Well, not one whose cover screamed "read Me!!", and I confess I rather shied away from picking it up. I was aware of the story for many years, and saw a particularly harrowing programme on television a good few years ago. The case of the Scottsboro Boys is a true story of the arrest of 9 black youths (some really only boys) for the rape of 2 young white women on a train in Alabama in 1931- a crime of which they not only weren't guilty, but which never in fact happened. Their subsequent narrow escape from lynching leads on to a heart-breaking trail of mis-trial and injustice and the overwhelming feeling I had from the documentary was of the waste of so many years and lives, and the loathsome figures who wielded such power over others' lives. So - could I bear to go through it all again, knowing how it ends?
I'm glad I did. The story is told chiefly by Alice Whittier, a very modern young woman and a journalist.She reports on the outcry, both in other parts of the USA and abroad which kept the boys' story in the news and mitigated in some degree the vicious response from Alabama's law enforcers and residents. The other voice is that of Ruby Bates - worlds away from Alice in experiences and opportunities. Ruby as one of the "victims" is a chief witnes for the prosecution, until she dares to change her story and confess that the rape never happened.Other stories and personalities flesh out the story and the result is a powerful page-turner, well worth its place on the shortlist.
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