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 historic Joyce Chapel. This building was home to the first African American church in Jackson County and has a rich history dating back to the 1800s.
The Scottsboro Boys Museum was founded in 2010 by local activist Shelia Washington. The museum is also supported by a wonderful Board of Directors. The museum went through a renovation starting in 2020 and reopened to the public in 2022. We are continuing to expand with our Outdoor Exhibit project. If you want to learn more about our mission, click the button below!
UPCOMING EVENTS
may 16: Ground breaking & community breakfast
9 a.m. CST at The Scottsboro Boys Museum
Join us to break ground on our Outdoor Expansion Project. The brief ceremony will begin at 9 a.m. CST with a free community breakfast following until 11 p.m. CST. We hope you can join us for this exciting new edition to the museum and community! Please RSVP on the event page.
Help us celebrate Juneteenth at the museum! Our Juneteenth program will be from 10 to 11 a.m. and feature special guest Doug Jones. Afterwards, we will have food trucks, music, and festivities available outside. This is a family friendly event and is FREE and open to the public. Please join us as a community to celebrate this day of freedom.
The museum and Scottsboro Public Library are partnering to provide an interactive way to learn about The Scottsboro Boys Case. Participants will be provided a scavenger hunt and be challenged to find the correct historical answers hidden in the museum. The participant that correctly finishes the challenge the fastest will be awarded a prize. This is a fun free and engaging way for the whole family to learn about local history!
The Scottsboro Boys Museum invites everyone to honor museum founder Shelia Washington by helping maintain and beautify her resting place. We ask attendees to meet us at Shelia’s burial site in Cedar Hill Cemetery, which is across from the museum. If you are volunteering, please wear comfortable weather appropriate clothing. If you have gloves or other equipment that you would like to bring, please do so. We will be providing needed beautification materials.
june 19: juneteenth with doug jones
10 a.m. CST at The Scottsboro Boys Museum
june 20: fact finding hunt with Scottsboro library
Noon. CST at The Scottsboro Boys Museum
april 18: founder’s day of service
10 a.m. CST at Cedar Hill Cemetery, Scottsboro, AL
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, 2024Tuesday, 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
-
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.
