1931 The first trial of the Scottsboro Nine in Alabama results in a battle between the NAACP and the International Labor Defense, a Communist-controlled group, for the right to represent the young defendants who are charged with rape. The case, which becomes a worldwide cause celebre and important propaganda weapon for Communists, drags on for 20 years despite the recanting of a charge by one of the two plaintiffs and medical testimony that rape was not committed.