Biography
Charlie Weems was one of the nine Black teenagers prosecuted in the Scottsboro case. On March 25, 1931 nine Black teenagers (ages 12 to 19) were pulled off a Southern Railway freight train at Paint Rock, Alabama and accused of raping two white women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, who had been riding in the same boxcar. Jailed at Scottsboro and Gadsden, AL, then transferred to Kilby Prison in Montgomery, the nine were tried in groups in Scottsboro, AL beginning April 6, 1931. Eight were convicted and sentenced to death; the case of 12-year-old Roy Wright ended in a hung jury. The Communist Party's International Labor Defense and (later) the NAACP took up their defense. The U.S. Supreme Court intervened twice — first in Powell v. Alabama (1932), holding that the right to counsel applies to capital defendants in state court, and again in Norris v. Alabama (1935), reversing the convictions on grounds of systematic exclusion of African Americans from Alabama jury rolls. Five (Charlie Weems, Clarence Norris, Andy Wright, Haywood Patterson, Ozie Powell) were re-convicted in further trials; four (Olen Montgomery, Willie Roberson, Eugene Williams, Roy Wright) had charges dropped on July 24, 1937. The case remains the defining African-American legal cause célèbre of the 1930s. In 2013 Alabama posthumously pardoned the three (Weems, A. Wright, Patterson) who had not previously been pardoned or had charges dropped.
Daily Worker, October 25, 1934, page 6: The editorial directs supporters’ correspondence to him at Jefferson County Jail in Birmingham, alongside the other defendants held there. Its collective allegations about coercion remain the newspaper’s claims; the location report supplies no new admission, transfer or release day.
The March 25, 1932 issue reports Alabama’s Supreme Court affirming the death judgments of seven Scottsboro defendants on March 24, while reversing Eugene Williams’s judgment on juvenile-jurisdiction grounds and leaving Roy Wright’s mistrial situation separate. The reported execution schedules were prospective and do not establish any execution or physical custody endpoint. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n072-NY-mar-25-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Daily Worker, May 24, 1935: Page 3 reports the National Scottsboro Defense Committee’s release of letters by 105 prominent supporters urging Alabama Governor Bibb Graves to release the nine Scottsboro defendants and protesting plans to reindict them after the jury-exclusion ruling. This documents collective defense activity concerning the established nine defendants; a proposed reindictment is not a new completed prosecution, conviction or release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n124-NAT-may-24-1935-DW-Q.pdf
In Allen’s first-person account of the 1933 Decatur proceedings, he and artist Jacob Burck visited the Scottsboro prisoners in a filthy, insect-infested cell block with an old gallows in direct view. The youths described beatings during earlier confinement and transfers, while defense efforts had secured exercise, mail and family visits. Roy Wright and Eugene Williams were practicing reading and writing, and the prisoners sang together. This eyewitness account adds prison conditions without inventing new custody episodes or counting ongoing imprisonment as completed service. Source: https://www.marxists.org/archive/allen/organizing-south.pdf#page=114
The February 13, 1933 Daily Worker distinguishes Roy Wright’s confinement in Birmingham County jail from the other eight Scottsboro defendants’ confinement in Kilby death cells despite the new-trial ruling. It reports defense use of Ruby Bates’s January 5, 1932 letter to Earl Streetman recanting her accusation and alleging police threats of jail. Judge J. P. McCoy impounded the letter January 23, 1933 and ordered a photostat January 31 during Roy’s unsuccessful bail proceedings. These are attributed defense evidence and reported jail locations; no release is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v010-n037-X-feb-13-1933-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The May 7, 1931 Daily Worker reports defense new-trial motions and family organizing in the Scottsboro case. It describes Janie Patterson disputing a purported letter from Haywood and Ada Wright preparing a New York visit. The source uses Robertson, Ollie Montgomery and Charley Weems as period variants and reports ages that are not substituted for verified birth data. Eight death sentences and proposed July 10 executions are distinguished from actual deaths; no new physical custody endpoint is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n110-NY-may-07-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The December 28, 1931 prison-visit report published December 29 describes the Scottsboro defendants in Kilby Prison death cells and family representatives meeting them with ILD counsel. It names Haywood’s older brother Julius Patterson, Eugene’s sister Opelika Williams and Charlie Weems’s aunt Gussie McLeror. The prisoners and relatives reaffirmed ILD defense representation. Reported ages and family spellings remain attributed, and the planned January appeal is not a release or final disposition. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n312-NY-dec-29-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The April 19, 1932 Montgomery report published April 20 says the Alabama Supreme Court granted a stay the preceding day for seven defendants, postponing execution until June 24 pending a U.S. Supreme Court appeal. It distinguishes Eugene Williams’s new trial and Roy Wright’s continued jail after a mistrial. The older page-four statement incorrectly groups nine under a May13execution forecast; the specific updated report governs this note. The stay and future execution dates are not release or death events. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n094-NY-apr-20-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The November 9, 1932 Daily Worker reports the U.S. Supreme Court reversal of the seven Alabama death judgments and the continued confinement of the Scottsboro defendants. It describes the failure to allow adequate consultation and preparation with counsel, and Judge Hawkins’s proposal for a March retrial while resisting a venue change. Reversal is not physical freedom, and the proposed retrial is not a completed later outcome. These seven reviewed death judgments are distinguished from the separate procedural situations of Eugene Williams and Roy Wright. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n268-NY-nov-09-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The June 25, 1938 Socialist Call reports the Alabama Supreme Court confirming Clarence Norris death sentence and the long prison terms of Andy Wright and Charlie Weems. Norris was facing a prospective August 19 execution, while the Scottsboro Defense Committee announced further work and appealed to public opinion. That threatened execution is not treated as an actual death or release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/socialist-call/call%204-25.pdf#page=1
Labor Defender, March 1934, PDF page 25: His Jefferson County Jail letter describes receiving nothing from outside at Christmas, thanks defense supporters and hopes for freedom. An editorial note says presents sent to the Scottsboro prisoners were not delivered by jailers. This adds attributed prison-conditions correspondence, not a new custody interval. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1934/v10n03-mar-1934-orig-LD.pdf#page=25
John Howard Lawson's July 5 Birmingham investigation, pages 1-2, reports Weems was beaten three weeks earlier for possessing a working-class book and, like the Wright brothers, had tear gas pumped directly into his eyes in his cell. Weems said he was on his knees praying for mercy. The delegation names Captain Daniel Rogers and describes threats against visiting defense supporters. These are attributed contemporary prison-condition allegations within the existing Scottsboro case, not a further arrest or new sentence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n161-jul-06-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
Page 1's April 16 Birmingham report describes seven Scottsboro defendants confined on the top floor of Jefferson County Jail and subjected for several weeks to solitary confinement and alleged abuse. A planned May Day rally would demand improved treatment and freedom. The item supplies collective context for the Birmingham group, without individually listing its seven members, establishing separate beatings for each, or giving a new individual admission or discharge date. The forthcoming rally is prospective. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n092-apr-17-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
Printed page 174's Youth in Prison directory names Charlie Weems at Kilby Prison, Montgomery, Alabama, with the Scottsboro death sentence on appeal. The appeal is pending in this listing, without a new sentencing event or physical release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n09-sep-1932-LD.pdf
Page 1 reports his next Decatur trial was expected to open the following Monday unless defense protests secured postponement. It prints his portrait and calls for a delay and the immediate freedom of all nine defendants. This is a prospective trial announcement, not proof that the trial occurred that day or that any defendant was released. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v010-n091-NY-apr-15-1933-DW-LOC.pdf
Daily Worker, May 24, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, July 6, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, April 17, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Labor Defender, September 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, April 15, 1933; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Page 5 individually identifies him in the nine-defendant Scottsboro photograph and explicitly distinguishes Roy Wright from the eight sentenced to death; July 10 was a prospective execution date. George Chamlee’s statement and the page 6 LSNR appeal allege Stephen Roddy failed to investigate, seek delay and effectively cross-examine, and describe conflict over representation by ILD and NAACP. These partisan criticisms are attributed; they do not establish a completed execution, later retrial result or new custody interval. Existing identified portrait retained.
In an interview published May 15, 1934, Joseph Brodsky reported that Weems was held at Jefferson County Prison but, unlike five other Scottsboro defendants there, was not in solitary confinement.
