Scottsboro

City and administrative headquarters of Jackson County, northeastern Alabama, near the Tennessee River, at the edge of the Cumberland Plateau, 56 km/35 mi east of Huntsville; population (1990) 13,800. An agricultural centre, it processes cotton and timber, and produces clothing.

The ‘Scottsboro Boys’ In 1931 the city was the focus of international attention during the trial of nine black youths charged with raping two white women on a train elsewhere in Alabama; subsequent trials in Decatur, appeals, and other legal procedures followed before eight were freed in the 1940s (the last escaped to Michigan in 1948).