Complete Transcript

You’re listening to ESL Podcast’s English Café number 459.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast’s English Café episode 459. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

On this Café, we’re going to talk about an important legal case from the 1930s known as the Scottsboro Boys trial, and we’ll take a look at the Grammy Music Awards. As always, we’ll answer a few of your questions as well. Let’s get started.

We begin this Café talking about something known as the “Scottsboro Boys trial.” In the first part of the 1900s, the United States was largely what we would call a “segregated society,” especially in what we refer to as “the South.” When we say “the South” in the United States, we are referring to what are actually the states in the southeastern part of the country – states like Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and so on. The term “segregated” (segregated) is used when two or more things or two or more groups of people are kept apart on purpose, are separated on purpose.

In the case of the United States, these two groups were African Americans – blacks – and white people. During the period of segregation in American history, African Americans were not allowed to use the same public areas, such as water fountains and restrooms, as white people. They were also unable to get the same jobs as white people or even go to the same schools. There was a separation – a segregation – of the two groups, especially in the southern part of the U.S. – “the deep South,” we call it.

In the 1950s and 1960s, many people, including African Americans from the South, began fighting segregation and began to make segregation illegal in many states. However, until that time, and even for many years afterwards, African Americans were often treated very badly because of the racism at that time. “Racism” (racism) is the belief that one race or one type of people is better than other races or types of people. The case we’re talking about today, the case of the Scottsboro Boys, took place in 1931 and has been used as an example of the effects of this racism on a group of African Americans. Here’s the story.

On March 25th, 1931, nine African-American men were arrested by the police after riding a train in Alabama. “To be arrested” means to be taken and held by the police. Why were they arrested? Well, six of the men had gotten into a fight with some white men on the train. One of the nine men had witnessed, or seen, the fight happen, but wasn’t actually involved in the fight. The last two had been on the train, but in a different car – in a different section or part of the train which was nowhere near the fight.
Nevertheless, all nine African Americans were taken off the train, removed from the train, and nearly killed before being arrested. When they were arrested by the police, two women who had also been riding on the train – Victoria Price and Ruby Bates were their names – said the nine men not only had gotten into a fight, but the men had raped them. “Rape” (rape) is when one person forces another person to have sex with him when that person doesn’t want to.

The nine men were taken to the police station in a town named Scottsboro, Alabama, and they were held, or kept, there until their trial. The trials for the men began on April sixth, just a few weeks after they were arrested. They lasted until April ninth – just three days. All of the men except one by the name of Roy White, who was only 12 years old, were found guilty of rape and sentenced to death. Once people throughout the United States learned about the verdict of the judge, many people were very upset by it.

A “verdict” (verdict) is the decision by a judge or a jury about whether a person is guilty or not. A “jury” (jury) is a group of people, usually 12, who decide if someone is guilty or innocent. Well, these men were found guilty, and the verdict was very upsetting to many people. It turned out that the nine men – now known as the Scottsboro Boys, although they weren’t boys, they were men – for the most part had only been given two lawyers on the day of the trial. They had not been allowed to meet their new lawyers before the trial.

Now, the Constitution of the United States, our highest law, guarantees that if you are accused, or said by the government to have committed a crime – to have broken the law, you have a right to a lawyer, an attorney, to defend you. In addition, the juries for the trials were made up only of white people. A “jury,” as I explained earlier, is a group of 12 men and women who listen to a case and decide what the verdict should be. All the “jurors” – the members of the juries – were white in these cases.

During the trial, doctors testified, or said in court, that the women had not been raped. So, the doctors themselves said, “No, these women were not raped.” Nevertheless, the men were still tried for a crime that never happened. The Scottsboro Boys were found guilty, as I mentioned earlier, and sentenced to die. When I say “sentenced” (sentenced), I mean that was the punishment that was given to them.

When someone is found guilty, when the verdict is “guilty,” a person is then sentenced – they are given a punishment. In this case, the punishment is the ultimate punishment, which is to die. Many organizations around the United States – especially from the northern states, where segregation was not as common – began helping the Scottsboro Boys, including groups like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, what we refer to more typically as the NAACP, as well as the International Labor Defense Organization.

In the United States, when there is some doubt or disagreement over whether someone’s rights have been violated during the process of the trial – their rights have not been respected – you can sometimes “appeal” the decision. “To appeal” (appeal) means to ask a higher court to look at the case again to make sure that there were no mistakes made and no rights violated. The Scottsboro Boys appealed to the higher-level courts in the state of Alabama, but those courts upheld their guilty verdicts. “To uphold” (uphold) means to say that the other judges and juries were correct, that the original decisions in these cases were correct.

In other words, they were saying, “Yes, you are guilty, and you should be sentenced to death.” The Scottsboro Boys decided to appeal those decisions to the highest court in the United States, the United States Supreme Court. First they appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court, and then to the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court is the highest legal authority or court in our country, and their decision is, for the most part, the final one.

In 1932, the Supreme Court of the United States heard three cases involving the Scottsboro Boys: Powell v. Alabama, Patterson v. Alabama, and Weems v. Alabama. When we talk about court cases in the U.S., we almost always refer to them by the two parties or two sides of the case separated by the word “versus” written with the abbreviation “vs.,” or simply “v.” So, in the case of Powell versus Alabama, or Powell v. Alabama, you had two parties: the government of Alabama and a man named Powell, one of the Scottsboro Boys.

The Supreme Court ruled in these court cases, in these appeals, that the men had not received fair trials because they had not been allowed to meet with their lawyers and that they had had biased or unfair juries. They said that this violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. What is the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution? Well, it says, among other things, that every person is allowed a fair trial in the courts.

The Supreme Court overruled the verdicts and sent the case back to the Alabama courts to be tried once again. When we say they “overruled” the decisions, they said “No, these decisions are wrong. You have to do it again.” Well, it’s not unusual, in cases when there is a problem with the trial, for the government to have to retry the case, to have a new trial, and this is what happened to the Scottsboro Boys.

One of the groups that was helping the Scottsboro Boys hired one of the best lawyers at the time – a man named Samuel Leibowitz from New York. Leibowitz represented the men in the new trials. In addition, Ruby Bates, one of the two women who had testified against the Scottsboro Boys in the original trials, said that she and Victoria Price had in fact lied about being raped. She said the rape never happened. So, what did the Alabama courts decide? Well, once more they found the men guilty. They said, “No, they did it,” even though the evidence pointed in the opposite direction.

So once again, a few years later in 1935, the cases were appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Norris v. Alabama, Leibowitz argued that the fact that there were no African Americans on the jury itself violated the 14th Amendment. Without African-American jury members, he said, the men had no chance of having a fair trial, particularly in a state such as Alabama. The Supreme Court once again overturned the verdict and told the Alabama courts to try the case again for a third time.

The cases were retried between 1936 and 1938, and guess what? All of the men were found guilty once more and sentenced to spend very long times in prison. Some men had to spend 75 years in prison, others 99 years. Organizations continued to fight for the men, and by 1950, most of them had been paroled. When we say someone in prison is “paroled” (paroled), we mean they are released from prison before their sentence is over.

So, if a man’s sentence is 75 years and he leaves after 40 years, we say that he is “paroled.” The government often does that. It allows people to leave before they have finished their sentences, especially if they haven’t caused any problems in prison. One of the men, however – Patterson – had escaped from prison before he could be paroled. He was later sent to prison in Michigan for accidentally killing another man in a fight in a bar.

After they were finally paroled, most of the Scottsboro Boys, quite intelligently, moved away from Alabama and tried to begin their lives again. Some of them toured the United States to speak to large groups about what had happened to them. In 1976, one of the Scottsboro Boys, Clarence Norris, received a pardon from the state of Alabama. A “pardon” (pardon) is when a person who has been found guilty of a crime is then either found innocent of the crime or basically forgiven for committing the crime.

That’s what happened to Clarence Norris. He was “pardoned.” Usually only the leader of a state – the governor – or the leader of our country, the president, is allowed to pardon people. The president in particular has a very powerful pardon that has been used many times to either release people from prison or to get rid of their criminal record.

In 2013, three other Scottsboro Boys – Patterson, Weens, and Wright – were also pardoned, although they had all died many years before. So, it didn’t do a lot of good, but it did clear their records and, we might say, set the historical record straight. “To set the record straight” (straight) means to correct a mistake, if you will, in the way that history is told or written.

Since 1931, many people have continued to use the Scottsboro Boys trials as examples of how African Americans in the South were not always able to get fair trials during the time of segregation. The men were accused of a crime that never happened and were found guilty multiple times, even though, as we have seen, it was clear that they were innocent.

There have been books, movies, and even plays made about the Scottsboro Boys and the trials. I remember watching a television movie about this case in the 1970s, and that’s when I first learned about it as a child.

We turn now briefly to our second topic, which is the Grammy Music Awards. The “Grammys” (Grammys) are awards that are given each year to people who work in the music industry, the music business, such as singers, songwriters, and people who help record the songs. Each year there are about 75 or so different awards that are given out by a group called the Recording Academy, which is also sometimes called the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

The Recording Academy consists of members who are all in the music business themselves, so similar to the Oscars, or the Academy Awards, the people who vote on the awards are people in that business, in that industry. The Grammys include awards for song of the year, best new artist, and best album. An “album” (album) is a collection of songs or pieces of music that are sold together. The awards are for many different kinds of music, such as pop, rap, rock, classical, jazz, and regional (music from different countries or cultures).

You could also win a Grammy for what is called “spoken word,” which are recordings without music, typically, and involve things like poetry reading and other kinds of spoken performance. There is also a Grammy for comedy albums. When you say someone “won a Grammy,” however, you usually think of musicians and singers. I don’t believe there’s a Grammy for ESL teachers. Maybe there should be.

Music that has been “released” (released), or made available for the public to buy, between October of the current year and September of the following year can be nominated or chosen to win a Grammy. People from record companies and from the Recording Academy decide which pieces of music and songs to nominate. Members of the Recording Academy vote, and the person who has the highest number of votes wins the award.

Usually you are only allowed to vote for the kind of music that you have some experience in. So, for example, if you know a lot about Hawaiian music, you could vote for the best Hawaiian music song, but you couldn’t vote for the best rap song. The first Grammys were given out way back in 1959. Singers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and the Kingston Trio won awards. As music has changed over the years, so have the Grammys. In 1980, they introduced an award for rock music. Yes, it took that long.

In 1982, they began giving awards for the best music videos, and in 1989 they began awarding rap singers. In 2011, however, the Recording Academy got rid of, or eliminated, over 30 awards, so that today there are only 78 awards given out (at the time of the recording of this episode). Many of the awards were combined into new awards, although when you have more than a hundred awards, it’s hard to keep track of or to know all the winners for the different awards.

Each year the Grammy awards are shown on television, just like the Oscars are. Artists who are nominated are typically asked to perform their songs. However, in recent years it’s become very popular at the Grammys to have two different singers perform together, often two singers who don’t normally have the same kind of music or don’t typically perform together. It’s a fun show if you like watching people perform music.

I personally haven’t watched the Grammys in at least 10 years. I don’t know a lot of the music, and the awards ceremony itself – the actual television show – is very long and, to me, often a little boring. So, I don’t watch the awards very much, but I do read in the paper about who won. I have not won a Grammy. I don’t think I’ll ever will win a Grammy, although I do sing. So maybe someday I can release some of my songs and get nominated for a Grammy. That’d be kind of cool, huh?

Now let’s answer a few of your questions.

Our first question comes from Bruno (Bruno) in Brazil. Bruno wants to know how we use two words in English that are very common: “so” and “too” (too). There are so many uses of both of these words that I won’t be able to talk about all of them here, but I will give you some of the more typical uses of these two words.

“So” often means “very.” “It’s so hot in here” means it’s very hot in here. “So” can also be used to mean “to a great extent.” “He’s so rich that he can buy five houses.” He is rich to the extent that or so much that he can do this. The word “so” by itself can sometimes be used to mean “therefore” when you are about to give your conclusion or you are about to give your reasoning for something. “She is a very beautiful woman. So, many of the men like to talk to her.” The “so” is sort of “therefore.” We often see “so” in front of “that” – “I am going to the store so that I can buy some milk.” In that case it means “in order that” or “in order to.”

More recently, in the last perhaps five to ten years, “so” is used by people in the same way that we used to use “well.” People will often begin their sentences with “So.” If you ask someone a question, he or she might begin their answer with “So,” as though they were giving you their conclusion.

I guess it sounds a little bit more like you’ve thought of the answer, or that this is the answer. You’re giving your answer with some authority. “Why did you go to the movie?” “So, I was interested in . . .” It’s almost as though you’ve been thinking about this, right, and now here’s your conclusion, and the person should take you more seriously.

I’m kind of annoyed by it. It kind of bothers me when people do it, but it’s become so common now that I guess I just have to accept it as one of the many things that change in our language, as things change in all languages.

“Too” is used to mean “in addition” in some cases. “I want to go too” means “I want to go also.” Used before an adjective, however, “too” means too much. It means “excessively” – more than what you want or even more than what is possible. “The price is too high.” That means not only is the price very high, but it’s so high that I’m not interested in buying it, or that it goes beyond what I expected.

“It’s too hot outside.” That means not only is it very hot, but it’s so hot I don’t want to go out, or it’s much hotter than what it should be or what I expected it to be or what I want it to be. “It’s too late to apologize.” It’s too late to say I’m sorry – which is actually a song, I think, a line from a song: “It’s too late to apologize. It’s too late.” You see, it’s too late. It’s beyond the time that you expected or wanted, and therefore it’s impossible. It can’t happen.

This question comes from Ziya (Ziya) in Turkey. Ziya wants to know the meaning of the word “bash” (bash). “To bash” someone means to criticize someone, to criticize someone very strongly, to say that someone has done something wrong. It can also be used to criticize someone who is doing something that you don’t like. It’s not wrong or illegal, but it’s something you don’t like, and for you, I guess we could say, it’s wrong.

“I like to bash people who have long beards.” I criticize them. “Why do you have that long beard for? It looks stupid on you.” I’m just kidding. I have nothing against long beards. A lot of hair, long hair – yeah, that . . . that I don’t like because I, of course, don’t have any hair myself.

“To bash” can also mean to hit something very strongly with your fist or with something else. “He was running very fast and bashed his head into the side of the wall.” He hit his head against the side of the wall and probably hurt himself.

Our final question comes from Mojtaba (Mojtaba) in Iran. The question has to do with an expression, “to whip the crowd into a frenzy.” A “crowd” (crowd) is a large group of people. A “frenzy” (frenzy) is a state of uncontrolled emotion when people are very excited about something. It may be a good thing. It may be a bad thing. “To whip” (whip) here means to cause people to act in a certain way, to get people to become emotional about something.

“To whip the crowd into a frenzy” would mean to get a crowd, a group of people, very excited about something, perhaps something that you don’t like and you want them not to like. Perhaps you’re trying to get the crowd to be violent, and often you’ll see this expression in cases where someone is doing something, saying something, to a group of people in order to get them so excited that they do something physical, often something involving violence.

“To whip the crowd into a frenzy,” then, is to cause a large group of people to go out and do something with great excitement.

From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thank you for listening. Come back and listen to us again right here on the English Café.

ESL Podcast’s English Café was written and produced by Dr. Jeff McQuillan and Dr. Lucy Tse. Copyright 2014 by the Center for Educational Development.

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Glossary

segregated – with two things kept apart on purpose; for two sets of things or people to be separated

* Nuclear material needs to be segregated from regular waste to be sure that it is properly disposed of.

racism – the belief that one race or type of people is better than other races or types of people

* Racism in the United States during World War II lead to the imprisonment of many innocent Japanese Americans.

to witness – to see something occur; to watch an event as it takes place

* The crowd was excited to witness the space shuttle launch into space.

to rape – to force a person to have sex when that person does not want to

* Sadly, there are many cases where a woman is raped but the man does not go to jail because it was too difficult to prove that she was forced.

verdict – the result of a jury trial; the final decision given by a judge or jury in a legal proceeding

* After discussing the case at length, the jury finally gave a verdict of not guilty.

jury – a group of twelve men and women who listen to a legal case and decide whether a person accused of a crime is guilty or innocent

* The jury consisted of many different people including a businessman, a construction worker, a teacher, and a pilot.

to testify – to answer questions in court, usually because one has information about a case or has special knowledge or expertise related to the topic

* The police officer testified that when he arrested the woman, she was trying to sell the television that she had just stolen from the store.

to be paroled – to be released from prison early or before the end of a prison sentence

* The prisoner was paroled because he had been very well behaved in prison.

to pardon – to release a person from jail after they had already been found guilty of a crime, usually because of new evidence showing innocence or for political reasons

* Some presidents have pardoned famous criminals after deciding that they were innocent of the crimes they supposedly committed.

album – a series of songs or musical pieces that are sold together, usually by the same singer or musical group

* The band’s new album was released in February and has already sold over a million copies.

to release – to make available to the public for purchase

* Most movies are released on Fridays for weekend moviegoers.

to nominate – to select someone or something for consideration to win a prize, award, or position

* In 2008, Barack Obama and John McCain were nominated to run for the office of President of the United States.

so – to such a great extent; very

* Jackson and Louisa liked visiting Hawaii so much that they decided to move there.

too – to a higher degree than is wanted, allowed, or possible; excessively

* I put too much salt in this dish and it’s not eatable.

to bash – to criticize someone or something very strongly; to say that someone has done something wrong in a very strong or aggressive way; to hit something very hard so that it damages something a lot or completely

* The people on the news shows bashed the president’s new policies on the economy.

to whip the crowd into a frenzy – for something to cause or forced a large group of people to go into a state of uncontrolled activity or excitement

* Monica made a speech about unfair treatment by health officials and whipped the crowd into a frenzy.

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What Insiders Know

The Latin Grammy Awards

Each year, millions of Americans watch the Grammy awards on television. The Grammy awards is a ceremony held to give “awards” (prizes) to people involved in the music “industry” (business). The Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences does the same each year, but they give awards to those involved in producing songs recorded in either Spanish or Portuguese. These awards are commonly called the Latin Grammys.

In 1997, the organization responsible for awarding Grammy awards – the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences – created a new part of their organization called The Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. In 1998, the Latin Grammys were introduced with 39 categories in which awards could be won.

The Latin Grammy ceremony was first “broadcasted” (shown on television) by CBS, one of the major TV “networks” (channels) in 2000, making it the first “primarily” (mainly) Spanish language “primetime” (during the most popular TV-watching hours, usually between 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.) program aired by an English-language American television network.

The Latin Grammys are very much like the Grammys, where selections are made by “peers” (people who have the same characteristics or work in the same type of job) within the music industry, with the important requirement that the recordings are in Spanish or Portuguese, of course. A few of the important awards include:

• Record of the Year, awarded to a single song
• Album of the Year, awarded for a full album
• Song of the Year, awarded to the writers/composers of a single song
• Best New Artist, awarded to a new artist in the music industry