1. The Scottsboro Boys (1931)
In 1931, nine Black teenagers were falsely accused of raping two white women aboard a freight train in Alabama. This case exposed severe racial injustice within the judicial system and led to two landmark Supreme Court rulings: – **Powell v. Alabama (1932):** – Established that defendants facing the death penalty are constitutionally entitled to appointed counsel if they cannot afford one. – **Norris v. Alabama (1935):** – Ruled that the systematic exclusion of African Americans from jury rolls violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. These decisions significantly influenced the future of fair trials in the United States. (history.com)
