Scottsboro Paper Proposal: The Broader Picture

I am considering writing my paper on Scottsboro Alabama and addressing the larger issues presented in the text.  While the premise of Scottsboro Alabama is centers around the sentenced death of 9 innocent African American young men, this text speaks to a much broader range of issues. It confronts economic, social and political disadvantages imposed upon, primarily African Americans, through the issues of forced mobility and lack of unity.

An image that deals with both the social and economic in the context of mobility and unity can be found on page 67.  Pictured there are three African American men who appear to be standing in a city setting.  One of the men points upward, possibly symbolizing the hoped for opportunities in the north.  Hand in hand the men stand to demonstrate unity and a sense of comradery between the men that they may not find in other social situations as work divides workers by race, trade, gender and class.  There are many means of division but much less ability to unify.  With those limitations, comes an even greater barrier to overcome because it is not only the capitalist who they must challenge, but there is also a sense of competition between the different types of workers who all seek to gain benefits and rights over the other because what one group has, one group gets taken away.

Additionally, this concept of movement is another subject prevalent in labor history as the undesirables are asked to work but not to live as citizens are even humanly.  The workers can engage in hard, physical labor but cannot earn the rights to citizenship or even financial stability.  With this constant need to move, a sense of home and belonging is lost.  African Americans are not wanted in residential living spaces, public spaces such as restaurants or given access to fair and safe jobs.  But with that forced physical movement, inability to move in social class redefines how one can view mobility.  Mobility does not necessarily have to be seen in a motion from one city to the next, but an economic movement that is not allowed to minorities and other discriminated groups.