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Scottsboro
Alabama, 1931. A posse stops a freight train and arrests nine black youths. Their crime: fighting with white boys. Then two white girls emerge from another freight car, and fast as anyone can say Jim Crow, the cry of rape goes up. One of the girls sticks to her story. The other changes her tune, again and again. A young journalist, whose only connection to the incident is her overheated social conscience, fights to save the nine youths from the electric chair, redeem the girl who repents her lie, and make amends for her own past. Intertwining historical actors and fictional characters, stirring racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism into an explosive brew, Scottsboro is a novel of a shocking injustice that convulsed the nation and reverberated around the world, destroyed lives, forged careers, and brought out the worst and the best in the men and women who fought for the cause.
363 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
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1028 people want to read
About the author
Ellen Feldman
23 books383 followersEllen Feldman is an American writer. She grew up in New Jersey and attended Bryn Mawr College, and graduated with B.A. and an M.A. in modern history. She also worked for a publishing firm in New York City and continued with graduate studies at Columbia University.
Feldman currently lives in New York City and East Hampton, New York.
Feldman currently lives in New York City and East Hampton, New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 108 reviews
April 21, 2015
Ellen Feldman seamlessly weaves historical perspective into a myriad tapestry of the mores of a small Southern town that not only provided insight into black and white lives, but also how poverty alters truth as easily as racism.
As nine black youths travelled in the Alabama Great Southern Railroad freight cars on an early spring day in 1931, a historical event of reprehensible proportions was about to alter their lives forever. What began as a simple misunderstanding quickly exacerbated into an avoidable altercation with white men aboard. The train approaches Scottsboro, and already word has reached men ready with rifles waiting for its arrival. In an attempt to save their dignity, two young white women on the same freight car, fabricate a vicious tale of violence, torture, and rape by those nine black youths.
Alice Whittier, one of the fictional narrators utilizes her faultless skills as a liberal, early feminist New York City newspaper reporter to convey the individual life histories of each of the accused, in an audacious attempt to encourage those outside this provincial circle of life to protest the indecency of fallacious crimes inflicted upon the genuinely innocent victims. As the news reaches the world, the Scottsboro incident becomes a rancorous hornet’s nest of eminent lawyers, unpredictable judges, and an insidious competition between the liberal Communist organization and the conservative NAACP. Languishing in a repulsive jail, constantly assured that freedom is imminent, and lost in this muddled legal battle are the powerless defendants.
Meanwhile, the allegedly vanquished Southern young women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates bask in the unwarranted limelight as the townspeople bestow new dresses and gifts as a way to soothe their own guilt. Conflicted and fearful of eternal damnation, Ruby Bates, the second fictional narrator recants in a pitiful attempt to aid the true victims.
Ellen Feldman’s considerable research and flawless writing creates a vastly invaluable source of knowledge about nine black men who unwillingly and tragically sacrificed dignity and freedom because poverty, ignorance, sexism, fear, and injustice triumphed.
Undoubtedly, one of the most engrossing and unforgettable books I have read.
As nine black youths travelled in the Alabama Great Southern Railroad freight cars on an early spring day in 1931, a historical event of reprehensible proportions was about to alter their lives forever. What began as a simple misunderstanding quickly exacerbated into an avoidable altercation with white men aboard. The train approaches Scottsboro, and already word has reached men ready with rifles waiting for its arrival. In an attempt to save their dignity, two young white women on the same freight car, fabricate a vicious tale of violence, torture, and rape by those nine black youths.
Alice Whittier, one of the fictional narrators utilizes her faultless skills as a liberal, early feminist New York City newspaper reporter to convey the individual life histories of each of the accused, in an audacious attempt to encourage those outside this provincial circle of life to protest the indecency of fallacious crimes inflicted upon the genuinely innocent victims. As the news reaches the world, the Scottsboro incident becomes a rancorous hornet’s nest of eminent lawyers, unpredictable judges, and an insidious competition between the liberal Communist organization and the conservative NAACP. Languishing in a repulsive jail, constantly assured that freedom is imminent, and lost in this muddled legal battle are the powerless defendants.
Meanwhile, the allegedly vanquished Southern young women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates bask in the unwarranted limelight as the townspeople bestow new dresses and gifts as a way to soothe their own guilt. Conflicted and fearful of eternal damnation, Ruby Bates, the second fictional narrator recants in a pitiful attempt to aid the true victims.
Ellen Feldman’s considerable research and flawless writing creates a vastly invaluable source of knowledge about nine black men who unwillingly and tragically sacrificed dignity and freedom because poverty, ignorance, sexism, fear, and injustice triumphed.
Undoubtedly, one of the most engrossing and unforgettable books I have read.
August 13, 2009
In the interest of disclosure I should note that I have family from Scottsboro, although not related to any of the characters in this book. I am also from Alabama, which means I have to work harder to give any novel set in my state a fair shake, especially when written by an outsider who's never set foot here. With that in mind, read on.
Pluses: the main character of Alice, who was uniquely poised to reach from the humblest mill towns of dirt-road no-plumbing Alabama all the way to the White House and beyond, to Broadway and Times Square in New York. Alice was a brilliant invention, and kudos to the author for creating her. Another plus was Alice's career as a journalist, which was helpful both in granting her access to information and locations normally inaccessible to others, and also in maintaining an emotional distance from the subject at hand. The snippets of quotes at chapter beginnings also presented an air of authority to the novel.
Minuses: early in the novel (page 13) the author is describing the train journey Victoria and Ruby took from Chattanooga to Huntsville. After being on board the train for awhile, "Lookout Mountain came into sight." If you've been to Chattanooga, you know there are very few views outdoors that won't include Lookout Mountain. I was immediately disappointed, for I had hoped the author had at least taken the time to visit the communities she purported to write about. Which leads me to my second minus - although the book jacket states the story is set in "the South in the early 1930's" at least half the book is actually set in New York City, a locale the author is clearly more familiar with. Next minus: Ruby mentions getting "jazzed" by her beau in a field next to a pond the night before the alleged rape... March 25, 1931. She mentions the "smell of spring and honeysuckle in the air" ... except that the honeysuckle won't bloom until May, well after the danger of frost is past. In March, in Chattanooga, it still gets cold at night, too cold for the honeysuckle to bloom. When in bloom, it is a lovely smell, and I invite the author to visit sometime to experience it for herself. My last picky point is the First Monday of the Month "Fair Day" in Scottsboro. Yes, folks gather on the first Monday of the Month but they call it Trade Day, because those in attendance barter (or "trade") their wares much more than they buy and sell. All of these details are lost on the casual reader, but they are important to me and suggest a slovenly approach to accuracy on the part of the author, her editor and publisher. Also a big minus for me: the author's clumsy attempt to mimic the North Alabama vernacular - in places she will capture the unique way the locals speak in a phrase, and before finishing the sentence will be using the Queen's English. The mill folks had their own way of talking. In my experience it is best captured in Rick Bragg's "All Over But The Shoutin'" and "Ava's Man." This sloppiness with the Ruby's "voice" left me feeling, again, like the novel was written by someone who never left Manhattan to come to the area and hear how the people speak for herself (her loss, sadly).
I felt the author glossed over a lot of things, such as the brutal poverty in Scottsboro in 1931, the astonishing illiteracy rate for both races in the area and how easily the parties involved were manipulated by their educated bretheren... also glossed over were any signs of emotion from Alice, especially from her towards her family and lovers. I found that highly unrealistic, almost a caricature of the hard-boiled female reporter. Especially glossed over were the characters of the seven black "Scottsboro Boys." Some detail was provided, but never enough to make them seem more than two-dimensional props for Alice, Harry and Abel. As the Scottsboro Boys lament in the book how they made a lot of other folks rich, there rings an indictment of the author as just another person making a buck off their misery...
All of this knocked down my opinion from three stars to two... which is sad, because if these details had been properly attended to, if Alice could have shown a little more than academic interest in the men between her legs and the actual Scottsboro Boys this would have been a four star novel...
Pluses: the main character of Alice, who was uniquely poised to reach from the humblest mill towns of dirt-road no-plumbing Alabama all the way to the White House and beyond, to Broadway and Times Square in New York. Alice was a brilliant invention, and kudos to the author for creating her. Another plus was Alice's career as a journalist, which was helpful both in granting her access to information and locations normally inaccessible to others, and also in maintaining an emotional distance from the subject at hand. The snippets of quotes at chapter beginnings also presented an air of authority to the novel.
Minuses: early in the novel (page 13) the author is describing the train journey Victoria and Ruby took from Chattanooga to Huntsville. After being on board the train for awhile, "Lookout Mountain came into sight." If you've been to Chattanooga, you know there are very few views outdoors that won't include Lookout Mountain. I was immediately disappointed, for I had hoped the author had at least taken the time to visit the communities she purported to write about. Which leads me to my second minus - although the book jacket states the story is set in "the South in the early 1930's" at least half the book is actually set in New York City, a locale the author is clearly more familiar with. Next minus: Ruby mentions getting "jazzed" by her beau in a field next to a pond the night before the alleged rape... March 25, 1931. She mentions the "smell of spring and honeysuckle in the air" ... except that the honeysuckle won't bloom until May, well after the danger of frost is past. In March, in Chattanooga, it still gets cold at night, too cold for the honeysuckle to bloom. When in bloom, it is a lovely smell, and I invite the author to visit sometime to experience it for herself. My last picky point is the First Monday of the Month "Fair Day" in Scottsboro. Yes, folks gather on the first Monday of the Month but they call it Trade Day, because those in attendance barter (or "trade") their wares much more than they buy and sell. All of these details are lost on the casual reader, but they are important to me and suggest a slovenly approach to accuracy on the part of the author, her editor and publisher. Also a big minus for me: the author's clumsy attempt to mimic the North Alabama vernacular - in places she will capture the unique way the locals speak in a phrase, and before finishing the sentence will be using the Queen's English. The mill folks had their own way of talking. In my experience it is best captured in Rick Bragg's "All Over But The Shoutin'" and "Ava's Man." This sloppiness with the Ruby's "voice" left me feeling, again, like the novel was written by someone who never left Manhattan to come to the area and hear how the people speak for herself (her loss, sadly).
I felt the author glossed over a lot of things, such as the brutal poverty in Scottsboro in 1931, the astonishing illiteracy rate for both races in the area and how easily the parties involved were manipulated by their educated bretheren... also glossed over were any signs of emotion from Alice, especially from her towards her family and lovers. I found that highly unrealistic, almost a caricature of the hard-boiled female reporter. Especially glossed over were the characters of the seven black "Scottsboro Boys." Some detail was provided, but never enough to make them seem more than two-dimensional props for Alice, Harry and Abel. As the Scottsboro Boys lament in the book how they made a lot of other folks rich, there rings an indictment of the author as just another person making a buck off their misery...
All of this knocked down my opinion from three stars to two... which is sad, because if these details had been properly attended to, if Alice could have shown a little more than academic interest in the men between her legs and the actual Scottsboro Boys this would have been a four star novel...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 16, 2020
What a disappointment. Nothing worse than good storytelling being ruined by agenda pushing and white savior complexes.
I'll start with the good.
Ms. Feldman is an excellent writer and you can tell she did thorough, in-depth research. When she focuses her story on the Scottsboro boys, the trials, and Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, this story really shines.
But therein lies the problem - the book only focuses on these people for about a third of the story. And instead of rightfully focusing on history, we get a nauseatingly self-righteous account of a fictional female character who is the only one who makes right choices all the time.
She looks down on everyone, sneering at women with such lines like, "Harry always hired lookers. The only problem, which he did not regard as a problem, was that they rarely lasted more than four or five months. That was how long they took to discover Daddy was right. A magazine of opinion was no place for a nice girl, although by then they were rarely what Mother and Daddy would call, strictly speaking, nice girls."
She eschews sleeping with her boss, because she doesn't want to be accused of sleeping her way to the top....until she decides to sleep with her boss.
She's a man hater whose bias comes out in confusing lines about Eleanor Roosevelt's history, where she uncovers that one of Roosevelt's distant relative's wives shot a Hawaiian boy. But she claims, "The men in Mrs. Roosevelt's family...gave her a lot to live down." Like....did you want the husband to prevent the wife's behavior in that instance? Or would that too infringe on women's rights? What are you trying to prove here?
Then she goes on to tell of how the Scottsboro boys come to respect her for what she's doing, "They all got off their bunks to greet me. They were still wary of me. They were still terrified of what lay ahead of them. But thanks to all those letters filled with support and money and offers of friendship, they had begun to appreciate their own value." But they can only appreciate their value when white people like her make them aware of it.
She continues on tooting her own horn through the. Entire. BOOK. "I had written about the Scottsboro boys and was the first to pay attention to the Scottsboro girls..." This would have more weight if this person were real. But she's a fictional white savior who is always going on about how she was the first this and the first that and the only one who noticed this or that about the case.
It completely derailed the book for me. Which is so sad, because it really could have been an amazing historical account if the character of Alice Whittier had not been created. I'd stick to the accounts made by the actual victims in the Scottsboro case like Hayward Patteron's Scottsboro Boy and The Last of the Scottsboro Boys by Clarence Norris if you want to learn about this piece of American history. This book is just a little too self-righteous for me.
I'll start with the good.
Ms. Feldman is an excellent writer and you can tell she did thorough, in-depth research. When she focuses her story on the Scottsboro boys, the trials, and Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, this story really shines.
But therein lies the problem - the book only focuses on these people for about a third of the story. And instead of rightfully focusing on history, we get a nauseatingly self-righteous account of a fictional female character who is the only one who makes right choices all the time.
She looks down on everyone, sneering at women with such lines like, "Harry always hired lookers. The only problem, which he did not regard as a problem, was that they rarely lasted more than four or five months. That was how long they took to discover Daddy was right. A magazine of opinion was no place for a nice girl, although by then they were rarely what Mother and Daddy would call, strictly speaking, nice girls."
She eschews sleeping with her boss, because she doesn't want to be accused of sleeping her way to the top....until she decides to sleep with her boss.
She's a man hater whose bias comes out in confusing lines about Eleanor Roosevelt's history, where she uncovers that one of Roosevelt's distant relative's wives shot a Hawaiian boy. But she claims, "The men in Mrs. Roosevelt's family...gave her a lot to live down." Like....did you want the husband to prevent the wife's behavior in that instance? Or would that too infringe on women's rights? What are you trying to prove here?
Then she goes on to tell of how the Scottsboro boys come to respect her for what she's doing, "They all got off their bunks to greet me. They were still wary of me. They were still terrified of what lay ahead of them. But thanks to all those letters filled with support and money and offers of friendship, they had begun to appreciate their own value." But they can only appreciate their value when white people like her make them aware of it.
She continues on tooting her own horn through the. Entire. BOOK. "I had written about the Scottsboro boys and was the first to pay attention to the Scottsboro girls..." This would have more weight if this person were real. But she's a fictional white savior who is always going on about how she was the first this and the first that and the only one who noticed this or that about the case.
It completely derailed the book for me. Which is so sad, because it really could have been an amazing historical account if the character of Alice Whittier had not been created. I'd stick to the accounts made by the actual victims in the Scottsboro case like Hayward Patteron's Scottsboro Boy and The Last of the Scottsboro Boys by Clarence Norris if you want to learn about this piece of American history. This book is just a little too self-righteous for me.
Read
February 1, 2017"8 BLACK BOYS IN A SOUTHERN JAIL
WORLD, TURN PALE!"
-Langston Hughes
This novel is a fictionalized look at one of the most horrific triumphs of injustice in the 20th century. Feldman clearly did her research. In Scottsboro she paints a vivid portrait of Alabama in the Thirties, warm, hospitable - and deeply sinister. The book is fascinating and sickening. With a careful hand and brilliant prose, Feldman brings something fresh to a well-documented event. Her fictional characters are multi-dimensional and genuine, and the real people from the past who appear in the narrative are written in such a way that doesn't feel derivative or romanticized.
This is how historical fiction should be done. Books like these are why the genre is so crucial to literature. Through the power of story and the importance of hindsight, Scottsboro is at once both a cautionary tale and a celebration of how far we've come.
WORLD, TURN PALE!"
-Langston Hughes
This novel is a fictionalized look at one of the most horrific triumphs of injustice in the 20th century. Feldman clearly did her research. In Scottsboro she paints a vivid portrait of Alabama in the Thirties, warm, hospitable - and deeply sinister. The book is fascinating and sickening. With a careful hand and brilliant prose, Feldman brings something fresh to a well-documented event. Her fictional characters are multi-dimensional and genuine, and the real people from the past who appear in the narrative are written in such a way that doesn't feel derivative or romanticized.
This is how historical fiction should be done. Books like these are why the genre is so crucial to literature. Through the power of story and the importance of hindsight, Scottsboro is at once both a cautionary tale and a celebration of how far we've come.
April 6, 2016
Perhaps I'm ill informed about the role of women journalists in the 1930s. Perhaps this book is based on more facts than I know. But the "voice" of the middle class woman was less real that that of the factory worker so the balance of the writing felt odd.
Putting that aside, the story of the Scottsboro boys is a story that should be part of any history of the USA and this captures all the elements of racisim, communism, feminism of the time.
Putting that aside, the story of the Scottsboro boys is a story that should be part of any history of the USA and this captures all the elements of racisim, communism, feminism of the time.
May 4, 2020
This book is better than the three stars implies. I just don’t give out 4 stars unless a book is well written AND makes me happy. I’m a sucker for a happy ending. The subject matter is really tough but it reminds me that we are not the only ones who lived through a huge upheaval in our society. The incident in the book was a part of change for the good.
September 21, 2017
The first 3/4 of this was excellent ! However the last 1/4 was so boring.......... very disappointed.
July 27, 2017
A fantastic and thoughtful novel, which was the perfect choice for a book club discussion.
June 5, 2020
Miss Alice Whittier - an invention of Felding's imagination - acts as a somewhat intersectional lens and tour guide through this Alabama drama. Set between Alabama and New York, our Communist-sympathiser and journalist Alice narrates the events that unfolded between Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, and the nine black youths who came to be known collectively as 'the Scottsboro boys.'
Felding cracks open this case, long-known in America as an example of the deeply unjust judicial system of the South in the 1930s, as the crossover between class and race struggles of the period. Two prostitutes, some homeless boys and nine African-Americans are illegally stowed on a freight train - in the belly of the beast together. While Felding recognises and highlights that their struggles are different, it is precisely that they are all in some position of oppression that means they were riding the same train that day in 1931.
It began with a 'white foot on a black hand.' A scuffle breaks out between the white and black boys in the crowded boxcar. It ends with the two girls crying rape. Victoria Price saves herself - it was illegal for a woman to be riding across national borders with nowhere to go, especially one that might be inclined to sleep with a man for some money. It was either sacrifice herself or the black boys she neither knows nor cares for on account of their race. It seemed simple.
Ruby Bates, however, grows a class conscience. Or rather, develops one with the help of the Communist party (and their funding). Sam Leibowitz, a Jewish lawyer from New York, defends the boys and while Ruby cries rape initially, she changes her mind and ends up defending one her her falsely alleged rapists, Haywood. Being both God-fearing and the star of a sensationalised show see to that. She can simultaneously do the right thing, and be bought new shoes and dresses for the multitudes of press interviews, plays and court appearances that her lie entailed.
Felding unmasks the systemic racism present in the South and reveals poverty and class struggle to be a leading cause of the injustice against Scottsboro boys. She shows how inextricably woven these issues were, and possibly still are, as Alice Whittier attempts to untangle the threads and save the Scottsboro boys, and also the world.
Felding cracks open this case, long-known in America as an example of the deeply unjust judicial system of the South in the 1930s, as the crossover between class and race struggles of the period. Two prostitutes, some homeless boys and nine African-Americans are illegally stowed on a freight train - in the belly of the beast together. While Felding recognises and highlights that their struggles are different, it is precisely that they are all in some position of oppression that means they were riding the same train that day in 1931.
It began with a 'white foot on a black hand.' A scuffle breaks out between the white and black boys in the crowded boxcar. It ends with the two girls crying rape. Victoria Price saves herself - it was illegal for a woman to be riding across national borders with nowhere to go, especially one that might be inclined to sleep with a man for some money. It was either sacrifice herself or the black boys she neither knows nor cares for on account of their race. It seemed simple.
Ruby Bates, however, grows a class conscience. Or rather, develops one with the help of the Communist party (and their funding). Sam Leibowitz, a Jewish lawyer from New York, defends the boys and while Ruby cries rape initially, she changes her mind and ends up defending one her her falsely alleged rapists, Haywood. Being both God-fearing and the star of a sensationalised show see to that. She can simultaneously do the right thing, and be bought new shoes and dresses for the multitudes of press interviews, plays and court appearances that her lie entailed.
Felding unmasks the systemic racism present in the South and reveals poverty and class struggle to be a leading cause of the injustice against Scottsboro boys. She shows how inextricably woven these issues were, and possibly still are, as Alice Whittier attempts to untangle the threads and save the Scottsboro boys, and also the world.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 27, 2012
A tragic tale of poor whites punishing even poorer blacks for their own helplessness in the face of the grinding poverty of the 1930's. Ellen Feldman provides an atmospheric setting for this true story - she portrays the pervasive fear that generated the reactionary and mindless persecution of this group of young black men.
The book is set in an Alabama that is still coming to terms with losing the civil war. It is in part due to this that the state is so relentless in the 'bringing to justice' of its victims in this story of law and humanity turned inside out.
I was surprised at the outrage of the rest of the world when the story began to make international headlines - at the demands from far-flung places for Alabama to cease its persecution of the boys.
To its everlasting shame, Alabama did not, though there were some important concessions made.
A sad story overall, but lightened somewhat by the compassion of both international and American groups working to bring sanity to the situation.
I loved the book - both for its historical significance and its absolutely riveting story telling.
The book is set in an Alabama that is still coming to terms with losing the civil war. It is in part due to this that the state is so relentless in the 'bringing to justice' of its victims in this story of law and humanity turned inside out.
I was surprised at the outrage of the rest of the world when the story began to make international headlines - at the demands from far-flung places for Alabama to cease its persecution of the boys.
To its everlasting shame, Alabama did not, though there were some important concessions made.
A sad story overall, but lightened somewhat by the compassion of both international and American groups working to bring sanity to the situation.
I loved the book - both for its historical significance and its absolutely riveting story telling.
March 15, 2013
This book is hard - going due to the subject matter. Yet it is fascinating in its portrayal of the accusation and trial of 9 black men from Alabama for raping 2 white girls.
It is written almost as a documentary. The book is a novel but is written following all the legal trials, appeals, jury selections etc with precision and clipped prose which gives a newspaper report feel to it.
The main character is a female journalist who is from New York. She goes to Alabama to cover the story and meets one of the girls who has made the false accusation.
The book deals with racial prejudice, poverty and bigotry. The court would rather believe a white prostitute than a black man. The court repeatedly ignores directives of the law and does it the Alabama way.
Not being from the US I am not sure how close to the truth all this was but it comes accross as well researched and has the ring of truth to it. I suppose this belongs in the growing genre of American South literature along with books like The Help, The Dry Grass of August and A Land More Kind Than Home.
It is written almost as a documentary. The book is a novel but is written following all the legal trials, appeals, jury selections etc with precision and clipped prose which gives a newspaper report feel to it.
The main character is a female journalist who is from New York. She goes to Alabama to cover the story and meets one of the girls who has made the false accusation.
The book deals with racial prejudice, poverty and bigotry. The court would rather believe a white prostitute than a black man. The court repeatedly ignores directives of the law and does it the Alabama way.
Not being from the US I am not sure how close to the truth all this was but it comes accross as well researched and has the ring of truth to it. I suppose this belongs in the growing genre of American South literature along with books like The Help, The Dry Grass of August and A Land More Kind Than Home.
March 16, 2014
Funny thing about Ellen Feldman's novels (this is the 2nd I've read): they grip me totally, I learn an immense amount from them, their political and moral heart is in absolutely the right place--but emotionally, they leave me cold. I never feel the pain and joy of their protagonists, perhaps because of the repertorial prose that's used to describe them. I suppose that's fair enough in this case, given the main protagonist is a journalist herself, and a WASP to boot, but Ruby Bates never really comes off the page either. Much is here, including tremendously detailed research, but something is missing. I say this with some regret, as I'm inclined to cheer for any Bryn Mawr alumna--and I will still go to her novels, I think, to learn about history; not so much to learn how to write artfully, though, or to understand human beings better. For that I'll seek out powerful writers like Hilary Mantel or Aharon Appelfeld.
December 3, 2016
This is the second book I've read by this author, and while I liked it better than "Terrible Virtue", I still didn't love it. The story of The Scotsboro Boys is told in what I found to be a rather disjointed style, narrated from several points of view, so much so, that I couldn't get a very intimate take on the narrator, Alice. Which is too bad, because she is by far the most interesting and likable of the female characters in this book. I was impressed with the telling of the story however, and learned a lot. The writing was for the most part vivid and fresh, not overly preachy, which could have happened with a less skillful author, given the topics of racism and misogyny throughout. Much of this book reminded me of To Kill a Mockingbird, just without the poignancy and sweetness.
April 29, 2015
This is an excellent weaving together of fiction and non-fiction to tell a truly tragic tale of direct and institutional racism. In this case we see the ingrained racism that pervaded the South of the U.S. that would become more familiar to more of us during the Civil Rights Movement.
It's also a reminder of the ancestoral roots of the acts of State violence currently being waged against the Black community in the U.S.
A really good read that should remind anyone who needs reminding that fighting racism is hard and seldom brings quick results but nevertheless must be done.
It's also a reminder of the ancestoral roots of the acts of State violence currently being waged against the Black community in the U.S.
A really good read that should remind anyone who needs reminding that fighting racism is hard and seldom brings quick results but nevertheless must be done.
February 6, 2013
Library book I picked up on Tuesday. Gosh this book made me think. On more than one occasion I gasped and thought 'how can they do/think that'. One hell of a reminder!
September 21, 2014
I'm not usually a fan of historical fiction when it comes to horrors like this but Ellen Feldman had me hooked by page one.
July 11, 2018
I'm hit and miss on historical fiction.
This was ok and if I weren't a history dork based out of Alabama I would likely have enjoyed it a bit more.
This was ok and if I weren't a history dork based out of Alabama I would likely have enjoyed it a bit more.
July 3, 2019
A feel of “to kill a mockingbird “given the characters & Court case.
October 4, 2023
“The courtroom was one big, smiling white face.” – Haywood Patterson. During the 1930s, African Americans were treated unequally like white people. Much of this prejudice resulted from the Civil War when blacks were slaves and “lower class”. Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman is a Historical Fiction novel about the real Supreme Court case of the Scottsboro Boys. This story highlights the sad truth about society in the 1900s.
This book starts on a freight train in Alabama, in 1931. A group of white men stop the train and arrest 9 young black men, who were “accused” of raping two white girls. Due to the color of the boys’ skin, they were already “guilty” of a crime they may have not committed. A young female journalist, Alice Whittier, comes from “The Big City” to write about what happens. After the “Scottsboro” case starts from a local court to the state Supreme Court it ends up in the Federal Supreme Court. However, by the time the court case arrives in the Supreme Court, the boys have already spent a few years in prison. However when a swarm of lawyers and journalists come from the north, Victoria Price, one of the girls who was “raped”, decided to remove her testimony and say there was no rape.
I did not enjoy reading this book, but I did like the message it was trying to tell. Many times when reading the book I would find myself rereading the same page more than once, or I would lose focus and would have to stop reading after 5 minutes. Much of this was due to how the book was written, its diction was very dull and didn’t grab my attention, however, I did like how the book was trying to convey that the skin of one's colour shouldn't influence the 6th Amendment. The author of this book could have used diction that was more attention-grabbing and kept the reader engaged. I would recommend this book to anyone who can read and manage a heavier book and has a passion for True crime or likes reading historical fiction.
One of the main characters, Alice Whittier, can tell one how people started to change their opinion on racism in the 1930’s. The way the author uses Alice Whittier's actions, for example risking her career to prove the Scottsboro boys are actually innocent, can show how many people are willing to do anything to anything for the truth. The author also makes Ruby question herself many times and makes her rethink her own privilege as a white woman. Having Alice rethink herself gives the reader a chance to see the world from Ruby Bates and the privileges that she has.
Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman is a Compelling book that gives a true inside look at the Scottsboro case. It also shows how different society was in the early 1930s, and how people would not look past the color of a person’s skin. Learning from mistakes in the past can teach one to not make these mistakes in the future and learn how to get rid of them.
June 19, 2023
This was very good, very grim and now that I have finished it I feel exhausted of the human race. The sheer illogical hate depicted in this book, backed up by religion and nonsense theories is infuriating and shocking. And yes, things are so much better now, almost 100 years later but we still have a way to go.
This is a fictionalised historical account of a real case in a darker period of US history. In the 1930s nine black teens were taken off a train by what effectively was a lynch mob, after some accusations of them fighting with some white hobos. Then two white girls get off and are essentially threatened by the lynch mob to cry rape. And so starts the Scottsboro trials, down in the south, where hangings and shootings of black people for no reason other than racism went on without repercussions. The town is screaming for blood. The journalists who come from the north are all labelled communists and Jews... because hey, they'll discriminate against anyone and anything. As well as the anti semitmitism, the racism, we also get to experience misogyny in all its layers of the era. Yes, this is a heavy book depicting mass hatred. I wonder how these regions ever heal themselves of such a history. One particularly harrowing image was a burning cross on a darkening skyline when the mob are coming for Ruby, one of the girls who retracts her statement. How dare she suggest a blackman could be innocent of something! My god.... then there's northern stance when they hear the women had worked as prostitutes - well it can't possibly be rape then! Sex workers can say no too!
The nine accused boys flit in and put of the legal players' consciousness, and in the book, but really we're following a pioneering female journalist Alice, and the younger of her two accusers, Ruby, who does retract her accusation. And it covers years and a number of flawed trials, whilst all gge time those poor boys are kept in he'll holes, get to see people walk by to be executed and lose years of their lives and their futures. And its the poverty and racism that keeps all this misery grinding on and factions biting at each other with looking to the roots of it all.
Heavy, heavy, heavy.
This is a fictionalised historical account of a real case in a darker period of US history. In the 1930s nine black teens were taken off a train by what effectively was a lynch mob, after some accusations of them fighting with some white hobos. Then two white girls get off and are essentially threatened by the lynch mob to cry rape. And so starts the Scottsboro trials, down in the south, where hangings and shootings of black people for no reason other than racism went on without repercussions. The town is screaming for blood. The journalists who come from the north are all labelled communists and Jews... because hey, they'll discriminate against anyone and anything. As well as the anti semitmitism, the racism, we also get to experience misogyny in all its layers of the era. Yes, this is a heavy book depicting mass hatred. I wonder how these regions ever heal themselves of such a history. One particularly harrowing image was a burning cross on a darkening skyline when the mob are coming for Ruby, one of the girls who retracts her statement. How dare she suggest a blackman could be innocent of something! My god.... then there's northern stance when they hear the women had worked as prostitutes - well it can't possibly be rape then! Sex workers can say no too!
The nine accused boys flit in and put of the legal players' consciousness, and in the book, but really we're following a pioneering female journalist Alice, and the younger of her two accusers, Ruby, who does retract her accusation. And it covers years and a number of flawed trials, whilst all gge time those poor boys are kept in he'll holes, get to see people walk by to be executed and lose years of their lives and their futures. And its the poverty and racism that keeps all this misery grinding on and factions biting at each other with looking to the roots of it all.
Heavy, heavy, heavy.
January 9, 2025
At times this book is a gripping and meticulously-researched bit of historical fiction about a great miscarriage of the justice, and the all-too recognisable forces of racism, misogyny, and poverty impacting on society's most vulnerable.
Far too much for my liking though, it becomes a book that loses focus on the people and the issues it claims to be addressing and, frankly, it should stick to being about. It gives centre stage to people and perspectives - especially an imagined central character - that stop being interesting the more the book goes on, especially after their use (to shine a light on white, richer American hypocrisy) starts taking attention away from the real stories and people this book is about.
At times, it threatens (but never gets close) to being Harper Lee. By the end, it leaves you thinking: this kind of story and these themes of race and class have been done much better by Jon Grisham...
Far too much for my liking though, it becomes a book that loses focus on the people and the issues it claims to be addressing and, frankly, it should stick to being about. It gives centre stage to people and perspectives - especially an imagined central character - that stop being interesting the more the book goes on, especially after their use (to shine a light on white, richer American hypocrisy) starts taking attention away from the real stories and people this book is about.
At times, it threatens (but never gets close) to being Harper Lee. By the end, it leaves you thinking: this kind of story and these themes of race and class have been done much better by Jon Grisham...
May 18, 2018
This is a thoughtful, well-written book, which is mostly very engaging. However, over time the author's fictional character intrudes too much with personal elements that don't give insight into the real case as much as they could (or rather, as much as I think the author believes they do). Overall, too, though the fictional narrator comments on the way in which the Scottsboro defendants fell into the background of their own story, the book doesn't so much critique this fact as replicate it. However, it gives excellent insight into Ruby Bates, as well as into the journalists and left-wing forces working behind the scenes.
June 2, 2019
In 1931, near the town of Scottsboro Alabama, a posse of white men seized a vagrant group of African American boys from a goods train. Accused of raping two white girls they were speedily tried, convicted and condemned to die in the electric chair. There the matter would have ended (as it often did in those times) except their case was taken up by a group of activists. Ellen Feldman re-imagines this tragic episode in US history, providing a dramatic depiction of virulent racism, sexual exploitation and class inequality amidst the desperation and squalor of depression-era poverty. If you want to realise what a miracle the election of a black US President was in 2008, read this book.
April 9, 2024
I rushed through this book but hope to come back and give it a better, closer read. It is worth it.
Most historical fiction covers some unpleasant event in history. This novel covers one of the most unpleasant. But instead of painstakingly or egregiously flagging the worst event, the author turns the spotlight back on the behavior of all parties to better tell the whole story: the who, why, where, and when. The depression is a major character here. Women’s rights get attention. But of course the civil rights at issue are the issue.
I’ll happily read more books by this author. She did a splendid job with a difficult topic.
Most historical fiction covers some unpleasant event in history. This novel covers one of the most unpleasant. But instead of painstakingly or egregiously flagging the worst event, the author turns the spotlight back on the behavior of all parties to better tell the whole story: the who, why, where, and when. The depression is a major character here. Women’s rights get attention. But of course the civil rights at issue are the issue.
I’ll happily read more books by this author. She did a splendid job with a difficult topic.
December 5, 2017
A novel based upon true events in what can only be described as one of the saddest and more disgraceful periods of American history. The author carefully presents historical facts through a fictional narrator. I think this worked well and made the story easy to read. I was never unclear as to what was fact or fiction. I wasn't familiar with the historical story prior to reading this book and I found it gripping and compelling. How glad I am that I am living now and not in the 1930s.
February 25, 2021
I was gripped from start to finish. The case of the Scottsboro boys told sensitively, from all points of view and in the context of those times. Good writing which moved the reader on through some of America's problem years between the two world wars and up to the point where the last of the 'boys' died, putting those events in the context of their time. Well deserving of its presence on the 2009 shortlist for the Orange prize.
February 5, 2022
I read this book for my reading challenge category 'wrongful conviction', and it was based on a true story in Alabama in the 1930's. I became interested in the Scottsboro Boys when I saw the musical on Broadway in 2010, and this book did not disappoint. It was a historical fiction from the perspective of a fictional journalist, but it rang true to the events. The injustices were enormous and gut-wrenching, but excellent reading.
April 9, 2024
1931, American depression, two young hobos / prostitutes are riding in the open boxcar of a freight train. So are white boys, and black boys, and a fight breaks out between the two groups. Police come and, rather than be accused of what they are, the girls accuse the 9 black boys of rape. The boys face the electric chair - it's Alabama - and years of court cases, and all narrated by a young female NY journalist. Its a true story very well told
July 18, 2025
A real life miscarriage of justice from 1930’s America, made page-turningly engaging by being told from the viewpoint of a fictional journalist. Really good, not just on the white-supremacists that wanted the victims tried & executed, but on the complex motivations of the women who found it convenient to make the accusations of rape and those of the journalists, lawyers & campaigners for whom the ‘boys’ were useful career-makers.
September 29, 2024
A very well detailed book about the tragedy nine men faced because they were not white. Accused of rape which they had not committed, by two young white women, bigotry and racism ruined their lives. Sadly, so many people still have these prejudices against anyone they feel is different. Will the world ever learn ???
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