SCOTTSBORO, Ala. (WHNT) — In 1931, Jackson County Sheriff Matt Wann stood in front of the jail as a large lynch mob demanded that he turn over the nine black teenage prisoners for lynching.
The teens, who were falsely accused of raping two white girls, would forever be known as the Scottsboro Boys.
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Wann blocked the crowd from lynching the teens, leaving little doubt to many that, not for his heroics, the case never would have made it to trial.
“Sheriff Wann came out, and he asserted his authority, and because the community respected him so much,” said Thomas Reidy, the director of the Scottsboro Boys’ Museum in Jackson County. “They backed off and gave the sheriff enough time to call the national guard.”…