Know their story.

“We are committed to advancing reconciliation and healing, while promoting civil rights.”

The Scottsboro Boys Museum commemorates the lives and legacy of nine young African Americans who, in the 1930s, became international symbols of race-based injustice in the American South, and celebrates the positive actions of those of all colors, creeds, and origins who have taken a stand against the tyranny of racial oppression.

The Scottsboro Boys Museum is located in the historic Joyce Chapel in Scottsboro, Alabama. The building was home to the first African American church in Jackson County and has a rich history dating back to the 1800s. The museum was founded in 2010 by local activist Shelia Washington.

NEWS FEATURES

  • Museum Honors the Late Archie F. Stewart

    On May 28, 2025 the museum commemorated civil rights leader, educator, and long-time Jackson County community activist Archie F. Stewart

  • Scottsboro Boys 94th Anniversary Remembrance Concert

    Scottsboro Boys 94th Anniversary Remembrance Concert featured Lapidus & Myles in concert at the Museum on March 22, 2025

  • Malcolm Gladwell's 'Revisionist History' podcast visits the Museum

    Description goesMalcolm Gladwell's podcast Revisionist History featured the Scottsboro Boys Museum where our Executive Director Dr. Thomas Reidy was interviewed about our case and boycotts in the 1930s here

  • Premiere of the Google Interactive Kiosk

    The Google interactive kiosk makes available the museum's digital archives including interviews with Clarence Norris and attorneys, plus other important media about the case

  • Scottsboro Boys Travel Exhibit in Birmingham

    Birmingham Public Library, Downtown Branch:
    September 3 to October 14, 2024

    Tuesday, October 8, 2024
    Dr. Alex Lichtenstein of Indiana University and Tyler Malugani of Sloss Furnaces gave presentations on aspects of convict leasing

  • 93rd Anniversary Commemoration

    The 93rd Anniversary Commemoration of the Start of the Scottsboro Boys Trials was held Saturday, April 6. At 10am, guests walked from the museum to the gravesite of SBM founder Sheila Washington, and at 11:30am, enjoyed a program with speaker Judge Herman N. Johnson Jr and live music at the Museum

  • Scottsboro Boys Travel Exhibit

    Monday, February 5, 2024 at 6pm in the Main Auditorium at the Huntsville Madison County Public Library, downtown

    Opening remarks by Kevin Gray, Chair of the HMCPL Board of Directors

    Thomas Reidy, Executive Director of The Scottsboro Boys Museum spoke on "Red Alabama: Jim Crow, Communism, and the Scottsboro Boys Case"

    The exhibit was on view in Huntsville February 1 to March 2, 2024 and at the Montgomery, Alabama Department of Archives and History May 15 through the month of July

  • Museum Receives Prestigious Historical Museum Award

    The Scottsboro Boys Museum was honored by the Alabama Historical Association at their Annual Meeting

  • Scottsboro Boys Travel Exhibit at Temple B'nai Sholom

    Sunday, February 11, 2024 from 2-4pm at Temple B’nai Sholom, 103 Lincoln St SE in Huntsville

    Temple B'nai Sholom hosted the Scottsboro Boys travel exhibit for the day

    The program lfeatured The Scottsboro Boys Museum Executive Director Dr. Thomas Reidy, who discussed the case and the reaction of Alabama's Jewish community to the trials

    Sponsored by the Alabama Historical Alliance and Historic Huntsville Foundation

  • Community Art Project at the Museum in Collaboration with NACC

    Through February, guests were invited to create and hang a tag to hang on our Memorial Wall commemorating the Scottsboro Boys case and Black History Month

    Project premiered Thursday, February 8, 2024 from 9:30-11am at the Museum

    Steven Whited, Instructor of Criminal Justice at NACC spoke

    The community art project was eveloped by NACC Instructor of Art, Jaia Chen

  • From Paint Rock to Selma: How the Scottsboro Boys Sparked the Civil Rights Movement

    On January 18, 2025 the Museum hosted an open house with Dr Thomas Reidy speaking about how the Scottsboro Boys case sparked the civil rights movement

  • Museum Named Attraction of the Year

    The Scottsboro Boys Museum was awarded 2024 Attraction of the Year by the Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association

  • WLRH 89.3 Interview on Scottsboro Boys Exhibit at HMCPL

    SBM Executive Director Dr. Tom Reidy and Heather Adkins, Special Collections Manager at HMCPL, join Katy Ganaway in this conversation

  • WHNT's Paving the Way: One Generation at a Time

    Video special available here

  • Comeback Town, AL.com with Executive Director, Dr Thomas Reidy

    Dr Reidy is a guest columnist on ‘Birmingham, A Story of Communism You May Not Know’

  • WHNT News 19: The 93rd Anniversary of the Scottsboro Boys Arrest and Trials

    Click here to view the special piece WHNT News 19 produced on the 93rd anniversary and comemoration we hosted April 6

Find us on the Civil Rights Trail

The Scottsboro Boys Museum makes an ideal starting point for your journey along Alabama's Civil Rights Trail. The defendants' years of disappointment and heartaches left in its wake a somber trail; but it was a path that helped clarify many of the tactics and strategies which would benefit later civil rights struggles.