Women and Scottsboro (1933)

This chapter highlights the women who played important parts in the Scottsboro case. There are two pairs. On the one side are the mothers who were most prominent, Ada Wright and Janie Patterson, who saw the slow sacrifice of their sons to a deepening class struggle. On the other side are the two women who led the Scottsboro boys to conviction, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price. Behind one pair stand the other mothers, and all conscious women workers; behind the other are grouped the ignorance and vulgarity of the bourgeoisie and the prejudice of the group that used to be referred to delicately as “the flower of Southern womanhood.” Ultimately, the fundamental issues of the Scottsboro case are more clearly tied up with the problems of the woman worker.