Much has been written about the Scottsboro Boys, nine black teenagers accused of raping two white women in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases included a frameup, an all-white jury, rushed trials, an attempted lynching and an angry mob – which led to international outrage and legal reforms.
It is well documented that on March 25, 1931, nine Negro young men were charged with the rape of two white women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. All were hoboing on a Southern Railway freight train from Chattanooga bound for Memphis. The alleged crime occurred in Paint Rock in Jackson County, Ala. Scottsboro, the county seat, became the site of the first of the famous trials.
The Chattanooga legal community became involved in the case early on through the services of attorneys Stephen Roddy and George W. Chamblee, who represented the defendants.
Stephen Roddy was born in Centralia, Mo., in 1890, and attended the Chattanooga College of Law. He joined the law firm headed by Alexander W. Chambliss, who later became a justice on the Tennessee Supreme Court. After serving in World War I, Roddy became prominent in Democratic politics at both the local and state levels. He was a candidate for attorney general of Hamilton County in 1926, running against the incumbent J.J. Lively (who won) and George W. Chamblee in a three-man race for the Democratic nomination.
When the Scottsboro trial was put on the docket just two weeks after the alleged crime in April 1931, a group of black ministers in Chattanooga’s Interdenominational Ministers Alliance promised Roddy $120 to represent the Scottsboro accused.