Which scottsboro boy was blind

Montgomery was one of four Scottsboro Boys released in July, During his six years in jail, Montgomery, who was severely nearsighted in both eyes and nearly blind in one, wrote frequent letters to his supporters asking for such things as six-string guitars Montgomery hoped to be "the Blues King" after his release and money to buy a night with a woman.

After his release in , Montgomery said that he wanted to be a lawyer or musician. Despite the assistance of the Scottsboro Defense Committee, however, none of his career dreams were realized. Montgomery bought a saxophone, then a guitar, and practiced as much as possible. Most of the job opportunities that came his way-- dishwasher, porter, laborer-- Montgomery despised, believing they just were getting in the way of his musical calling. Montgomery bounced back and forth between New York City and Georgia, drinking heavily, and rarely holding a job for more than a few months.

Sometime after , Montgomery settled for good in Georgia. Eugene Williams was thirteen when arrested along with his friends the Wright brothers and Haywood Patterson in March, Prior to boarding the Southern Railroad freight, Williams had worked as a dishwasher in a Chattanooga cafe. At trial, Williams admitted that he fought with white boys on the train, but denied having seen Price or Bates until after his arrest.

In prison, Williams said that "getting out is the main thing I think about. The state dropped charges against Williams in July, , citing his youth at the time of the alleged incident. After his release he told Samuel Liebowitz that he hoped to land a job someday in a jazz orchestra. He moved to St.

Louis where he had relatives, and where his sponsors hoped that he would enroll in a Baptist seminary. When Willie Roberson, age seventeen, allegedly raped Ruby Bates aboard the Chattanooga to Memphis freight we was suffering from a serious case of syphillis, with sores all over his genitals, that would have made intercourse very painful. Moreover, Roberson was unable to walk without a cane, and clearly was in in no condition to leap from railroad car to railroad car, as his accusers alleged.

Nonetheless, on the strength of Price's and Bate's allegations Roberson was prosecuted and convicted. Price testified that Roberson held her legs apart while other boys yelled "pour it to her. In fact, Roberson was no where near the scene of the alleged rape, but alone in a boxcar near the caboose.

He had left his job as a hotel busboy in Georgia to go to Chattanooga in search of better work. Finding none available, he boarded the freight for Memphis. Throughout the several trials in which he testified, Roberson stuck to his story. Finally, even prosecutors came to believe him, and Roberson was one of four Scottsboro Boys released in July, After his release, Roberson lived in New York City where he found steady work. Roberson's six years in jail were difficult. Roberson suffered from asthma, and the lack of fresh air available aggravated his condition.

He was diagnosed as were four other Scottsboro Boys with "prison neurosis. Roy Wright, twelve or thirteen when arrested, was the youngest of the Scottsboro Boys.

He was the brother of Andy Wright, who was also arrested upon disembarking the Chattanooga to Memphis freight on March 25, Wright was on his first trip away from his home in Chattanooga, where he worked in a grocery store. His only trial ended in a mistrial when eleven jurors held out for death, even though, in view of his age, the prosecution had only asked for a life sentence. At the first trials in Scottsboro, Wright testified that he saw other defendants rape the white girls.

He later said that he did so after having been threatened and severely beaten by authorities. Wright kept a Bible with him at all times in jail, where he was held six years without retrial. He needed whatever comfort he could find. In a letter to his mother he wrote, "I am all lonely and thinking of you I feel like I can eat some of your cooking Mom. He was sent to live with an aunt in Riverdale, Georgia, but again dropped out of school to work. He was on his way to see family in Tennessee when he hopped the train.

He contracted tuberculosis in prison and was stabbed by a prison guard who mistook him for Andy Wright. Not much is known about Eugene. Andrew Andy was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He did well in school but dropped out in the sixth grade after his father died to help support his mother, Ada, and younger siblings. For seven years he drove a truck for a produce distributer until they learned how young he was and let him go.

He heard about a government job hauling logs on boats, and with his younger brother Roy, set off for Memphis, Tennessee. He did not tell their mother where they were going when they left home that day. Leroy Roy was the youngest of the Scottsboro Boys. He had four years of school before he dropped out to work in a grocery store. When he hopped the train with his brother Andy, it was his first time away from home. In prison, Roy liked to read and kept his Bible with him at all times.

However, he thought that magazines would be the ruination of his mind. Connect Donate Now. Who Were the Scottsboro Boys? Olen Montgomery. Clarence Norris and Charles Weems read in prison. Haywood Patterson.

Ozie Powell. By the time he was fourteen, he was riding the rails, looking for work. Patterson admitted that he was one of the black teenagers who fought with white hoboes, who had tried to force them off the train, but the charge against him was rape. After the first trial, in which the nine Scottsboro defendants were tried in groups, Patterson became the point man in the subsequent trials.

That trial ended in a conviction and death sentence, but Judge Horton set aside the conviction. The next trial, before Judge Williams Callahan, resulted in another death sentence. A confusing series of filing deadlines was missed and Patterson lost his right to appeal. However, in their ruling on Norris v. Alabama, the United States Supreme Court recognized that the two cases were interrelated and strongly suggested that the lower courts look into the Patterson case again. While in prison, Patterson found he regretted skipping out on school.

Patterson was not particularly well liked, by the other Scottsboro defendants Clarence Norris swore he would kill Patterson if he had a chance , by other prisoners, or by the guards that ran the prisons. In Atmore Prison, he had to keep perpetually vigilant against physical and sexual assaults. To avoid the latter, Patterson himself became a sexual predator, and kept a "gal-boy.

It had saved me many times. In February , a guard paid one of Patterson's friends to kill him. This "friend" stabbed him twenty times, puncturing a lung and sending him to the brink of death. Amazingly, he recovered. After alternating between being a maniacal terror and a model prisoner, Patterson managed to get himself transferred to Kilby Prison, and assigned to the prison farm. In Patterson made a successful prison break. Escaping to Detroit, he was eventually caught by the FBI, but the governor of Michigan refused to allow him to be extradited to Alabama.

Still in Detroit, Patterson worked with a journalist, Earl Conrad, to write his autobiography. Scottsboro Boy was published in June In December of that year, he was arrested after a fight in a bar resulted in a stabbing death.

His first trial ended in a hung jury; the second was a mistrial. After his third trial, he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six to fifteen years. He served only one, as he died of cancer in jail on August 24, Ozie Powell "Momma ain't but one thing I want to tell you right now.

Don't let Sam Leibowitz have anything else to do with my case. Ozie Powell was born in rural Georgia, near Atlanta, in His parents separated when he was young and his mother worked for white people in Atlanta. He could write his name, but not much else. When he was fourteen, he left home, working at camps and sawmills for weeks or months at a time before moving on.

A year after leaving home, he was headed toward Memphis on a Southern Railroad train. At Haywood Patterson's first trial, Powell testified that he had followed a group of black boys who were going to throw the white boys off the train, but most of their opposition had jumped off the train by the time he got to the right car.

Soon afterward, the train was stopped and Powell was arrested, along with eight other African American boys he didn't know. He was tried before Judge A. Alabama, U. At Haywood Patterson's third trial at the end of , Ozie Powell's testimony was confused and contradictory. After a tough cross-examination, defense attorney Leibowitz asked him how much schooling he had had in his life. Patterson was convicted, but the decision was again overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States, this time on grounds that the absence of black jury members denied the defendants equal protection under the law, as required by the Fourteenth Amendment.

Patterson was tried and convicted again in January of Following the swift group conviction days after the incident, Ozie Powell had been imprisoned without a retrial for five years. While being transported from Patterson's trial back to the Birmingham Jail, he pulled out a pocketknife and slashed Deputy Edgar Blalock in the throat. Sheriff J. Street Sandlin stopped the car, pulled out his gun and shot Powell in the head. Blalock was out of the hospital the same day with ten stitches.

Remarkably, Powell also survived. His mother visited him in the hospital while Powell recovered. When asked why, he replied, "Cause I feel like everybody in Alabama is down on me and is mad with me. In January Dr. Branche examined the Scottsboro defendants and reported that Powell like Roberson had an IQ of about 64 and a mental age of nine. A Life magazine story on the defendants stated that Powell "can barely spell out words.

Nobody writes to him. In July of Powell pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to 20 years. Leibowitz requested that the six years already served be taken into account, but Judge Callahan, noting that the rape charge had been dropped against Powell, gave him the maximum sentence. He was sent to Atmore, the prison for dangerous criminals known as "the murderers' home. Graves decided against granting clemency. These people make wise cracks talking about somebody in Alabama to defend us, say I would get out better.

They won't let the New York people come around. His father walked out a month after his birth and his mother died when he was two. Willie was raised by his grandmother until her death in Although he made it through to seventh grade in Atlanta, a doctor later measured Roberson's IQ to be about 64, and his mental age at nine.

He could not read or write and had difficulty speaking, and was the butt of many courtroom spectators' jokes. Roberson had boarded the Southern Railroad headed to Memphis in search of free medical care for his syphilis and gonorrhea. He was in pain and lying in a car near the back of the train when he was arrested along with the 8 other African American teenagers accused of rape.

The cane he used to walk with was thrown away on orders of the deputy that took him into custody. This painful, syphilitic condition was evidence to defense attorney Samuel Leibowitz that Roberson could not have committed this crime. Judge James Horton agreed that it was unlikely that Roberson could have jumped from car to car as Victoria Price claimed. However, when it was revealed that Ruby Bates had been treated for syphilis herself, Roberson's venereal disease was cited as evidence of his guilt.

Horribly, he was not treated for his condition until Roberson was one of the defendants released in July of , after six years without a retrial. Upon his release, Roberson said he wanted to become an airplane mechanic. After a brief foray into show business, Roberson settled into steady work in New York City. He was continually plagued by ill health, and suffered asthma attacks and bad luck. One night in Harlem, Roberson was in a bar when a fight broke out.

Although not involved in the fight, he was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Of that incident he wrote, "I am again a victim of almost inconcievable maglinity and though I hartily dislike the role of myrter I have been cast in that role and it seems impossible to escape it. Roberson's asthma had been greatly aggravated by his time in jail and he eventually died of an asthma attack.

Charles Weems "Please tell all the young mens to try hard and not to go to prison for my sakes.