those years, and it lays out lucidly the involvement of the Communist Party in the young men's defense and the ways in which the trials, against the backdrop of the Depression, replayed the murderous quarrels of the Civil War all over again.
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