During the economic despair of the 1930s, when countless Americans crisscrossed the country on freight trains searching for work, nine young Black men were pulled into one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice in U.S. history. Accused of a crime that never happened, the “Scottsboro Boys” were swept into a legal system steeped in racial prejudice and fear.

Their case, born in the Jim Crow South, would capture international attention and eventually reshape American law. This CLE course traces the legal odyssey that followed—three journeys to the U.S. Supreme Court, fierce courtroom battles, and a defense led by New York attorney Samuel Leibowitz, whose cross-examinations dismantled the prosecution’s story piece by piece.

Participants will examine how the Court’s decision in Norris v. Alabama marked a constitutional turning point, recognizing that the exclusion of Black jurors violated the Fourteenth Amendment. The program also situates the Scottsboro trials within the larger social context of the Depression era, exploring how racial divisions were exploited to deflect economic anger and fracture solidarity among working-class Americans.

Through the lens of this extraordinary case, the session invites lawyers to reflect on how legal advocacy can confront systemic injustice—and how the echoes of Scottsboro continue to resonate in the pursuit of equal justice under law.