Jersey Justice: The Story of the Trenton Six (Rivergate by Cathy D. Knepper

The case of the Trenton Six attracted overseas realization in its time (1948–1952) and used to be referred to as the “northern Scottsboro Boys case.” but, there's no reminiscence of it. The disgrace of racism obtrusive within the case has been approximately erased from the general public list. Now, historian Cathy D. Knepper takes us again to the court docket to make us conscious of this surprising bankruptcy in American history.

Jersey Justice: the tale of the Trenton Six starts off in 1948 whilst William Horner, an aged junk broker, used to be murdered in his downtown Trenton store. Over a two-week interval, six neighborhood African American males have been arrested and charged with jointly killing Horner. Violating each rule within the booklet, the Trenton police held the six males in incommunicado detention, with out warrants, and threatened them until eventually they confessed. on the finish of the trial the all-white jury sentenced the six males to die within the electrical chair.

That could have been the top of the tale have been it no longer for the tireless efforts of Bessie Mitchell, the sister of 1 of the accused males. Undaunted via the refusal of the NAACP and the ACLU to aid allure the conviction of the Trenton Six, Mitchell enlisted the help of the Civil Rights Congress, finally taking the case so far as the hot Jersey excellent court docket. alongside the best way, the Trenton Six garnered the eye and involvement of many well known activists, politicians, and artists, together with Paul Robeson, Thurgood Marshall, Eleanor Roosevelt, Pete Seeger, Arthur Miller, and Albert Einstein. Jersey Justice brings to mild a shameful second in our nation’s heritage, however it additionally tells the tale of a private conflict for social justice that modified America.