Scottsboro, Alabama : a story in linoleum cuts

In 1931 nine black youths were falsely accused of raping two white women on a freight train traveling through Northern Alabama.

They were arrested and tried in four days, convicted of rape, and eight of them were sentenced to death.

The ensuing legal battle spanned six years and involved two landmark decisions by the Supreme Court.

The Scottsboro case ignited the collective emotions of the country, which was still struggling to come to terms with fundamental issues of racial equality.

This volume consists of linoleum prints that provide a graphic history of this infamous case. Originally published in Seattle in 1935, this is a hitherto unknown document, of which no other known copies exist.

It was discovered by Andrew H. Lee as part of a gift to the Tamiment Library by the family of Joe North, an important figure in the Communist Party in the US.