The Scottsboro accusers Victoria Price and Ruby Bates.
July 1, 1931 clipping from Workers News, an English language weekly published in Moscow.
NAACP Records/Library of Congress
NAACP attorney Juanita E. Jackson (4th from left) visiting Scottsboro boys, January 1937. Jackson was the first black woman to graduate from the University of Maryland law school.
John Gates was active in the campaign to free the Scottsboro Boys. He later became the editor of the Communist Party newspaper, The Daily Worker.
International News Photo
Attorney Samuel Liebowitz introduces Ruby Bates as a speaker at the Scottsboro protest meeting in New York City on May 5, 1933.
It was Bates' first public speech on behalf of the nine defendants. She said at the time that she wanted to "live down" what she had said against the youths in their first trial.
New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection/Library of Congress
Samuel S. Leibowitz (center), attorney for the Scottsboro case defendants, flanked by court appointed bodyguards L.M. Ouzts (left) and W.L. Snow (right), 1933.
April 10, 1933 newspaper clipping from the New Orleans Times Picayune
Andy Lanset Collection
On February 21, 1934, John Wexley's play about the Scottsboro case, They Shall Not Die, opened at New York's Royale Theater. The cast included Ruth Gordon, Helen Westley, Dean Jagger, Claude Rains, and Ben Smith.
April 2, 1935 newspaper clipping from The Baltimore Sun.
The Scottsboro Boys was a staged musical portrayal of the Scottsboro case. The show premiered Off Broadway in February 2010 and moved to Broadway's Lyceum Theatre in October 2010. Despite good reviews, the show failed to attract large audiences—perhaps due to its controversial subject matter and its minstrel show format. It closed on December 12, 2010.
Andy Lanset Collection
Cover of a 1937 pamphlet by civil rights activist Angelo Herndon
New York World Sun and Telegram Collection/Library of Congress
Clarence Norris, one of the nine defendants in the "Scottsboro case", walks through the main cell gate at Kilby prison in Montgomery, Alabama, after receiving his parole in 1946.
A Scottsboro song written by Eli Siegmeister, and sung by him in the radio documentary. (The names listed are pen names).
Scottsboro support pin from the 1930s. (Andy Lanset Collection)
Scottsboro defendant Heywood Patterson in a publicity photo for his book Scottsboro Boy, published in June 1950.
Mission Statement: The New York Public Radio Archives supports the mission and goals of WNYC and WQXR by honoring the broadcast heritage of the radio stations and preserving their organizational and programming legacy for future generations of public radio listeners. The Archives will collect, organize, document, showcase and make available for production all original work generated by and produced in association with WNYC and WQXR Radio.
The NYPR Archives serves the stations staff and producers by providing them with digital copies of our broadcast material spanning WNYC and WQXR's respective 88 and 76 year histories. We also catalog, preserve and digitize, provide reference services, store, and acquire WNYC and WQXR broadcast material (originals and copies) missing from the collection. This repatriation effort has been aided by dozens of former WNYC and WQXR staff as well as a number of key institutions. Additionally, our collecting over the last ten years goes beyond sound and includes photos, publicity materials, program guides, microphones, coffee mugs, buttons and other ephemera. We've left no stone unturned in our pursuit of these artifacts. The History Notes is a showcase for many of these non-broadcast items in our collection.
In fact, if you’ve got that vintage WNYC or WQXR knick-knack, gee-gaw, or maybe a photo of someone in front of our mic, an old program guide or vintage piece of remote equipment and would like to donate it to us, or provide a copy of the item to us, write to Andy Lanset at alanset@nypublicradio.org.
The Archives and Preservation series was created to bring together the leading NYPR Archives related, created, or sourced content material at WNYC.org.
