Final answer:
The Scottsboro Boys were nine African American teenagers wrongfully accused of ra_pe in 1931 Alabama. Their trials highlighted racial injustice and resulted in significant Supreme Court rulings. Their ordeal aided to lay the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement, and they were posthumously pardoned by Alabama in 2013.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Scottsboro Boys refers to nine African American teenagers, aged twelve to nineteen, who were falsely accused of raping two white women on a freight train in 1931, Alabama. Despite the trials being marked by racial prejudice and a lack of substantial evidence, all the boys, except the youngest, were initially sentenced to death. The trials garnered widespread attention and led to two pivotal Supreme Court rulings that the defendants had been denied fair trials. Legal defense from the NAACP and the Communist Party made significant efforts to combat the unjust convictions, and subsequent retrials reduced their sentences and eventually led to their releases, although after several years of imprisonment. The injustice experienced by the Scottsboro Boys put a spotlight on the deep-seated issues of racism and inequality in the American legal system and contributed to the early stages of the Civil Rights Movement. It wasn't until 2013 that the State of Alabama issued posthumous pardons for all nine of the defendants.