A Father’s Pride ©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on November 9, 2014 My father was ecstatic when I called and informed him that I had finally secured a full and unconditional pardon from the state of Alabama for Mr. Clarence Norris, the last known surviving Scottsboro Boy. The Boys were a group of nine black teenage boys who were falsely charged in 1931 with the rape of two white women aboard a freight train in Alabama. As a young black kid growing up in racially segregated Alabama during the 1950s, my dad made sure that my brothers and I knew the Scottsboro Boys’ story, and knew it well. The Boys were convicted of rape and eight of them were originally sentenced to death. The ninth Boy was a juvenile and was spared the death penalty. All of the Boys served time in prison. Norris’ request for a pardon followed a long, difficult, and turbulent legal battle that involved two U.S. Supreme Court-ordered retrials and a total of three death sentences handed down to him between 1933 and July 1937. He came within hours of being executed on two occasions. Alabama Gov. Bibb Graves eventually commuted Norris’ death sentence to life in prison, and in 1944 Norris was paroled. Norris violated the terms of his parole by fleeing Alabama after his release. After being told that he was a fugitive from justice and that he would be treated leniently if he returned, Norris returned to Alabama. He was immediately imprisoned. Norris was paroled again in 1946, and he fled the state once again. Norris settled in New York, and lived and worked the city as a model citizen for the next four decades. In the early 1970s, Norris, who was still classified by the state of Alabama as a fugitive, decided to pursue his pardon. In 1974, the NAACP asked me to represented Norris in his quest for a pardon. This was one of my first cases as a lawyer. In addition to what my parents taught me about the case, I had studied the Boys landmark cases in law school, but I never thought one of the Boys was still alive. I was thrilled to be Norris lawyer and honored to take his case. My 1974-75 attempts to secure a pardon for Norris were met with massive resistance from the Alabama Pardons and Paroles Board, and the case reached an impasse on several occasions. In 1976, I reached out to my friend Milton Davis, who was a young lawyer in Attorney General Bill Baxley’s office at the time, and asked for his help. Davis and Baxley joined forces and worked diligently to help me secure Norris’ pardon. On November 29, 1976, Norris returned to Montgomery to receive his pardon and a heros welcome. I met him on the tarmac of the airport. When Norris exited the airplane, we just stared at each other until he reached me in the sea of reporters and well-wishers. Then, we hugged and cried. Both of us realized the magnitude of the moment -- on this historic day, Norris had secured the first-ever full and unconditional pardon issued to a death-row inmate by the state of Alabama based upon a finding of “innocence”. We proceeded from the airport to the Pardons and Parole Boards hearing room. With tears streaming down his face, Norris proudly accepted his pardon on behalf of himself and the other eight Scottsboro Boys. His 45-year legal battle with the state of Alabama was finally over, and his name had been cleared (along with those of the remaining eight Boys). I took Norris to visit my father after we had his pardon in hand. My father, who was president of Alabama State University at the time, was beaming with pride when Norris and I entered his office for the private meeting. My father had told me about the Boys story when I was just a ten-year old kid. For an hour and a half, these two men shared their stories and celebrated Norris’ full and complete freedom from the criminal charges that had haunted him for 45-years. My father thanked Norris for his courage and perseverance in pursuing the pardon. Norris thanked my father for supporting me throughout the difficult legal battles to clear the Boys’ names. I took photographs of the historic meeting between these two giants among men – Clarence Norris and Levi Watkins. Words cannot describe the respect they had for each other and for my work in securing Norris’ pardon. It was my fathers pride in his sons achievement that I remembered the most about this day. His pride was captured for posterity in these photographs. To this day, the Norris pardon has been the greatest and most rewarding fight in my 41-year legal career, and I am proud that God chose me to end it right for Clarence Norris while he was alive to smell the roses.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 22:27:58 +0000
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