Scottsboro

In 1931, two white women stepped from a train box car in Paint Rock, Ala., and falsely accused nine black teenagers of rape while on the train. The case became a cause celebre and a symbol of racism and injustice in the South; the teenagers came to be known as the Scottsboro Nine or Scottsboro Boys. After several retrials, worldwide protests, two Supreme Court rulings, four of the nine were freed after six years in jail. In 1976, Gov. George Wallace pardoned all nine.