Snippet from Wikipedia: Scottsboro: An American Tragedy

Scottsboro: An American Tragedy is a 2001 American documentary film directed by Daniel Anker and Barak Goodman. The film is based on one of the longest-running and most controversial courtroom pursuits of racism in American history, which led to nine black teenaged men being wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in Alabama. The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature. It was funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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The film was based on the historic story of the Scottsboro Boys. On March 25, 1931, a train from Chattanooga, Tennessee going through northeastern Alabama was carrying homeless people. After the train entered Alabama, a fight started between the white men and a group of African-American teenagers. Subsequently, the train was stopped by an armed posse in the town of Paint Rock, Alabama, and two white women got out making an accusation that they had been raped by nine black teenagers, the Scottsboro Boys, on the train. Despite the fact that no evidence was presented, the case was allowed to go to trial, and the Scottsboro Boys were later quickly convicted and sentenced to death. The issue was noted by the International Labor Defense, and the courtroom case received wide attention.

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