Shelia Washington, Founder of The Scottsboro Boys Museum & Cultural Center Speaks

February 25, 2011 by cultureID

 The Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center is marking the 80^th anniversary of the case this year on March 25^th. At the forefront of the modern Civil Rights Movement, it is the most studied racial injustice case of all times.  People are still interested in studying how the court system failed nine boys. At a time in American history when people were divided by skin color, this case united people around the world. The opening of the Museum has proven in a year’s time that people still seek the truth from the dark side of this incident.  I found that black and white people have a story to tell about racial injustice. Whites are upset that they never were told the truth–and denied the right to play with their black neighbors growing up. 

Opening the Scottsboro Boys Museum has been a place of "healing and reconciliation." Currently, people from twenty-two states, four foreign countries, and over 1200 people have visited the Museum within a twelve-month period. My mission started when I was a 17 year old, and I found the book by Haywood Patterson hidden under my parents’ bed.  Seeing how the truth was so compressed to convict these nine boys of a crime they did not commit has stayed with me for all of these years.

I was the only black person to work at City Hall, and I lost my job partially due to trying to honor the Scottsboro Nine—so injustice is still very real today.